by David Wind
Areenna held Akassia’s trembling hands. “Will you join with me; show me instead of speaking the words?”
The Princess’s eyes widened into deep brown islands surrounded by pure white. “You can do so, now?”
“I can.”
“Then you have my permission.”
Areenna’s hands tightened around Akassia’s and she closed her eyes. “Think of the visions, and bring them into your mind.”
Akassia brought out the vision and Areenna was suddenly watching everything as if it were happening to her. The vision began with a vista of open grasslands, the blades of grass weaving at the whims of the breezes. She moved forward, riding a kraal and covering huge distances. A short time later, the kraal drew to a halt, and she saw before her the wastelands of the east, the barren brown gravel with its odd vegetation growing randomly in all directions.
The vision carried her onward and all too soon she was in the old ruins, the rusting metal and destroyed bricks of the past as clear and present as when she had been there. She moved forward again. Above her flew a traimore, which she realized was Akassia’s aoutem. Smaller by a third than a treygone, the swift flying bird was a skilled hunter.
She could hear the scuttling of the strange and deformed creatures, who lived within the ancient ruins and pushed the vision kraal faster until she was free and on the black surface of the road leading to the landing.
When she broke free of Akassia’s thoughts, she exhaled slowly and favored her friend with a soft smile. “Ease your mind. This is nothing of the Dark Forces. It is your summoning to the Island. What you saw was the way to go. The path you must ride to reach the Landing and cross to the Island. They call you…”
Akassia blinked. “Mother told me this would happen, I… I am not prepared. And why now, just when Trebor comes for the betrothal period?”
“There is no set way of this. Every woman is different. When you are called, there are but two choices: go to the Island and become who you are meant to be; or, give up the abilities you have not yet discovered.”
“I could not do such to Trebor. He needs a strong woman to rule Lokinhold.”
“Akassia, the time coming is filled with trouble. The dark forces, the Masters controlling them, are coming to Nevaeh. You are being called because of what is happening, I feel it deep inside myself,” she said and realized another truth. “Every woman of power will be needed to protect and save Nevaeh. You are one of such, I know this!”
Akassia studied a painting of her mother and father, which hung on the far wall. Several long seconds later, she turned back to Areenna. “You are right. I will go. I just hope I shall be able to return.”
“You will—” Her words cut off as her mind twisted and left the chamber. She saw the Island as clearly, as if she were there. She saw Akassia walking the same streets she had trod. She even saw her face the black half-woman, the speaker for the eight, and watched as she passed the first test. Suddenly, she was back in the chamber, her mind once again her own.
Releasing Akassia’s hands, she smiled again. “You will return. You and the powers to be gifted are needed.”
“Can you talk about what it was like there?”
“I cannot. Each woman must experience the Island for herself. That is important. Just be watchful, ever alert. And be open.”
They fell a silent for a moment. When she spoke again, it was in a low voice. “You must go to Enaid, in Tolemac. She will explain how you are to proceed to the Island. There will be instructions you must follow, things you must do before you reach the Island. Take Trebor with you to Tolemac. When you leave Tolemac, he should return here, to Ontan, to help your brother and await your return.”
Akassia nodded. “It shall be done as you say. I will begin preparations. There is much to do before I go.”
“No. You must leave soon, tomorrow even. There is no time to waste. Have you a messenger to send to Enaid?”
“We keep craves on the tower.”
“Good. Let us go and do this.”
“Why is this happening now?”
“Because you are needed. Akassia, I think not that you will be alone in this. I think many who will be true women of power are being called.”
“Because of the Dark Forces?”
There was no reason to answer the Princess. All Areenna had to do was look at her.
CHAPTER 14
Alone for the first time that day, Areenna and Mikaal stood on the wide parapets of Ontan’s keep, thirty feet below the high tower. Gaalrie rested on the stone ledge of the parapet wall, her eyes locked on Areenna. “It has been a strange day. A good one too,” Areenna said as she reached out to stroke Gaalrie’s triangular head. On the horizon, the sun descended behind the tall snowcapped peaks.
“That it has,” admitted Mikaal. “Libon will be a strong King. He has grown much since his mother’s passing. He took us to the warehouses where they produce their weapons. He may be young, but he is smart. He requested only half of each warehouse be used for weapon making and storage. The other half to continue as usual.”
“Wise. Preparing for something that has not happened in two decades will not sit easily with the people, not without proof. There is something else,” she said, looking directly at him. “Akassia has been called.”
“Called?” he began before understanding came. “To the Island? Now?”
“Now. I think too, there will be more. I sent a message to your mother, asking her to prepare Akassia as she did for me. I also told her I sensed Akassia was but the first of many.”
“The Eight are preparing as well.” A picture of the eight Black Sorceresses, half-woman half-snuck, rose in his mind. “They call all whom they believe will be of help.”
“Yes, I see it so. I told her to take Trebor with her to Tolemac but advised her to have him return here, not home.”
“Trebor will be a great help to Libon, but it leaves Welkold without a king advisor or a woman of power to be at Libon’s side. This can be a danger should she seek him out.”
“Is he not bound to Sanna of Kashold?”
