by Travis Pond
Table of Contents
Map Of Thaven
- Prologue -
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
- Epilogue -
About the Author
The
Oracle
Sphere
A Thavern Chronicle
Travis Pond
The Oracle Sphere: A Thaven Chronicle
Copyright © 2019 by D. Travis Pond
Cover art and design is Copyright © 2019 Keith Draws
https://keithdraws.wordpress.com/
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher.
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-359-64560-2
Published by D. Travis Pond
Contact the publisher at [email protected]
Editing by Emmalie Wells
Without the support of my amazing wife and the constant prodding of my kids for more chapters to read, this may never have happened.
Seeking knowledge and accomplishing goals in life is a wonderful thing,
but it’s even better with family.
Map Of Thaven
- Prologue -
The thick tree root appeared out of nowhere and seemed to reach up and grasp his foot causing him to fall, scattering his packages all over the ground. As Tureis got up and brushed himself off he stood for a moment, his hands on his hips, looking at his items strewn about the ground. “Why do I feel like I do this every week?” he asked himself.
It was Friday night and Tureis was returning from the market. He often goes to the market, but these last few months, it seems, he has been going much more frequently. His father, Elis has been pretty tough on housekeepers lately, and conveniently, they all seemed to quit Friday afternoon, right before going to the market.
It’s always the same; after the housekeeper stormed past Tureis and out the door, his father would just look at him and shrug his shoulders as if to say, “I really can’t understand what she’s so upset about. What did I say?” Then, without ever saying a single word, his father would look at him, point to the list and gesture to the front door. He would then turn and quietly walk away.
But tonight it wasn’t as simple. As his father turned to walk away, Tureis stood there with his arms folded, his jaw jutted out in defiance, “No! I am not going tonight. You can do it yourself!”
“Tueris Atreyu,” his father said rather sharply, “Yes, you will be going tonight!”
“Why?” Tureis asked. “Why do I have to go? I am too young!”
Tureis was tall for his age, and had always been slightly taller than his friends. His light brown hair and blue eyes could charm anyone, but in reality he was still a young boy. After all, Tureis was barely eight years old.
Occasionally, this act of defiance would work, and he would actually get out of going to the market. Silently, his father would just look at the floor, grab his cloak and head off. However, tonight was different. He had used this same argument, hoping for a similar outcome... but it didn’t happen. Instead, his father had turned back around, with a very large smile on his face, and said in the calmest voice Tureis had heard him use in a very long time, “That won’t work tonight. I am sorry, but you will have to go. You are now eight years old and officially old enough to start taking on some of the responsibilities of a man. You will go to the market tonight.”
These last words were spoken slow and deliberate, as if his father had just realized Tureis had celebrated a birthday last week-and he’d had a party-which his father had attended, along with his cousins, aunt and uncle. For Tureis, the thought of turning eight years old hadn’t really sunk in. Eight years old was an important time in his family. It was a point in life when he would now be responsible for his actions. His father called it, “The first level of manhood.” Between now and the age of twelve he would be expected to take on more responsibilities, including obeying his father without question...like going to the market.
So, tonight he accepted his responsibility, and did as his father asked. He walked the twenty minutes into the town square and went shopping for his father. Coming back from the market, his arms were full of packages and he was moving slowly, enjoying the beautiful fall weather. The sun was getting low on the horizon, but not quite ready to set, and he was about ten minutes from home. A light breeze rustled the multi-colored fall leaves in the trees, adding a slight chill to the air.
It was moments like these when he enjoyed the time alone with his thoughts. Tonight his thoughts turned to his mother, a mother he never knew, as she passed away just hours after he was born. He wondered what she was like, and what it would have been like to grow up in a house with his mother. Each year, around his birthday, he always pondered the life he could have had if his mother had been there. But those were dreams never to be realized as it had just been Tureis and his father his whole life. They lived in a modest house in Darish, a small village just outside the capital of Thaven.
His father owns a very large bookstore in the town square, located in the market outside the gates of the castle. He runs the bookstore as a sort of hobby, as his main job is working in the castle as the keeper of the ancient texts and artifacts. He also oversees the royal vaults. Because his father occupied most of his time either in the castle or at at his bookstore, Tureis spent a lot of time with his cousin Ailish and her family.
The sun wasn’t even close to setting yet, but by the looks of the sky, he thought it would get dark rather quickly tonight. He quickened his pace along the narrow road and looked up to see the moon already coming into view; a moon so large it felt as if he could reach out and touch it.
