She moaned, rubbing her head with a shaking hand. Her voice was full of old tears that she didn’t remember. “Where am I…?”
The brown-eyed boy grinned, the left side of his mouth pulling higher than the other. “In the forest outside Soläna, Lunaka.”
Vague memories of walking home from her friend Cassandra’s house began to surface in the girl’s mind, though something still seemed wrong. However, now this boy began to laugh at her, and so she said the first thing that popped into her cloudy head. “I know that! I must’ve just fallen asleep.” The girl attempted to stand but barely could keep her balance, and the shivering certainly wasn’t helping.
The boy stood as well, and the lopsided grin vanished as he asked worriedly, “Are you sure you’re okay? I can take you home! You live on one of the farms, too, right? What’s your name?”
The girl sighed in defeat, recognizing this boy from her school, a year older than her, but always in the group that had to walk all the way from the farms on the Canyonlands. “Yeah, that’s where I live. My name’s Lina.”
The boy smiled again, more sincerely as he draped the side of his cloak over her wet, trembling shoulders and began to take her home. “Nice to meet you, Lina. I’m Sam.”
Chapter One
T his is a world of magic, far different from any other. Nearly three hundred years ago, there was once a land called Gornan where humans reigned on golden thrones. These rulers held onto their power because of their magical bloodline, which allowed them abilities that the rest of the common folk didn’t understand. But the rulers and their magic were corrupt, and soon the land began to die. Needing a new home, the Gornish people traveled to their distant neighbor, Rounia, a much different continent.
In this land, every single human being possessed their own kind of magic, one that did not take a form such as fire or water, but was invisible and varied in strength from person to person. These people were called Rounans, and they soon became the slaves of the Gornish. The Gornish took over Rounia with an element of surprise, and ruled over the Rounans for decades before their poisonous ways eventually caused another continent to deteriorate.
Now, the Emperor of Gornan had nine sons, all of whom possessed the same evil desires in their hearts, except for the youngest named Caden. When Rounia began to die as Gornan had, Caden gathered the people he could, Gornish and Rounan alike interested in changing their futures, and set off in search of a new land.
After a year at sea, they finally found one, the last stable and fertile continent of the entire world. They called it Nerahdis. Caden was a wonderful emperor and took care of the land and its people. Nerahdis prospered. However, Emperor Caden knew that upon his death, his three sons would fight over the land to rule in his place as emperor.
To avoid such a catastrophe, the Emperor split the land in three before his sudden death by a sword, and this was the way it would be for all time. The three countries were the forests of Mineraltir, the marshes of Auklia, and the prairies of Lunaka.
Yet, Caden put in place one last thing before he was mysteriously murdered: a position above his sons to keep them from quarreling, the Archimage. The Archimage, the most powerful sorcerer of all Nerahdis, was kept secret to keep the people from fearing another overlord.
There was once a moment in time when the First Archimage turned to darkness and took power, but in response an Allyen arose to defeat him, magical not by birth, but by choice. She created her own power to save her people. The First Archimage disappeared, and the First Allyen, Nora Soreta, passed down her created magic to her descendants to ensure that he never returned.
Over the next three centuries, Rounans became nothing more than a suspicion, Allyens and Archimages were forgotten entirely, and magic became widely feared. The Three Kings of Mineraltir, Auklia, and Lunaka ruled the lone continent with iron fists, passing their thrones down to their firstborn sons, and the citizens of Nerahdis expected this to continue for the rest of time.
However, this was not to be. A dark sword is now lurking in the night. As the sorcerer once vowed on the night he nearly had the Allyen in his grasp, his time had finally come to claim Nerahdis as his own.
Ten Years Later
Lunaka was my home. Here the mountains touched the sky and the great winding scroll of prairie grass stood tall. The clouds traversed the heavens as they always did, the usual fierce wind spurring them on and darting its way through the rolling hills. New leaves were beginning to bud on the sparse bushes and trees, signifying the beginning of the year. The sun peeked over the horizon, the tall rocky faces that circled the kingdom casting their long shadows. The vast sky began to lighten, yet the two crescent moons remained high at their zenith, their descent slow toward the western mountains.
