by Kim Fedyk
BIRTHRIGHT
The Crystal Throne - Book 1
KIM FEDYK
Chapter 1
The day Arleth first learned that her world was not a safe place had began as inconspicuously as any other.
It had been a bright and sunny late spring day. The kind that makes one forget about the bitter cold of a winter just passed and gives the promise of warmth and rebirth. Arleth was standing with her back pressed up against a towering willow tree in the center of the orphanage courtyard. It was midday so both suns were high in the sky, bathing the courtyard in light. The water flowing through the fountain at the far end was sparkling in the sunlight. Multi-coloured fish were swimming lazily through the pond at its base. But ten year old Arleth didn’t care about the beautiful scene laid out all around her. She had been in the orphanage as long as she could remember, and she was well accustomed to the scenery. Besides, she had an important mission to accomplish.
“Ready or not, HERE I COME!” She shouted gleefully at the top of her voice. She gazed anxiously about for any sign of her friends; any feet that were sticking out or a head that was not properly ducked behind cover. There! Behind that bush she could have sworn she saw a flash of yellow. It was hard to tell though through the dense purple leaves but Flora had been wearing a yellow sweater and she was just small enough to squeeze behind the bush if she had her back to the wall. Arleth crept along, edging slowly towards the bush. She could have easily ran and covered the distance in a few strides, but that was no fun. An important part of their game was to make the person hiding think they were still safe. Getting as close to them as possible before they knew they were caught was the mark of a real master, and Arleth secretly prided herself on being the best hide-and-go seek player of all her friends.
KRAAAA KRAAAA
“Sssh!” Arleth whispered bending down to try and silence the Gaiwar that had walked over to her unnoticed. The orphanage kept a few Gaiwars as pets and Arleth as well as the other children loved to play with them. Now however, its loud noises would ruin her game and she did not want to be found out so soon.
KRAAAA KRAAAA, it repeated.
“Sshh!” Arleth bent down and rubbed its furry belly. She looked at it with half annoyance half amusement; Gaiwars really were quite cute creatures. As she thought this she had momentarily stopped rubbing its belly. It was now looking at her mournfully and was jumping up and down on its two short stubby legs.
“Okay okay,” she whispered. She resumed stroking its belly. Soon its large ears flopped over onto its face and its large brown eyes started to shut. With a contented smile, the Gaiwar wrapped its tail around its body and lay down on the soft grass. Within seconds it was asleep. Arleth spared one last glance at it and then resumed her search. She hesitated; Flora must have heard the Gaiwar’s noises and would know that she was discovered. Maybe she should go and find someone else first so Flora would think she was safe and then being lulled into a false sense of safety, Arleth could descend upon her.
DING DONG DING DONG. Arleth’s thoughts were interrupted by the bell signalling that their lunch-time recess was over. Darn! Arleth thought. She had been so close too! The purple bush in front of her rustled and out popped Flora.
“I knew you were there,” Arleth exclaimed. “If it wasn’t for the Gaiwar I would have got you before the bell.”
“That’s not surprising,” said Flora a bit sadly, “You always find me first.” Arleth looked at her face and laughed.
“Oh don’t look so sad Flora, it is just a game after all.” Arleth slung her arm around Flora and Flora, her momentary sadness forgotten, smiled and put her around Arleth. They were best friends, like sisters really. They had both been in the orphanage for as long as they could remember and had spent practically their entire lives together. Such things then as who won hide-and-go-seek were of little importance to Arleth if it made her friend sad. Besides, although Arleth was more athletic, Flora was always better than her at singing and dancing; two things that made their teacher Mrs. Appolbaum shake her head at Arleth in frustration.
The differences didn’t end there though. Arleth was tall for her age with an athletic build and a dark complexion; olive skin, black hair and striking violet eyes. Even at such a young age it was clear to everyone that she would be stunningly beautiful when she grew up. Flora, promising to be no less beautiful was nonetheless completely different with blonde hair and light blue eyes.
