The Sunset Lands Beyond (The Complete Series, Books 1-3): An epic portal fantasy boxed set

by Sarah Ashwood

  I paused, glancing around the table, meeting each and every pair of eyes belonging to the people assembled.

  “Can we fight them? Together, can we defeat The Evil and overthrow the Dark Powers?”

  “The purity of Light grant that it may be so,” Lord Ri intoned like a prayer. “May they aid, strengthen, and fortify our arms and hearts for all that is to come.”

  “Aye, fight we will or die trying,” Garett vowed, and I knew he was remembering his massacred warriors. “If we must perish, then we will acquit ourselves so bravely that even in victory our foes will taste defeat.”

  Murmured assents and accompanying nods met the Ranetron High-Chief’s words. Ilgard was the last to be heard.

  “The men of Treygon are likewise committed to this cause. For as long as there are Simathe, we will fight against shadow and evil.”

  He stared right at me as he spoke, and I knew he was making this promise to me, personally. I knew also he wasn’t merely pledging his assistance for this time, for this war. The Simathe were immortal, which meant what he was undertaking was an eternal vow of resistance to the Dark Powers.

  The old Moonkind, Risean, knew it too.

  Smiling, he said, “Do you know, my child, that you have this day begun to fulfill yet another element of the Artan’s prophecy? …and she shall unite those long hated with those who long have feared them,” he quoted softly. “Though the Simathe have long been at peace with Aerisia, they were never brethren. You, Hannah, are changing this as surely as you are changing our world.” His eyes gleamed with fatherly pride. “Daily, you prove yourself to be what I have known you were since the day of your birth.”

  Lineage

  Tilting my head, I smiled a quizzical half-smile. “Since the day of my birth? How would you know anything about my birth?”

  He chuckled. “Why, I have watched over you from afar since the day you first commenced your journey of life.”

  He had? That was news to me!

  “Do you remember,” he stimulated my memory, “the tree stump split, as was thought, by lightning, where you first beheld me?”

  “The one in Mr. Cutter’s field? Sure. He told my dad that it happened—” I stopped, blinking at the old man in wonder. “…a little over twenty years ago.”

  “Ah,” he smiled, “you begin to understand. It was not lightning struck the tree. I marked the place when your father chose to dwell there, that it might not be lost or forgotten, should anything untoward befall myself.”

  “Why you?” I demanded, not unkindly. “What have you got to do with me? Why were you the one to watch over me all these years? And why did you mark it when my father moved out there? What does he have to do with any of this?”

  Leaning back in his chair, he surveyed the others in the room. “I must ask for your patience, my friends, as I digress from the topic of war to tell our Artan an important tale she is now ready to accept.” When no one argued, he turned to me. “Forgive me for not imparting this sooner, but you must understand I did not deem the time right nor your heart ready to receive it. I tell you now because you have fully accepted the mantle of Artan, and I would not have you go forth against the Dark Powers without understanding your lineage and why you were chosen to withstand them.”

  I nodded in acquiescence, my spine tingling with anticipation. At last, the mystery of why I had been chosen as Artan was going to be revealed. This was a subject I’d never stopped wondering about, although outwardly I’d let the matter drop, ascribing it to nothing more than a random pick of fate. Now that I knew there was more to the story, I was eager to hear, so I tamped down any resentment that may’ve popped up about yet another thing these Aerisians hadn’t thought I was mature enough to handle, determined to hear the Moonkind out before judging his decision.

  “Many years ago,” he began solemnly, “one of our own folk, a powerful Moonkind Tredsday, loved a Scraggen. Of all the magicworkers and mighty Scraggens who ever have been, she was far mightier than most. And, being yet in her youth, her beauty was unmatched and the potential for her power nearly unlimited.

  “Nevertheless, the Moonkind’s love for this woman was forbidden. Not all Scraggen serve the Powers of Good, you see, and though they may not walk openly in darkness, well—there is a proverb in Aerisia concerning those who live in half-shadows like a Scraggen. Also, while the way of the Moonkind is to follow the Peace of the Moon, most Scraggen live only to serve themselves, and will go to whatever lengths, good or tainted, to further their ends.”

