Book One: Beginnings

by Nicole Ashley Brown Segda

  Breathing heavily, he leans forward on his hands and hangs his head in weariness. He raises his eyes to see the remainder of the Sentran forces on the other side of the river marching stalwartly onward towards the Sylvan cottage, ever intent on their mission. The strength of his arms leaves him and he hits the hard-packed dirt, lying motionless beneath the stars above as he closes his eyes and drifts into a dreamless sleep.

  * * *

  “The stars are restless,” Jessica whispers as she stares up at the night sky. She hugs her knees and shivers involuntarily. “Something stirs in the night.”

  Joel stands with his arms crossed as he looks warily into the trees. “My skin tingles in anticipation. Some evil marches this way.”

  Lara takes a few tentative steps forward as she closes her eyes. “The wood whispers a warning.”

  Maria clutches the sleeve of Tom’s shirt as she clears her throat. “She has found us. Mala is here.” Upon voicing the deepest of her fears, an orange ball of fire shoots into the distant sky, shattering into thousands of fiery arrows that rain down upon the earth. Everyone stands facing the forest now, their breath caught in their throats as they can now discern a direction from which their fears have arisen and have been confirmed.

  Putting aside her fears and rising to the occasion, Lara commands. “Make ready. Mala has set her army upon us. We will stand and meet it.”

  Jessica closes her eyes and bows her head, awaiting the approach of the Sentran forces.

  Maria grabs Lara’s arm and pleads, “They are not ready.”

  Yanking her arm away, Lara glares. “Have you so little faith?” Sparing no more time, she runs for the stables and mounts her horse. Galloping back to the others, she paces her horse in front of them and addresses them. “Our strategy is a simple one. Be patient. We must bide our time and build our powers. If we respond too strongly, too quickly, we will exhaust our resources to the point of putting our very lives at risk. Wait for my command.” She pauses to allow time for her words to sink in. Clearing her throat, she continues, “I see the black hordes of the Sentran army marching through the forest towards where we stand now. I hear the clanging of their armor amidst the pounding of their feet upon the forest trail. Their weapons are of steel, their armor of leather, and their resolve is of stone. I see Verdana burning and the castle under siege. But no matter the monstrosity of their deeds, thoughts, or appearances, they are men.

  “And each one of you is a weapon. A power lies within you. Release it. Your inner strength is your armor. Your confidence your shield. And who can deny the resolve of those with right on their side? Tonight we do not defend ourselves. We defend the life which is at risk of being destroyed. We make our stand here. And we stand together. These powers were invested within us by God. So trust in Him.” Lara halts her horse and looks at each one standing before her in turn. “Believe.”

  Joel steps forward and stares solemnly into the twisted blackness of the forest beyond. “I believe.”

  The pale moonlight dances across Jessica’s features, giving a ghostly pallor to her smiling face. Her eyes open with a start and she declares evenly. “They are here.”

  A black army breaks free from the demesnes of the forest, their numbers swelling the countryside by the hundreds. Their curved blades glisten in the moonlight, raised over their heads by arms heavily clad in black armor. A great battle shout goes out from their leader and as each man lends their voice to the cry, the hills are sent reverberating with their charge.

  Jessica chants, “When darkness falls…. ” An inky cloud descends upon the soldiers. Some halt their charge as their vision is clouded, but the stronger of spirit fight through their loss of sight, breaking free of the blinding blackness.

  Joel continues, “… the unenlightened stumble upon Grace and are blinded by the light.” The soldiers who escaped the spell are greeted with a paralyzing white light that brings them to their knees. The skin around their eyes swells, a red tinge encircling them as they strain to see again.

  Lara calls forth the winds and sets them upon the hundreds of men still charging from the forest. The soldiers are thrown backwards onto the ground, gasping as the air is knocked out of them. The force of the gust had crushed the torsos of many, leaving them dead where they had fallen. Seeing that no more soldiers lurk in the forest, she calls out to Jessica and Joel, “Now!”

  Lara turns her attention to the fallen men before her. Flicking her wrist, she closes her fingers around some invisible force, snatching the breath of life from the Sentran soldiers. Their bodies convulse, seize, and then lay motionless as they die of asphyxiation. A simultaneous whistling escapes from their slightly parted blue lips as the air rushes out of them, a decrescendo as their life becomes nothing more than breath in the wind.

  One by one the stars blink out as Joel gathers their energy and transfers it to the air, charging it enough to call forth a thunderstorm. His eyes spark blue and electrical currents race through his black hair as he acts as the conductor for the amassing energy. Lightning dances across his fingertips. Raising his arm towards the soldiers, he releases the power in an array of blue charges that pierce their bodies, leaving gaping holes through their chests. They fall where they stand, their faces forever frozen in masks of bloodthirsty intent. They had not been given the time to realize their fate, nor had their blood been given the chance to flow before congealing into a swollen mass of hardened redness.