“He is, but the bonding is not for six months and betrothal is not set.”
“Does that matter right now? Kashold has Queen Kali, who has great strength and much experience. I was told she stood with Enaid and my mother in many battles.”
“We will talk with Libon later.”
Do you still feel the presence following us?
At the instant of his mind touch, a flow of warmth rushed through her. She raised her arm, extended her hand and fingers and gently stroked his cheek. The strength of his willpower, when he did not cover her hand, as he so desperately wanted to do, made her emotions tug at her heart. Hesitantly, she lowered her hand.
I feel it still, distant, but it is there.
We have to find a way to throw it off our trail.
We will find a way, she promised.
“I know. Come, we should prepare for our last meal of real food before we leave.”
Areenna shook her head. “How can you eat so much? I still feel the afternoon meal within me.”
“Trust me, My Princess; you will regret not eating tonight. Tomorrow we head to the Frozen Mountains.”
She breathed deeply and exhaled slowly. “The thought makes me even less hungry.”
<><><>
The cavern walls flickered with the light and shadow of the ever-present fire. Sitting before the flames, bent over a bowl of liquid, the Black Sorceress watched the surface vibrate with the force of pressure she exerted upon it as she called up the image of the spirit she had sent after them.
Behind her, outside the opening of the cavern, waves crashed upon the rocky walls of the palisades. The sun was down, the pitch black of night cast its deep spell over the entire southern coastline while she pushed harder and harder until she finally broke through the night and reached it.
Her grimace almost passed for a smile; peeking out from behind taut lips, three remaining teeth gleamed black in the fireli
ght, but there was no one to see them.
She pushed her mind toward the emptiness hanging among the trees, miles outside of Ontan, and joined with the spirit’s presence. She issued a command to keep following, closed her thoughts and withdrew. She laughed; the sound, low and unpleasant, echoed emptily against the rock walls.
It was just as she had expected. The two were at the keep. She would not lose them, they would never know. It was better this way. The useless, weak-minded men, who had tried to take them and had failed, had only added to her need to keep track of the two. When the time was right, she would take them for her Masters.
She stared deep into the bowl, watching the way the liquid shimmered in the firelight. Then she spoke, her voice rising and falling in waves of meaningless sounds. The water whirled, circling within the bowl and spinning madly until it exploded in all directions. The instant the water sprayed from the bowl, a vision rose before her. She saw the two, the child of Roth and the woman-child who had defeated her at the Island. She saw them riding upon kraals, moving through the deserted badlands, the last band of brown scorched earth before the rise of the Frozen Mountains.
When the vision faded, a low guttural twisting groan issued from between her lips, and she knew what she must do next. Their crossing was an opportunity to stop them from reaching the Frozen Mountains.
Standing and moving in her crab-like hobbling way, she prepared the necessary things to create the destruction of the two who dared defy her Masters. Within her mind, pictures of strangely distorted animals, gorlon-like but not gorlon rose in her mind. Larger than gorlons, with long fur and sharp faces, their mouths were filled with huge fangs and razor-sharp teeth. She would not let them kill the two… perhaps she would injure them, immobilize them for her Masters.
She stopped working for a moment, knowing it would take a long time to create the magic to control the beasts that roamed the wasteland and the foothills of the Frozen Mountains. She touched each of the objects she had collected, and her thoughts returned to the hated one.
He had defied her again. Roth had come and attacked the ones she had taken over and sent to kill the young prince of Fainhall. She had planned everything to perfection. She had raised a small army of mindless fools and sent them to attack the villages near the outlands of Fainhall, knowing the old king would send his soldiers and with them his son, the prince, to command. He had done as she had foreseen, and in a preset ambush, attacked them. While they had failed to kill the prince, they had wounded him gravely. But Roth had come with his soldiers to chase and destroy her small band. With him was the woman, Enaid of Tolemac, Enaid who was also the daughter of Brumwall. Enaid who had fought beside Roth in the final battle…
“I will have my revenge yet!” she screamed to the fire. “You will die beneath my hands!” They will all die: the bitch sorceress Enaid and the hated one Roth and the two children who had defied her, she promised the unseen dark forces that filled her with purpose.
<><><>
The stars hung in massive proportions in the sky above the main road to Tolemac. Beneath the widespread pinpoints of light, forty-eight men and fourteen women rode behind Roth and Enaid. They were two-thirds of the way between Freemorn and Tolemac, returning from the fighting at Fainhall. They had left thirty of their troop to reinforce the battered soldiers of Fainhall and help train those new recruits, who would be joining Fainhall’s ranks.
What they had found there was enough to create deep concern in Roth and Enaid. Prince Samot was severely injured and it had taken Enaid and Fainhall’s Queen Eetak a full day of ministration to hold back the oncoming death and to begin the healing process.
By the second day, he had improved and had been able to drink a little soup. While she had been tending the prince, Roth had taken his men and gone after the exiles in the wastelands, the ones who had attacked the outlying villages. They had fought and defeated them without losing anyone under Roth’s command and had returned most of the kidnapped women.