  “And this Scraggen, was she like that too?”

  “She was. Sadly, the Tredsday who loved her could not see this. They wed in secret, for his people could not accept their love. However, he was besotted, and she possibly hoped to find a method of taking his powers for herself. But after a time, when she found this an impossibility—for the powers of the moonstone and the Moonkind may only be used by the Moonkind and their kin—she…ended their union.”

  “You mean she killed him,” I supplied.

  Deep sorrow crossed the old man’s face. “Aye, she killed him. But not before…”

  “Before…?”

  “A child. A child had already been conceived. She would bear his child.”

  “A baby? Did she have it?”

  “She bore the babe, aye, knowing a child of Moonkind and Scraggen magic might be wondrously powerful indeed. Yet, unable to risk her tainting the child with darkness, the Moonkind conspired to spirit the infant away and conceal it in a place she could not find it.”

  “You mean Earth?”

  “Aye, I mean Earth. As the ways between Aerisia and Earth are closed, only we Moonkind retain the ability to pass between worlds, using such as magic as once took us from our home on the Moon to a new life in Aerisia.

  “At any rate, there was the child sent, knowing it would be safe from its mother. In this new land, he was found by strangers and taken in to be raised in a place—I believe on Earth it is called an orphanage.” The Moonkind stumbled slightly over the foreign word. “There he dwelt until obtaining the years of young manhood. Upon leaving, he found a vocation and took a beautiful bride, by whom he has since fathered several children.”

  He stopped, leaving me speechless and frozen in place. At the word “orphanage,” my mouth had fallen open. This baby, found on the streets and raised in an orphanage…there were few orphanages left in America, but I knew someone who’d been raised in one…someone who’d married a beautiful woman, by whom he’d had several children…

  Risean knew I was thinking. Looking me straight in the eye, he said, “It is true, Hannah. You know it now. The child was your father, though that is only part of why you received the powers you wield.”

  As if that wasn’t a big enough bombshell, he went on to say, “The Scraggen in the tale, your grandmother, was the direct descendant of High-Chieftess Laytrii’s younger sister, Anea. Both of these women, High-Chieftess Laytrii and her sister, Anea, are said to have been descendants, again direct, of the sister of Artan, herself. This means not only the Scraggen, but you, Hannah, are closely linked to both the High-Chieftess and the first Artan. Which also means the potential for great power, great good, was in this mighty Scraggen, had she but chosen to use it. Alas, that she did not.”

  I’d sat stunned throughout this recital, a plethora of questions zipping through my brain. Gathering the wits to give them voice, I stammered, “You’re saying, I’m related to Artan, Laytrii, the Scraggen, and the Moonkind? Did this Moonkind, my grandfather, have any prominent relatives I should know about?”

  A hint of paternal pride glinted in those tropical water eyes. “You may think so, if you wish. This Moonkind was my eldest brother, Ren Wy’ Curlm, many years older than myself. When he perished, the mantle of Tredsday was passed to me. You, therefore, are both my great-niece, and cousin to my own daughter, Rittean.”

  A ton of bricks couldn’t have hit with more force than those words. I looked desperately into his face to see if he was telling me the trut
h (he was), and felt my eyes well with tears. Instantly, any animosity I might have held toward him for taking me from my home was scrubbed away. The world melted away until there was only the two of us.

  “You’re my family?” I whispered, my throat so tight I could barely force the words out. “I—I…”

  I couldn’t speak. The next thing I knew, Risean had risen from his seat across from me and shuffled around the table, putting his arms about me and pulling me close. I buried my face in his shoulder, clinging to him like a lifeline while he stroked my hair in gentle caresses.

  “I know we are not the family you left on Earth,” he murmured, “but I love you as my own granddaughter and Rittean loves you as a sister. Besides us, you have many other relations, people of the Moon, whom you have not met. You have a family here, my child, a family willing to love and accept you as one of our own, should you permit it.”