He walked along the road into Darish, enjoying the beautiful fall weather, completely lost in his thoughts, and still a short distance before the turn off to his house. Up ahead there’s a bend in the road where he liked to turn to go up to his house. It’s a shortcut around a neighbors farm and behind a small hill. Tureis lived on the other side of the hill, the back of his house sitting at it’s base. Dividing the hill nearly in half is a very narrow slot canyon. The trail leading through the canyon led directly to his house.
As Tureis approached the turnoff he heard some familiar voices coming from the other side of the bend and thought to himself, “Not again. Not tonight.” Looking down at the packages in his arms he panicked. He scanned the road and fields around him and saw a large tree on the side of the road growing out of a large dirt berm. Quickly, he made his way up the berm and behind the tree, looking for any place to stash his packages. Kneeling down behind the tree, he noticed a hole in between two large roots. Bending down further, Tureis placed his packages into the hole. Hurrying, for fear of be
ing noticed behind the tree, he got back up, moved out from behind the tree and headed down the berm back toward the road.
As he stepped onto the road Tureis saw two middle aged rough looking men coming around the bend. He stopped, frozen in his tracks. He looked up, watching them approach, hoping they would ignore him and walk on by. This was not going to be his lucky day. They walked directly toward him, eyes wide. With a big, nearly toothless grin, the larger of the two men leaned down, and in a tone that suggested he’d just won a prize, said, “Well, look at who we have here. The son of the rich book seller. What you doing out tonight kid?”
Tureis was frozen. He stood there stiff, willing his feet and legs to move, but they refused to comply. After what seemed like a minute Tureis was finally able to force out a choppy reply , “Just... going... home.”
“Really? Going home Huh? From where?” asked the large man as he moved closer to Tureis.
His legs were still not cooperating with his desire to run, but his tongue was beginning to work. “Uh, nowhere really,” Tureis managed to say between clenched teeth and with shaking legs. “Just came from town. Just going home. Really,”
The big man’s eyes looked Tureis over. He looked down, his eyes settling on something and he smiled. “So what’d you bring me?” he asked.
Tureis looked down and noticed he was still holding one of the packages. He rolled his eyes and let out a large sigh. Looking into the bag Tureis replied, “Oh, it’s nothing... just a book... for my Father.”
Now the small man stepped closer, “Really?” he said as his face moved even closer toward Tureis, looking him in the eye. “You mean to tell us you went all the way into town just to get a book for your Dad? Your Dad...the bookseller? The guy who has all the books he could ever need; and you went and got him a book?”
The large man hit the smaller man on the shoulder and they both stood up straight. The big man raised a finger as if figuring something out, “Wait a minute,” he said. “I think he’s lyin’ to us. I think he’s got something more in that there bag.”
Holding out his hand the small man just stared at him, “ You know how this works kid. You need to give us the bag.”
This was nothing new for Tureis. These two had stolen his stuff more than once. Most times they stole some flour or produce, or the occasional cooking pot. Today, this bag did not have food in it. Tureis had told the truth, the bag did have a book in it. But it was not a book for his father, it was a book for himself, a book his father would not let him have. It had taken him a long time to find a copy of this book, and even longer to find someone willing to sell it to him without telling his father. He did not want to give his book to these two idiots. Thinking quickly, his mind was made up-he just had to tell his body it was time to act.
He thought through the situation carefully. He still had a few packages hidden under the tree—they didn’t know that. There’s a back way into his farm he can use if he took the shortcut through the slot canyon—they likely didn’t know about that either. There was just one problem left-he had to figure out how to get away from them. Once he was past them, Tureis felt confident he could outrun them both.
“Come on guys, you don’t want this book. It’s a kids book, not worth anything. And there’s nothing else in the bag.” As he said this he’d slowly taken a few steps towards the other side of the road in an attempt to get around them.
The two guys just looked at each other, talking silently, as if deciding whether to believe Tureis or just beat him and take it anyway. He kept moving slowly and quietly. By now Tureis was on the other side of the road standing even with them. Just a few more steps and he would be past them.
They continued talking to each other, when they suddenly paused and looked up at him. Before the first word came out, they realized he was not standing in front of them. Before they turned, Tureis was gone!
He took off running as fast as he could. He ran down the cutoff towards the neighbors farm, knowing if he could just get into the slot canyon he could lose them. He started around the field towards the large hill separating his farm with the neighbors. As Tureis rounded the corner in the field, taking him to the outside of the fence, he stole a quick glance behind him. The two men were lumbering through the field in an attempt to catch up to him. They were moving slow and running through recently tilled, soft earth, which was slowing them down even more.