Smiling, and arm in arm, Flora and Arleth made their way across the courtyard. All around them their friends’ heads popped up or out of their hiding places.
“It's lucky for you the bell rang,” Amelia said to Arleth as she popped out from underneath a set of stairs, “You never would have found me in my hiding place.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Arleth said confidently. “And besides you can’t use that spot anymore because now I will look their first.”
Similar remarks continued for a few minutes as all of Arleth and Flora’s friends joined them. All five of them, Arleth, Flora, Amelia, Canille, and Janaya marched arm in arm through the courtyard, heading inside and back to their studies.
Neve met them at the entranceway. The orphanage Mother smiled at them and handed them each a piece of pastry.
“Here. Take this. They were leftover from lunch. But hurry! Don’t be late for class, and don’t tell anyone!” She winked at them, turned and walked down the hall ahead of them.
“THWANKS” all five of them chimed in together, their mouths full of pastry. Without slowing, Neve waved over her shoulder at them and disappeared into a side-room. Arleth smiled. Neve was by far her favourite of the twelve Mothers at the orphanage. Arleth was only one of ten children assigned into Neve’s care, but she had always shown a special fondness for Arleth. As often as she was able, Neve would sneak Arleth and her friends treats and would show them secret passageways and hiding places.
When Arleth had gotten very sick three years ago, Neve had brought a mattress and slept beside Arleth until she had recovered. She had held her hand and sang to her when the horribly painful spasms had racked her small body; wrapped her in blankets when she broke out in cold sweats and sat hugging her for hours when she awoke screaming from the dreadful nightmares that couldn’t be recalled upon waking but left an overwhelming sense of dread and terror. Arleth couldn’t remember her own mother, but she loved Neve as though she were her real mother.
Trying to discreetly rub crumbs and jelly off her face, Arleth settled into her desk at the back of the classroom and smiled triumphantly at Flora beside her.
“Just in time,” she whispered. Flora nodded her assent and was about to say something when the loud shrill voice of Ms. Witrany cut in.
“Arleth! Flora!” She shrieked, “Be quiet! Class is starting. Must I separate you two?”
“No ma’am, we’re sorry,” said Flora right away.
“We will be quiet,” agreed Arleth.
But Ms. Witrany, seemed not to have heard them. She had already started the lesson. She taught history and culture and, although in Arleth’s opinion she didn’t seem to know that much about anything interesting, Ms. Witrany was deeply passionate about the subject. Once when describing the marriage ceremony of the Drumelli tribe, her long pale face had flushed bright pink with excitement and she had flapped her sticklike arms up and down as though she was going to take off in flight.
Arleth listened briefly to Ms. Witrany.
“Okay class, today we are going to talk about the evolution of the fashions worn by the Drumelli princesses. First...” Arleth had already stopped listening. She didn’t care about the history of what had happened on her own world of Tocarra, and especially not about some dust
y old clothes. Arleth was interested in magic, adventure and the magnificent creatures that lived on some of the other ten worlds. But Ms. Witrany did not seem to know very much about any of the other worlds, only their own boring one.
As Arleth knew this was because the ten worlds were pretty much shut off from each other. Although everyone on each world knew of the existence of the other worlds, travel between them was quite limited. In each world only a few powerful individuals had access to magical artefacts that opened up a passageway between worlds. Each world contained at least one artefact, but the use of the artefacts was very limited. They only allowed passage to those worlds that were the closest and needed to lie dormant for long periods before their power could be used again. The most powerful of these artefacts Arleth knew, was the Crystal Throne on the faraway world of Oherra. It was the one magical device in the whole universe that allowed passage into all of the worlds.
Unfortunately for Arleth, her own world of Tocarra was a remote backwater. Although the ruling house of Pelona had the ability to travel to a few of the other worlds, they hardly ever did and consequently there was virtually no travel into Tocarra from any other world. Tocarra was essentially shut off from the rest of the universe. Arleth felt certain that the Royal Court must have at least some current knowledge of the other worlds, but the regular Tocarrans and especially a child such as herself would probably never find out very much.