I had seen the same morning every day of my life, and yet it still invigorated me. I could feel the warmth of the rising sun on my face as I finished turning my goats loose into their usual grazing grounds. No doubt, my sister would still be in bed, regardless of the fact that school began in an hour. Rosetta was notorious for sleeping in till the very last minute and appearing just before the schoolmaster closed the door. If I had the time, I usually tried to encourage her with a rousing bucket of water over her head.
I began walking a little faster down the worn path toward our house, hoping to get there in time to help. Our mother used to do the bucket technique. It always worked then, so I had decided to continue the practice after her death a few years ago.
Both Mama and Papa died in the Epidemic that scoured Lunaka. It was a strange disease that placed black marks on their chests, encircling their hearts until they were strangled. At least a third of the population died, even my sister Rosetta contracted it, but she was young enough to beat it to my relief. Otherwise, I truly would be alone.
As I reached the simple farmhouse we lived in, I pulled my hood off of my head, shaking out the clumps of grass and cobwebs that clung to my shoulder-length brown hair. They weren’t the worst things to ever end up in my hood after a windy Lunakan day, trust me! The house was a tiny thing. I couldn’t remember anymore what it was like when there were four people all crowded together, as the one room was no more than ten foot across each way.
I set my staff next to the door just as it flung open. A lithe sixteen-year-old girl who mirrored our mother’s dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes rushed out of the doorway. Her voice was high in fear as she took off toward Soläna, the capital of Lunaka, “I’m going to be late!”
“You always say that! Try waking up earlier for a change!” I laughed at her back as she raced away toward town. Sixteen, and she was already taller than me. It simply wasn’t fair.
I walked into the house and tried to ignore the array of dirty dishes decorating the countertop and one wobbly table. Rosetta was not known for her cleanliness, and I didn’t have time to mess with it right now. I merely turned to the basin inside the door and splashed some water onto my tanned face, seeing a vague reflection in the window.
Barely five feet tall, small face, some might even call it dainty, which was framed by mud-colored hair that brushed against my eyebrows constantly and nearly ran into huge, childlike eyes. Brown eyes, glinting with gold. People had told me before how they thought the shade peculiar, but I liked that I was different. I scratched at the dirt under my chin. Sadly, over the last couple years I had discovered that a farmer never can seem to get clean. I took over the farm a few years ago, but I was lucky King Adam even allowed me, a lowly woman, to keep my parents’ land. It seemed he was too desperate for the crop after so many people died in the Epidemic to allow time for the sexism of the land.
I quickly scrubbed my calloused hands and snatched my satchel before running out the door again toward town. I was supposed to meet up with my friend Rachel for our weekly shopping trip. She was one of my few friends, so I always made sure to have time for her somehow. She moved to Soläna a couple years ago, just after the Epidemic, and I had accidentally smashed into her around a corner. Funny how goo
d friendships start so suddenly! I began to run when I realized I was going to be late, kicking up a plume of dust on the well-worn path behind me as I rushed for the pulleys.
Maybe a mile from our Harvey homestead was the great canyon that sat beneath the plains of Lunaka, where Soläna, the capital city, lay. The founders built it down there to escape the terrible weather of the climate after the original town was desolated a few times by dust storms and twisters. It was a deep wrinkle in the very center of Lunaka’s face, and the Royal Castle sat well above it on the northern plains. The stone structure seemed to be able to withstand anything. After all, could you imagine trying to move a castle to the bottom of a canyon? The farms were all on the southern side of the canyon, with the town deep in its center.
