Dawn of the Sacred Land
Page 1
Table of Contents
Title Page
Dawn of the Sacred Land: Book 1 of the Sacred Land Legacy…
Copyright
map
Chapter 1: Protected Secrets
Chapter 2: The Sacred Land
Chapter 3: Reign is Falling
Chapter 4: Memories and Quests
Chapter 5: Defender Patrol
Chapter 6: Valwall
Chapter 7: Shadow Fall
Chapter 8: Beneath the White Tower
Chapter 9: Encounter at Brookhaven
Chapter 10: Whispers of the Wicked
Chapter 11: No Rest for the Dead
Chapter 12: Born of Evil
Chapter 13: Drasmyd Duil
Chapter 14: The Arrival of Lady Shey
Chapter 15: The Tiger’s Head Inn
Chapter 16: The Apothecary
Chapter 17: The Southern Road
Chapter 18: Symbor
Chapter 19: A Short Excursion
Chapter 20: The Woods
Author’s Note
Chapter 1 of Book 2: Defenders of the Sacred Land: The Vale of Morgoran
Dedication and acknowledgements:
Glossary
Dawn of the Sacred Land
Book 1 of the Sacred Land Legacy
Mark Tyson
Shadesilver Publishing
Dawn of the Sacred Land: Book 1 of the Sacred Land Legacy…
As the ancient battlefield, called the Sacred Land, regenerates it magical potency, Lady Shey discovers a plot, conceived by the denizens of evil, to seize and control it. She must now help the descendants of the magical warriors who fought the war in the past to secure the battlefield’s power. However, the descendants live in place where magic is outlawed, hated and feared and the enemy has a new, deadly shape-shifting monster, virtually undetectable, stalking her every move.
The Wielder Cycle
Wielder: Apprentice Book 1
Wielder: Adept Book 2*
Wielder: Master Book 3**
The Sacred Land Legacy
Dawn of the Sacred Land: Book 1
Defenders of the Sacred Land Book 2
Exiles from the Sacred Land: Book 3
Crusade for the Sacred Land: Book 4 *
*Forthcoming, Summer 2015
** Coming Soon
This Novel is the opening story of the Sacred Land Legacy
Copyright © 2015, Mark E Tyson (1968—)
Editing by Courtney Umphress www.courtneyumphress.com
Cover illustration by Dusan Kostic
First Shadesilver Publishing electronic publication: March, 2015
Originally published in part as Dawn of the Sacred Land: The Sacred Land Saga Begins
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded, or distributed via internet or by any other means, electronic or print, without the author/publisher’s permission.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictionally and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, actual events, locale, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Published in the United States by Shadesilver Publishing 2015
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Chapter 1: Protected Secrets
“Hurry, we don’t have much time. There are at least five Enforcers only a few hours’ ride from here. We have to get your daughter, Oria, into the Sacred Land,” Lady Shey pleaded.
Del was a big man, muscular and fit. He scratched his brown beard on his kind and pleasant face. “My lady, I still do not understand. I am a strong man. I can protect her here at the farm.”
Lady Shey was exasperated. “No, Del, you can’t. We’ve been through this. Oria has a gift that needs to be cultivated. The Enforcers have no use for her. They will kill her! There is nothing you can do.”
“Tell me the story one more time.”
Lady Shey sat back in her chair by the fire in Del’s farm house. “You want a history lesson . . . now?”
“How will getting her to the Sacred Land help her? How is that barren land, where there is barely any protection, better than my farm?”
“All right, one more time and then we can go?”
“If you can convince me, aye, we will go.”
Out of a sense of urgency, Lady Shey tried to think of a way she could tell the story of the Sacred Land quickly and still convince Del it was time to flee. “In the seasons after the War of the Oracle, the people of Symboria and the other neighboring kingdoms decided to memorialize the huge tract of land devastated by the use of magic and the armaments of war into a vast wasteland by declaring the land sacred.”
Del lit his pipe, which made Lady Shey even more furious, and leaned back in his chair. “I know of the war and why the Sacred Land was declared sacred.”
“I have to start at the beginning or I will forget parts of the story. Just sit still and smoke your pipe!” She took a deep breath. “Several memorials were dedicated across the Sacred Land to the many men and women who fought and died in the war. At the northern edge of the Sacred Land, twin keeps were constructed. The first keep was named Calanbrough and the second was named Brightonhold. Calanbrough was set up as the home of the Defenders of the Sacred Land, a group of men tasked with patrolling the Sacred Land and keeping it safe from looters and riffraff. Brightonhold Keep was designated the home of the Enforcers, a select group of men chosen to enforce the newly created law against the use of all magic, which several kingdoms adopted. The problem is that many if not all the Enforcers are magic users themselves; that way they can detect users of magic and arrest them more easily.” She tried to drive the point home by staring Del in the eyes. “The fact that the Enforcers were policing and executing their own kind was considered an abominable act by the veteran wielders of the War of the Oracle.