“Three hundred years ago, the Princess Felorine made the dramatic decision to adorn her dress with the delicate buds of the....” Ms. Witrany droned on.
Arleth looked out the window. Two thousand years ago, the worlds had been linked more closely together she knew. More people were able to use magic and travel between worlds was very common. But greed and ambition had led to The Great War, the one hundred years of ruthless combat for domination that consumed the worlds’ rulers. The destruction was terrible and many of the worlds were very close to total annihilation. As such, ten of the most powerful sorcerers and sorceresses in the universe pooled their magic to find a solution. They realized they couldn’t completely cut off the worlds from each other; the worlds might need each other in the future. Their solution was the artefacts, magical vessels that would restrict the passage through the worlds to only their owners. As an added safeguard in case the vessels fell into the hands of evil in the future, each one was only able to form a passageway with a few of the closest worlds. That way, such wide-scale destruction would not be able to occur again. In the eventuality that such an evil person did manage to come to power in one of the worlds, the Crystal Throne was created. The holder of this artefact would be able to monitor the worlds and ensure that peace would remain. The throne was entrusted to the most virtuous of leaders, the King of Oherra, Falcon Amara. Falcon along with Laken Ayan, the strongest of the ten sorcerers and their ancestors eternally afterwards were entrusted to protect the throne and safeguard the peace of the universe.
Each of the remaining sorcerers and sorceresses went to one of the other nine worlds with a few artefacts in their possession. Practically shut off from each other for the last two thousand years, the ten worlds had developed independently from each other. The artefacts were handed down the generations and in many worlds, the ancestors of the original magicians came to power and now were kings or queens. Peace remained for the last two thousand years and with it, interest in the other worlds all but vanished.
Deep in thought, Arleth gazed at her reflection in the window. The sky had gone black and she could easily see herself scratching her cheek.
Falcon Amara must have been a really mighty person she thought to herself. He had probably been really handsome too and.... Black! The sky was black? There was no way the sky should be black she reasoned to herself, it could not be very much past midday. But sure enough, looking out the window, the sky had indeed gone as black as night. Stunned, she realized that Ms. Witrany had stopped talking. Looking around her she found that both her teacher and classmates had noticed the same thing that she had. They were all staring wide-eyed out the window.
“What is that?!” Shrieked Amelia. She was trembling and her face had gone white.
Arleth turned back to the window and looked towards where Amelia was pointing. Arleth felt her jaw drop open in shock at what she saw before her. Through the darkness she saw a line of greenish light. It was moving and seemed to be making a shape, but she wasn’t sure what it was making. Arleth was vaguely aware that the room had gone deathly quiet; no one was making a sound. Everyone’s attention was fixed on the green light out the window.
But what was it and what was happening?
Beside her she heard a clang, Flora, her hands trembling, had dropped her pencil. She made no effort to pick it up; indeed she didn’t even seem to notice. Arleth gazed intently at the green light. It had made a straight horizontal line and was now drawing a vertical line, connecting to the very end of the right side of the horizontal line. With mounting horror, Arleth watched. She thought she knew what it was creating. The vertical line started to curve. Arleth made an audible gasp. She felt a deep pit start to form in her stomach.
It was a door! The green light had outlined an enormous door in the thin air.
What was the door leading from thought Arleth with terror. More importantly, though, what was on the other side of the door? Who or what would come out when the door opened? Arleth felt herself shaking, she had never been so terrified in her entire life.
With a burst of green light, the door flew open! In the doorway, just visible, illuminated by the greenish-yellow haze behind, stood a cluster of immense dark shadows.