King Adam and Queen Gloria lived in the castle, and while they were pretty much never seen other than on the rare happenstance, most people agreed that Queen Gloria was the preferred monarch. The couple had three children, but they were pretty much unknowns to us commoners. All the people cared about was that Prince Frederick, who was my age, about nineteen almost twenty, would someday be king after his father. He and his sisters, Mira and Cornflower, were all very powerful mages. That fact alone scared us all to death. Magic made no sense whatsoever to me, and it only seemed like something that could be abused. The world was better off without it.
As I approached the canyon, my gaze glanced off the traditional carved pathway down to the town. That method bored me. Why walk slowly when you could simply drop in? Two pulleys sat on either side of the canyon in order to lift heavy objects up to the plains or down into the town, and while it was generally frowned upon for people to ride down them…I really could never resist the temptation.
The pulleys consisted simply of a wide wooden board attached to two or three ropes and the ancient machines that operated them. Nobody knew how they worked or where they came from. They were operated by the Crank Master, who happened to allow my joy rides every once in a while.
My stride began to lengthen and quicken as my lips curled into a true smile. I yelled excitedly to the old Crank Master who sat behind the small little turret of a control board, “Hi Mr. Hall!”
Gray hair lined the old leather cap the Crank Master wore, his peppery mustache grinning as his wrinkly finger found the correct button, “All ready, Lina!”
I outright sprinted the last few feet and caught the rope with my steady hands. Mr. Hall released the rope device, and the board flew across the canyon like a giant swing. I plunged downwards into the canyon on the pulley, my cloak flying out behind me and rippling like wings as the wind flung my hair and knee-length dress about. I saw flashes of the canyon wall as I neared it a few times.
Once the pulley settled down, swaying slowly back and forth, I could see the tops of the colored tents across the bottom of the canyon like a huge quilt, covering the day’s goods. Huge plumes of inky smoke crept their way up to the blue sky in dark billows, letting any foreigner know where the mines sat down in the heart of Soläna.
By the time I reached the very bottom of the canyon, the sun had risen high enough to reach the floor of the city, sending its rays to lighten every single dark crevice. It reflected off the morning birds flying above the village as workers began to walk the streets to their workplaces. Most of them wore mud-colored overalls and were headed toward the churning mines in the city, the heartbeat of Lunaka.
As I neared the marketplace, the dry, earthen smell of coal began to recede for the most part. This allowed for the much nicer fragrances of wheat and all things baked to drift up, even cheese from the farms above, Lunaka’s main exports second only to coal. You could also make sense of the foreign goods as well. Fresh fish and clams wafted through the corridor from Auklia, the kingdom south of here, along with rice from their paddies. Something like a hundred different herbs seemed to have a presence here too, maybe from the forest country of Mineraltir, the kingdom on the western seaboard. Because Mineraltir literally had no room to plant anything around their vast forests and huge trees, mostly they only exported lumber and a few orchard commodities. Every once in a while, though, a batch of herbs or roots would make it over the border from random foragers.
I slowed to a walk for a while, gazing at all the decorations that people were beginning to put up. There was a festival at the end of the spring season. People tended to look forward to these things so much that preparations often began weeks in advance. After all, it was Middle Spring now, and the festival wouldn’t be until Late Spring. I relished festival time as much as the next person since they allowed me to feel like a kid again, forget about taking over the farm, and forget about having become Rosetta’s mother. Giddiness flowed through me as I looked up at the paper flowers that were being strapped to windows and lantern poles.
Out of habit, I pulled on the string around my neck to make sure it hadn’t broken again. Appearing from inside my tunic and hanging from a ratty shoelace was the locket that I had been given as a child, and its silver flashed in the little light. It had never opened for me in all the years I’d worn it, so I was kind of just waiting for the day it became so old that it fell apart.
Curiosity gripping hold, I tried to pry it open with my fingernails as I’d done countless times before. Useless. Of course, it didn’t open, just like always, so I slipped it right back into my tunic, content that it was still there. Still safe.
“Are you really still playing with that thing?” A full, flowing voice came from above me, as most voices did considering my childlike height.