He skirted along the fence until he came to the base of the hill. From here, the entrance to the slot canyon was not far. He looked back again and the two men were still coming, but slower than before and breathing hard. They were now at the edge of the field.
Tureis kept running as fast as he could. He rounded a bend and stopped in front of a six foot tall bush with huge thorns all along its branches guarding the entrance to the canyon. Around the right side of the bush there was a space, under the lower branches, between the bush and the side of the canyon; more of a ledge, actually, that had been dug out underneath. The space was just big enough for a person to crawl under without getting cut into pieces, enabling them to get safely into the canyon.
As he came out the other side, Tureis could hear the two men coming around the bend. He sat there motionless, not wanting to be heard. The two men walked up to the bush and stopped. For what seemed like an eternity, they just stood there. Finally, he heard them turn around and walk back the way they came.
He sat there and waited for a few minutes to make sure they weren’t coming back. Slowly, he got to his feet and looked around, listening intently for any sound of them returning. He quietly moved away from the bush and walked up the game trail toward home.
As he walked up the trail, there came a loud noise. He stopped and turned around, his heart beginning to race. Something sounded like rocks falling from higher up the hill, inside the slot canyon. Panic had now set in as he wondered if the two men had come back.
Scanning the trail, he saw up ahead that there were two large pine trees that appeared to be growing straight out of the rock wall on the side of the canyon. Stealing a glance behind him one last time, he saw nothing. He turned back and ran straight toward the trees as fast as his legs would take him. Reaching the trees, he ran around the left side, hiding behind the enormous base. The base of each tree was huge; at least four feet around. Tureis peered around the tree to see where his attackers were coming from, but he still saw nothing.
Another loud noise came from along the trail. Straining to hear from the direction of the sound, he still couldn’t hear any voices. But something or someone was out there. There it was again. Something was definitely moving toward him very slowly, almost creeping up on him. Tureis focused in the direction of the sound, all his muscles tensed, waiting to flee whoever was coming for him. Finally, to his relief, a deer walked out onto the trail from behind a bush. Tureis nearly fell off the base of the tree where he was hiding. After regaining his balance, he exhaled a large breath and chuckled to himself.
He watched the deer slowly move up the side of the canyon until it crested the hill and disappeared. Then he laid back on the tree to relax for a minute, looking up at the mountain. The grey rock face rose up at a sharp angle, almost like a giant had pushed up one end of the rock and just left it there. Looking closer and following the face of the rock, he noticed that at the same angle of the rock was a narrow path. The path was very hard to see and Tureis had to reposition himself to get a better look. The path followed the same angle of the rock, beginning at the base of the trees and ascending up out of sight. The path looked very worn, like it was cut out of the rock face a long time ago. Tureis furrowed his brow, puzzled, and thought back to when he had been here in the canyon. He had been in this canyon many times and never remembered seeing these trees, this rock, or this path.
The path was narrow, only about three feet wide, even more narrow in some places. Parts of the path were missing, but it was still there-mor
e or less. Curiosity got the better of him and as he began climbing he forgot about going home. As he got close to the top, he noticed the path turned a corner. Cautiously, he rounded the corner, and right in front of him was an opening that went straight into the rock. The path continued directly into what looked like a cave.
The entrance looked like the doorway to a house. However, the opening was smaller than a normal door. Tureis walked through the doorway and found himself standing in a large rock room. The walls and ceiling were rounded and met together about eight feet from the floor. The inner walls had cut marks suggesting the room was mostly, if not completely, cut out of solid rock by hand.
The cave was about twenty feet wide and went back into the mountain another twenty feet. Towards the back of the cave, he noticed light coming in from somewhere. He walked towards the light and looked up, seeing a hole in the roof about twelve inches in diameter.
The light came in at an angle and was directed at the wall at the very back of the cave. He followed the light and saw that it came to rest upon a shelf cut out of the stone wall. Sitting in the middle of the shelf, with the light hitting it perfectly, was a pure silver sphere about the size of a small nectarine. It was perfectly round and shined as if it had just been made yesterday.
Cautiously, he approached the sphere, not so much because of his curious nature, but because it literally felt as if he was being pulled towards it. He felt a sort of energy permeate his body that reminded him of lightning, but not as strong. He could also hear a low buzz or hum, like the sound of a hummingbird’s wings.
The closer he got to the sphere the louder the sound and the stronger the energy became. The hairs on his arms and neck began to stand up as he closely examined the sphere. There appeared to be some writing, or drawings, or some sort of shapes engraved on the outside. But when he looked again the writing and shapes were gone.