All around, her classmates screamed. Arleth realized with surprise that she too was screaming. She felt something grab at her arm. She turned and had a split second to gaze into Flora’s terrified face before they both crashed to the ground amid their upturned chairs. Flora had involuntarily flung herself backwards in an effort to distance herself from the creatures coming out of the door. In doing so, she had fallen off her chair, grabbed onto Arleth and they had both fallen. Arleth turned towards Flora. They flung their arms around each other and clung on, shaking and crying. All around her, her classmates were screaming, shaking, running, crying and staring with horror out the window. Canille had fainted with fright and Ms. Witrany was unsuccessfully trying to revive her.
“Wwhat i i is happ happening?” Shuddered Flora, her eyes bright with tears.
Arleth and Flora both turned towards the window. The shadows were starting to take form. A recognizable form had started to materialize from the center of the shadows. Arleth’s gaze took in its black robes, hooded face and human shape. She gave a cry of alarm; it was a sorcerer!
She could make out two green-tinged and sickly looking hands sticking out from the dark folds of the figure’s robes. Behind the deep hood, nothing of its face was visible except for a pair of menacing red eyes that looked about with undisguised blood-lust. Around the sorcerer, dozens of dark, winged creatures had become visible and were starting to take flight. Arleth looked with terror at their huge mouths that were open in otherworldly cries, calling for blood and destruction. Sharp fangs and rows of yellowed teeth were distinctly visible, standing out from the pitch black of the creatures’ bodies.
Arleth felt Flora’s grip tighten on her shoulder. She tore her eyes away from the terrifying sight and looked at Flora. Behind the girl’s tears, Arleth saw a look of horrified understanding that she knew was mirrored in her own face. The figure standing not fifty paces from the window was no ordinary sorcerer. She looked again at the greenish hands and terrifying red eyes. He was a Dread Mage, a sorcerer devoted so completely to evil that his body had started to show the visible signs. The wicked acts he had used his magic for had turned his outward appearance into a mirror of his inner immorality and corruption.
“How... Why?” Screamed Flora.
Arleth shook her head, she was just as surprised as Flora. Dread Mages had last been seen during The Great War two thousand years ag
o.
“RUN!” Screamed Ms. Witrany, pushing the class out the door, with the still unconscious Canille slung over her shoulder. But the class needed no encouragement. Most of them had already ran screaming out of the classroom, and joined the other children, teachers, and Mothers running through the hall.
Arleth grabbed Flora by the shoulders and together they got off the ground and made a dash for the door.
“Hurry you two,” yelled Ms. Witrany grabbing Flora’s arm and pulling them in front of her.
Suddenly there was a bright flash of light and a deafening crash. Glass flew everywhere as the creatures burst through the window. The force of the impact sent Flora and Arleth tumbling to the ground. Arleth felt Ms. Witrany’s body crash into her back as she too fell. Arleth was so terrified that she was only vaguely aware of her aching knees and bruised shins. She and Flora scrambled to their feet. Arleth noticed that blood was dripping from her cheek, a shard of glass must have grazed her when the window burst open.
Arleth heard a blood-curdling cry terrifyingly close behind her, instantly followed by a sickening crunching noise and an agonizing cry of pain. As Arleth and Flora ran through the door, the bloody bodies of Ms. Witrany and Canille flew past them and crashed into the hall wall. They hit the wall so hard that some of the bricks cracked. Flora and Arleth screamed and ran down the hall as fast as they could.
Arleth was so terrified, she could feel herself trembling and the pounding of her heart. Sparing a brief glance beside her as they ran, she saw that Flora was ghastly white.
“C-Canille, did you see? She...” Flora left the rest of her sentence unfinished. Arleth grabbed Flora’s hand and nodded.
“Come on, maybe we can make it to one of our secret hiding places. Maybe they won’t find us” Arleth could see the image of Ms. Witrany and Canille’s bloody and broken bodies when they had hit the wall and slumped to the ground. She tried not to imagine what would happen if she and Flora were caught. Behind her they could hear the screams and crashes as the Dread Mage and his creatures attacked everyone in their path. She heard a man’s voice yell something and suddenly the whole hall erupted with green fire. As they turned at a bend in the hall, Arleth looked back and saw the Dread Mage and four creatures coming through the flames directly at them.