I shrugged back at Rachel, the very woman I’d been trying to find all morning. She just grinned back down at me, a good foot or so over my head, and then walked next to me with her basket slung over her arm. She was slender with long red hair pulled back into a neat bun on top of her head. Other than a few bangs touching her high, freckled cheekbones, her hair was flawless. She was the prettiest girl in town in my personal opinion, but that wasn’t what made her my friend. Rachel was always positive in such a way that made me want to be around her all the time, and she seemed to have a hovering, motherly presence.
I laughed it off, “Guess I don’t know when to give up!”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” Rachel started meticulously inspecting apples at the first stand we stopped at, dropped a few into her basket, and gave the merchant a few copper pieces. “Sometimes things just don’t happen until they’re meant to.”
“I know, but I want to know now! My mother always told me to protect it and hide it, but I mean it’s just a locket. It can’t be that valuable, it’s just an heirloom.” I grabbed a few apples of my own and bit into one to the merchant’s dismay. Mineraltir’s apples were usually about fifty-fifty on edibility, so I always tried one before I bought any. The sweet apple flesh was juicy, so I bought six. Two for me, two for Rosetta, and two for my cousin who was arriving in a few days.
“Maybe.” Rachel shrugged, a hint of a smile on her pink lips. “Do you think magic apart from Royals exists?”
I swallowed the apple in my mouth. “Sure. There’re Rounans, aren’t there? I just hope I never meet one!” I remembered in my head how Rounans were still hunted today, just like the olden days, because the kings and queens were distrustful of their magic and numbers. If they even suspected you to be a Rounan, you were in trouble.
“True.” The red-headed girl walked toward the next stand laden with huge Auklian fish, changing the subject. “So, when’s your cousin coming again?”
I weighed a small, red Auklian snapper in my hand, trying to decide if it was worth my last few bronze pieces. “Keera? She’s coming the day after tomorrow. She’s traveling all the way from Auklia so she’s probably been on the road for at least a week by now. I don’t think I’ve ever met her.”
Rachel met my statement with confusion, her blue eyes turning to me rather than the huge salmon in her pale hands. “Really? Why is she coming then? Family reunion?”
I shook my head as I selected the cheaper mud-colored cat
fish for only one bronze piece rather than three. “No. I only just now received notice from Auklia that Keera’s mother, my aunt, died in the Epidemic a few years ago, too. Her father died a long time before that, so they’re sending her to me as her only living relative. I don’t know who she’s been living with between the Epidemic and now. That’s why I really needed to go shopping today, Rosetta and I were running out of food as it was.”
My friend turned quiet as we continued our shopping, but it didn’t feel as if from sadness. She looked like she was thinking really hard, but it definitely wasn’t about the loaves of bread she tested with her hands or the cheese she inspected for mold.
I couldn’t afford cheese, but I bought a couple loaves of the bread and some potatoes at the next stand. They were brown and wrinkly but were bigger than last week’s so I went ahead and got them. Rachel bought a lot more than I did since she had two younger brothers to feed, Luke and James.
We reached the final stand on the street, another Mineraltin one that was laden with several herbs and even some roots, half of which I probably couldn’t even name. Rachel grew even quieter, if that was possible. I picked up a small brown root, pretty much the only one I could distinguish. Brown roots were harder and less flavorful than white roots, but they were cheaper and that was good enough for me. I was trying to spend as little money as possible until the next harvest this autumn, but Keera’s coming didn’t really help that.
I handed the two copper pieces to the red-haired man dressed in green, the typical sign of a Mineraltin. Anyone with red hair usually was descended from Mineraltin noble blood in some way or another. Even Rachel had once mentioned being related to someone important over there. Plus, all Mineraltins had a strange obsession with the color green.
Rachel didn’t touch a single root or herb in the Mineraltin man’s stand, even though she’d bought something from pretty much every single one of the stalls.
The Allyen (The Story of the First Archimage Book 1) Page 2