“So they track down and kill their own? That is despicable,” Del said.
“There’s more. People born with the ability to wield magic were either made to join the Enforcers or die. That is why we need to get Oria to the Sacred Land. They usually do not recruit women for their ranks.”
“I would not let her join their ranks if they did! But you have not answered my question. Why take her to the barren waste of the Sacred Land?”
“Wielding works, for the most part, by drawing in essence from all things surrounding the wielder. Everything has essence, but living things have the most. If you draw essence from a thing, it will regenerate its essence easily, but if a wielder or group of wielders keep drawing and drawing the same source of essence they will deplete it completely. Depending on the source, it will kill it or make it dormant for a long time. The War of the Oracle, which created the Sacred Land, made the wasteland. There is no more essence there to draw upon. The Enforcers would not be able to locate her, and the Defenders do not like the Enforcers.” Lady Shey could finally see the comprehension in his eyes.
“Ah, all right, I see.”
“Good. Let’s get Oria and get out of here. We can get ahead of the En
forcers and be in the Sacred Land before morning.”
Del put away his pipe. “She sleeps. She was so tired. Can’t we wait for a time, just to get her strength back?”
Out of frustration, Lady Shey put her head in her hands, her long, dark hair falling in front of her face. She threw her hair back and smoothed it with her hand, letting it fall down her shoulders. “Del, how can I convince you of the urgency of your situation?”
“You are a wielder, you say. You are also obviously a woman. How is it that you are here and not killed by these Enforcers?”
“I am a master wielder. At different times, throughout my training, I was apprenticed to every member of the First Trine. I am also an advisor of the court of Symboria. I am exempt from the law.”
“You were apprenticed once to Ianthill, Morgoran, and Toborne?”
“Aye, I was apprenticed to Toborne when I was about fourteen seasons and then to Morgoran until his curse by the Silver Drake. Finally, Ianthill continued my training to master wielder.”
The conversation was interrupted by the sound of horse hooves pounding up to the house. Del sat up, alert. Lady Shey looked at him with concern that changed to dread. She knew who rode those horses. A moment later, there was a pounding at the door. Del got up to answer it at Shey’s nod.
When the door opened, a man in a dark grey cloak pushed his way in. “I am Captain Vose of the Enforcers. We have a report that a young woman here is afflicted.”
Lady Shey stood up. “Aye, I am a wielder, not afflicted as you so call it.”
He took a step closer to her. “You admit it!”
“I am Lady Shey Namear, the advisor of Highlord Rastafin Stowe of the city of Lux Enor.” She leaned in for effect. “You say you are Captain Vose? How dare you burst in here like that!”
The captain was taken aback for a split second but recovered. “The one we seek is younger than you, my lady. Your station will not have any bearing on this matter.”
Del took the opportunity to throw a punch at the captain, knocking him to the floor. He pounced on the Enforcer, hitting him repeatedly. The other Enforcers came in and eventually held him back.
Del looked at Lady Shey with hurt in his eyes. “You will not use your gifts to defend us?”
“I told you of the danger you were facing, Del. You kept us here for far too long.”
Captain Vose cracked a wicked smile. “The girl is ours, then. Find her, men.”
Shey stepped forward. “Not so fast, Captain. Her father might be a fool, but I will still defend the girl. You see, I take care of our own, unlike you who would see your own mother burn if she was, how did you put it, afflicted!”
Captain Vose laughed, and his men followed suit. “You will defend these people against all of us? Five wielders against one wielder and an unarmed man!”
Lady Shey reached beneath her robes and produced two silver curved daggers. “Aye, that’s right.”
Captain Vose drew his sword. Lady Shey knew it was imbued against magic; all the Enforcer weapons were to prevent them from being vulnerable. Shey began to draw essence, and she could see by the surprise on Vose’s face that he had not expected her to do that right in front of him.
“Kill him!” Vose commanded.
Shey released the essence into her daggers as she threw them at the two Enforcers holding Del. The daggers made several lightning quick attacks, piecing key points on both men. They fell clutching their necks where blood poured out of deadly wounds. The daggers returned to her hands, and she threw them again at the other two Enforcers who were trying to come through the door. She felt them trying to draw essence, but their ability to use magic was far beneath what it took to stop Shey’s dagger attacks. They tried to fend them off with swords, but the quick daggers were relentless. Next, they went to Vose’s sword arm, causing him to drop it. Del managed to clutch the startled captain’s throat. Shey’s daggers returned to her, clean and shiny. She put them away underneath her robes.