  “I don’t know what to say. I mean, you don’t have any idea how much this means to me,” I exclaimed tearfully. “I knew my father grew up in an orphanage and had no family, my mom pretty much had no family, either, and the relatives she did have lived so far away we hardly knew them. All my life, I wanted grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins like other people, but never had them. Not until now, at least.”

  His smile was beautiful. Taking the empty seat beside me, he dropped a kiss on my forehead then leaned his brow against the place he’d kissed me.

  “How difficult it has been to hold this secret close,” he said, “when I longed to embrace the granddaughter of the brother I lost so long ago. Nevertheless, the Moon whispered I should wait until you were ready, so I did, though I confess it was not easy.”

  “I understand,” I whispered.

  Amazingly, I really did.

  We set up and broke apart, but I gripped his hand hard, not wanting to lose physical contact so soon with my new family member. He smiled in understanding, allowing me to hold onto him. There were so many things I wanted to say, so many questions I was dying to ask. Part of me wanted to jump up right now and have him take me to meet my new relatives. Part of me wanted to be alone to think all this through. The sensible part of me, though, understood these things would have to wait. I needed more information; I needed a final summary of this tale, so I asked, “So you’re my great-uncle, then, and Rittean is my second cousin. I’m a quarter-Moonkind, and related to all those other people. But how did you know I would be the Artan? And what happened to my grandmother, the Scraggen?”

  The light in his eyes dimmed, if only temporarily.

  “I am sorry to say that after your father was taken from her, she went mad with anger and grief. For a time, she used her magic to wreak havoc upon all she saw. I can tell you little of it, for I was a mere youngling in those days, and the years would be many before I was competent to assume my brother’s role of Tredsday. I only recall that she wrought a very great and terrible destruction. The Simathe lords will remember better than I.”

  He glanced at Ilgard and Norband for confirmation.

  “It is so,” the Simathe Chief Captain stated simply.

  He didn’t elaborate the point, and I didn’t ask. I wasn’t particularly curious to know the details of my own grandmother’s reign of terror.

  The Moonkind resumed his tale. “In the end, warriors were sent against her to halt her wickedness. However, when they reached the place she ought to have been, they could not find her. She had quite vanished, leaving behind no traces of her whereabouts. Some thought she’d slain herself, and others that the Dark Powers took her. I do not know. I know only that it was a very long time ago. She has not been seen nor heard from since, and I am content to let her vanish into the past.”

  I smiled sadly, regretting how even a story that could bring such happiness could also hold so much pain.

  “I’m so sorry you and your family had to go through that,” I said. “I’m sorry that you lost your brother at such an early age. Sorry—”

  “No, my child, do not be sorry,” he interrupted kindly. “Grief dims with time, and my brother left behind a beautiful legacy. How proud he would be to know his own descendant is Aerisia’s long-awaited Artan!”

  “It’s pretty incredible,” I agreed. “Tell me, did you always know what I would become?”

  “I did not, but as soon as I was able, even from my youth, I made it my business to look after my brother’s offspring on Earth. Furthermore, as I contemplated your ancestry, your family line, the thought gripped my soul that here—here was a chance for prophecy to be fulfilled, especially when I realized the magic your father could have held had passed him over. Such a powerful legacy must eventually be passed on, I knew, so I waited with eager anticipation for your father to produce an heir.

  “First was born a son, and no fulfillment of prophecy for him. Then came a daughter, and hope flourished anew.”

  “Sammie,” I interjected. “That would’ve been my older sister Samantha, or Sammie, as we’ve always called her.”

  “Yes, Sammie,” he echoed. “I know her name well, for upon her birth I watched for signs, but saw nothing. Nor did anything occur in the months following her birth that led me to believe she could be our Artan.”

  “Then what told you it was me?”

  His beautiful, blue-green eyes twinkled beneath snow-white eyebrows.