There was more to what was happening, Enaid thought as she rode next to her husband. Much more. Looking up, she saw the moon had crested the sky. They had been riding the full day and half the night. Thankfully, they would reach Tolemac in another hour.
Something touched her shoulder. She found a white and silver crave trying its best to keep pace with her. Lifting her arm, she let the bird grasp it as a perch. She saw the message and, releasing the string holding it, let the bird free. Home. She pushed the thought to it as she read the message written on both sides of the cloth. She read it again to make sure of what she was seeing. When she finished, and the words faded from the cloth, she turned to Roth.
“Mikaal and Areenna are in Welkold. They leave for the Frozen Mountains in the morning. There was an attack by Free-Blades. They were after Trebor.”
“Trebor?” Roth echoed. “First Samot, now Trebor? Do they mean to kill all our leaders?”
“It is one way to defeat us. Without leaders, the people have no direction. They become easy to defeat and enslave.”
“We must send word to all dominions.”
“Yes. There is more. Akassia has had visions of the Island. She and Trebor ride to Tolemac in the morning. Areenna asks me to mentor her for the Island. She says she senses there will be many women called so.”
“It is because of the coming of the Dark Ones, is it not?” Roth ventured.
“It seems so. We will know soon enough.”
“We have much preparation to attend to.”
“We do, My Lord. I only hope we have enough time to do so.”
CHAPTER 15
Late on the third day after leaving Welkold’s capital, Areenna and Mikaal reached the edge of the badlands. The foothills of the Frozen Mountains were but a short distance away. Above the foothills, the white coated mountains rose to massive heights.
The air was crisp and cold; the ground had become harder as they approached the mountains. Ahead, Gaalrie flew scout over the foothills, rising and falling with the shifting currents. The sharp-eyed treygone searched everywhere while Areenna comfortably joined within her aoutem’s mind.
“All appears quiet,” she told Mikaal as she drew her thoughts from the treygone. “Like these badlands, there is no game ahead, not yet.”
“Cooked meat would have been nice,” Mikaal said, wistfully.
She smiled. “The smoked dar we carry will be sufficient.”
“Sufficient yes, but tasty? Still, we do not have an inexhaustible supply. We must find game.”
“They would not have sent us here to starve,” she said, repeating what she had said two weeks before in Tolemac. “What point would that serve?”
“Do you think they even eat food?” Mikaal wondered aloud.
Areenna knew he meant the eight sorceresses of the Island. “They are alive, we know that. Of course they eat. What kind of a question is that?”
Mikaal laughed. “It was a thought. We know nothing about them. We take what they say as truth, yet we know not if they are whom they proclaim themselves to be.”
Areenna twisted on the saddle to stare at Mikaal, her thoughts disturbed. “You were there with me. You spoke, heard and watched everything. How can you doubt?”
“How can you not? We blindly follow their directions without as much as a thought for what comes.”
She drew Hero to a halt. Mikaal did the same. “What is it? What disturbs you?”
He gazed at her, taking in the soft curves of her lips, the smooth line of her nose and the green eyes staring back. He shook his head. “It is… I don’t know. I feel something is wrong.”
Areenna used her senses, but found nothing disturbing. May I join with you?
He opened his mind to her and they melded instantly. The moment she was with him, she caught the disturbance. She pushed slightly, searching for its cause, and withdrew.
You are thinking wrong. Look for the disturbance within you. Seek its source. It is not what you perceive. Use your abilities.
Thinking wr
ong… He drew into himself, pushed through his mind, seeking the elusive feeling until he found the cause within a darkness set in a corner of his mind. His eyes flew open and he turned to look at the foothills. Danger, there is danger ahead. I cannot see what…
“It was not doubt of them. It is your ability to see ahead,” she said aloud. “Try to force it,” she suggested.
He pushed himself hard, sought for a vision of what waited, and failed. “I can’t,” he whispered.
“It will come,” she said. “In the meantime, we are warned.” She freed her bow from the saddle hitch, slung her quiver over her head and settled it on the fur cloak. At her side, Mikaal drew his sword and laid it cross-wise on the saddle before urging Charka forward.
Forty minutes later, with the sun sinking and darkness rising, they entered the foothills of the Frozen Mountains. When they crossed from the badlands, the temperature dropped quickly. Cold winds plunged down from the higher mountains, wrapping chilled fingers around the two riders.
Several twisted trees rose on the rocky ground ahead. Mikaal looked higher along the mountainside and saw more trees peppered throughout. “At least we will have firewood.”
They moved forward in the gathering darkness: Gaalrie scouted the foothills ahead. Through Gaalrie’s eyes, Areenna saw a small level area past the next rise. “There is a small ravine and place to camp just after.”
They crested the rise as she finished speaking. Mikaal eyed the ravine. Its sight made him uneasy. Two hundred feet long, the ravine dipped between two rocky outcroppings before rising to the clearing.
“I do not like the looks of this,” he said.
“You see something?”
He shook his head. “No.”
Calling to Gaalrie, she asked the treygone to search the ravine. The giant bird dropped into the ravine. Areenna, accompanying her aoutem, saw all through her eyes.
“Nothing,” she said when Gaalrie rose into the sky at the far end of the ravine.