“Perhaps if you trained your magical abilities more, you could compete with a master wielder, Captain. Your magical abilities are almost non-existent, and I am no mere novice.”
He tried to speak, and Shey nodded to Del to let him. “You lose, wielder. We already knew of your presence. Captain Row Praf is on his way here with ten men.”
Lady Shey suddenly appeared worried. She nodded to Del, who dragged the captain out into the yard. He returned a few moments later. “I—”
Shey held up her hand to stop him. “I don’t want to know what you did with him. I abhor killing indiscriminately like this.” She looked him in the eye, and he took a step back. “You believe me now? The blood of these men are on your hands. We could have avoided this bloodshed. Now, go get Oria and get her ready to travel. I have heard of Captain Praf. He was a wielder during the War of the Oracle. He will not be so easy for me to defeat, especially if he is accompanied by ten men.” She wondered if she sounded too harsh, but she knew she couldn’t afford to wait any longer. She looked down at the four men on the floor and turned away. Such a waste, five wielders for the life of one.
Del disappeared into the back of the farmhouse to get his daughter.
Del’s farm was located just west of the capital city of Symbor in the kingdom of Symboria. All Shey had to do was lead them directly west to get to the Sacred Land. She was afraid that Captain Praf might be coming from the northwest and would intercept them, so she stayed to the coast as much as possible.
Lady Shey rode her horse next to Del, and Oria rode just behind her father. After a long silence, Del spoke. “I want to apologize, my lady. I was skeptical of your story until the Enforcers actually showed up. I should have believed you.”
“Aye, you should have. I have other duties to perform besides running all over the countryside trying to rescue novice wielders.” She intentionally softened her expression. She could tell by his face that Del was genuinely sorry. “What is done is done. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Wielders that hunt wielders are the lowest of people, in my opinion. I am not in the habit of killing them, but I know from experience that they have no qualms about killing other wielders.” She hesitated because she didn’t want to frighten Oria. She decided to say it, anyway, just phrased gentler. “They would have done terrible things to Oria.”
“I had heard of Enforcers. I thought they were around to protect us,” Del said.
“No matter how barbaric some people thought the magic law was, life continued on after the War of the Oracle in relative peace, so no one questioned the Enforcers’ authority. Their leaders have spent a lot of time and effort to cover up some of their atrocities and rebuild their reputation.
“They only go after potential wielders, then?”
“Not always. There is a select few who display the ability to use mental abilities called the wild magic. They are largely exiled rather than killed, because of their tendency to slay several Enforcers at their moment of execution. Only the weak afflicted with wild magic are executed now.”
“You do not believe Enforcers are here for the greater good?”
“You are remarkably uninformed about the Enforcers to be a child of Symboria. Most Symborian children are taught to hate wielders and magic. In fact, they have been known to turn over their own family to Enforcers when they discovered the ability.” She stopped her horse and studied Del for a moment.
Del let his horse come to a natural stop. “It’s different when the accused is your own. I would never turn over my own flesh and blood.”
Shey considered Oria, who had not said a word the whole trip. The girl looked at her and then at Del and then back to her. Lady Shey pulled out her dagger. She moved between Del and Oria. “Who are you? How did you come across this girl?” Shey could see several horsemen riding from the northwest and a rider coming from behind. “What have you done?”
Del held his hand up, and the girl, Oria, began to choke. She fell off her horse. Shey got off her horse and went to her defense.
“I won’t k
ill her . . . yet. I just want to make sure you don’t run. You can’t resist, can you? You could ride off right now and be free, but you will stay beside this insignificant novice wielder wench. Pathetic!”
“I should have known! No decent person in Symboria would just sit around and wait for Enforcers to come and take their daughter away. You barely lifted a finger to help when they did come.”
“You just said that some would turn over their own.”
“They aren’t who I consider to be decent people. Who would lead their own children off to slaughter?”
“So you said it to test me, then.”
“I must admit that concerned people are usually shocked when I tell them such a horrible thing, but not you. You said the right words but you showed no emotion, a dead giveaway.”
“I will have to remember that the next time I entrap a lawbreaker.”
The rider from behind came to a stop. It was Captain Vose, alive and well. “Good work, Lieutenant. This wielder has to answer for four Enforcer deaths now on top of charges of harboring wielders.”
Lady Shey cracked a smile. “You really don’t know who I am, do you?”
“Lady, you could be the queen of Symboria for all I care.”
Del pointed to the riders in the northeast. “Is that Captain Row Praf and his men?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. I did, however, send for reinforcements.”