  “Ah, with you, it was a different matter entirely. Upon the birth of your sister I had gone to Lord Elgrend, the High Elder, and told him all. Between ourselves, we agreed to abide in secrecy, waiting to see if anything should come of it all. Needless to say, nothing did. But when you were born, I did not send for the High Elder; he sent for me.

  “Bringing me into his inner chambers, he showed me the necklace of the Artan, which he had safeguarded since the day of his Instating. Never before had it changed, but that day—the day of your birth—it came to life. The stone of the necklace began to glow, to change color, to burn as if from hidden flames. When I saw that, I knew then, as I know now, that here was the omen for which I had waited. My hopes were fulfilled, my life’s dream complete. The Artan was born.”

  The Singing Stones

  With a fingertip, I touched the stone hanging around my neck, suspended upon its ropelike golden chain. Was it my imagination, or did a mild warmth emanate from it now?

  “After that visit with Lord Elgrend, you knew that I, the Artan, was born,” I recapped. “Did you tell anyone else about my birth? How did you know when my time had come, the time for you to come get me?”

  “So many questions,” he smiled, shaking his head. “Well, that is to be expected. You’ve earned the right to your answers.

  “When the Artan’s necklace burned,” he went on, picking up his story, “the High Elder and I still informed no others. We wished to wait a time in order to be perfectly certain. By the morning following your birth, the stone of your necklace had reverted to its normal state. We wondered if we had been wrong, though shortly afterward The Evil’s violence began to increase, as if the Dark Powers themselves knew of your birth and had begun plotting your defeat.

  “Even so, I was convinced we’d not been led astray, and I continued to observe you from afar. The day another line of the Artan’s prophecy was fulfilled was the day I knew for certain it was time to fetch you. I found myself once more with the High Elder in this palace. An urgent message summoning the both of us was sent by the Keeper of the Stones.”

  “Keeper of the Stones?”

  “The day the Singing Stones were first uncovered, they sang,” Risean explained. “They had not done so since, although a new Keeper of the Stones had been appointed each year by Council to keep watch over them. For all knew when the Singing Stones again did sing, the time of the Artan drew nigh.”

  “And the message from the Keeper was that the stones were singing,” I guessed.

  “Correct,” he agreed. “The Singing Stones did sing that day, sing as they had not sung for hundreds of years. That same day your necklace, unchanged for so long, mani
fested itself as it had on the day of your birth. By this, I knew the day had arrived. Fate had deemed you ready to begin your task.

  “The matter in its entirety was brought before Council, whereupon it was determined that I should be the one to bring you to Aerisia. Some, possibly, doubted then, but none would now. All, my child, know you for what you are: the woman who will fulfill all legends and prophecies concerning the Artan. The woman who will deliver our land from the powers of darkness.”

  His story concluded, the old Moonkind drifted into silence and I leaned back in my chair, lost in thought. It was Lady Tey who broke the silence. I’d pegged her long ago as a person of action and someone who didn’t like waiting around. She proved me right by asking bluntly, “What do we do now?” Like the others present, I gave her my full attention. “The Artan is aware of her history. She is ready to fight and we have all pledged her our aid. Now, do we fight?”

  Everyone turned to me. It was so crazy, seeing people far better acquainted with politics and war looking to me to make the final decision, but I suppose, as Artan, it was my right. I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders before saying the words that would undoubtedly change all of our lives forever.

  “Yes,” I declared grimly, giving my new uncle’s hand a firm squeeze. “We fight. We have no other choice.”

  My footsteps were slow as I trudged back down the hall toward my bedroom. Rubbing the back of my neck, I massaged it gently, so tired I could’ve dropped in my tracks and went to sleep right then and there.

  After my proclamation, our meeting had fallen into making plans. Story time was over: the decision to go to war had been made. Campaign strategies must now be formed, and all of the tactics, policies, and procedures that went along with that discussed. Risean and I had mostly sat and listened during all this, since this was neither of our area of expertise. With the exception of Lord Ri, the High Elder, the rest of those gathered had spent their lives in and around warfare and battle. By tacit agreement, we left matters in their capable hands.