  Jessica attacks her portion of the army with a fear that seizes their hearts. She latches onto the inner recesses of their minds, pounding their memory with the combined frenzied thoughts and cries of all the people they had murdered. She takes these fears and multiplies it with the force of her own anger, an anger fueled by eleven years of not knowing and of betrayal. Some retch as others pant hysterically. She watches as the blood leaves their veins, their hearts eventually slowing to a stop with each moment that passes.

  Hundreds of black-armored bodies lay before them, twisted in various scenes of death. None were held in the cusp between life and death. Not one of the enemy stirred. The hills that had resounded with their charge now lay silent. The victors survey the carnage, their breathing slow and steady. The realization of the feat that they had just accomplished, that the three of them had just annihilated an entire army, slowly creeps up on them like some nocturnal predator.

  A raspy whisper escapes Maria’s throat as she rests her hand upon her chest, “My God…. There are so many of them.”

  White clouds of breath billow from their mouths as a sudden chill passes over them. The shadow of a man on a black steed appears before them. The air rings with his sinister laughter. Rearing his horse, he gallops off into the distance and disappears into the cloak of midnight.

  Joel speaks. “How did they find us? Who was that?”

  Tom answers. “The traitor.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Nikoi arches her long neck over the cliff, peering down at the two youths lying on the hard earth. The girl rests peacefully on her back, like a fragile flower whose petals would wilt at the slightest touch. Traces of deep blue highlight her brown hair, fanning out beneath her. The boy, however, paints a different picture with his limbs sprawled about him and his head turned to the side. His black hair is tousled more than usual, with the ends red as if dipped in paint, or blood. The clear water flowing around the sea serpent’s body ripples slightly as she sighs. A little orange fish swims beside her, his tail slowly swishing from side to side.

  Twiggy’s voice pipes solemnly. “Are they going to make it?”

  Nikoi sadly shakes her head. “It is too early to tell. Their breathing is rather shallow. With the way they rushed in last night, and that being the first real use of their powers, I am surprised that they have lasted to morning.” She stares up at the red sun lazily rising in the rosy dawn sky. “But their will is strong and they have much to hold on to.”

  Twiggy swims to the other side of Nikoi. “We will not let them die.” Twiggy looks up at her hopefu
lly “We will watch over them.”

  Nikoi looks once again upon the boy and girl. “Yes. We will watch over them.”

  * * *

  Lara kneels beside Joel and nudges him awake. “How well have you rested?”

  Joel rolls onto his stomach and uses his arms to push himself up. Squinting in the red light of morning, he scratches the back of his neck and yawns. He stretches, immediately regretting it upon discovering that he had slept on a rock. Putting a hand over the sore spot in his side, he mumbles, “Is that a rhetorical question, or does it really matter?” He blankly stares at her. “Given that you have taken the liberty of interrupting my much needed sleep, I warrant that whatever this is about is important. Because I know that you wouldn’t have woken me if it was otherwise, right?”

  Lara stands and gives him a hand to do the same, although she pulls him up rather abruptly. She briskly walks off towards the stables, a tacit command for Joel to follow. She mounts her horse and watches Joel clamber onto his. Gritting her teeth, she fumes, “Your sharp retort answers my question. And if it we were not so pressed for time, I would use that time to teach you a lesson about speaking to me in such a disrespectful manner.” She spurs her horse and quickly adds, “You may be the light, but as you said yourself, I am your mother.” Her horse bounds from the stables and out into the open field.

  Joel charges after her, calling out, “Hey, where are we headed?” Receiving no answer from Lara, he resigns himself to finding out once they get there. Suddenly unnerved, he pulls up on the reins and stares out at the countryside before him. More hesitantly he calls out to Lara, something in his voice possessing her to halt her steed and turn to face him. Licking his lips, he starts. “Lara, we killed all those men last night, didn’t we?”

  She nods. “Yes. What’s the problem, Joel?”

  “Where are all the bodies?”

  Scanning the field for any sign of the battle that had taken place the previous night and finding none, she frets. “I … I don’t know.” Rearing her horse, she urges, “Come on. We are running out of time.” Once more she sets out in a mounting gallop that leaves Joel hard-pressed just to keep up, her black stallion skirting the edge of the forest.

  For an instant he loses sight of her as her horse breaks left into the forest. His own horse, however, gallops along the invisible path that Lara had taken through the woods. He can once again see her up ahead, a dot of white on black as she barrels through the forest as if the trees weren’t even there. Then even this smudge on the horizon disappears as Lara rides on, multiplying the distance between them.

  The leaves whip past him as his steed darts past trees, dodging them moments before Joel even has a chance to react. He realizes that although he holds the reins, the horse is guiding him. Joel is somewhat freaked out by this, but as long as he isn’t running into trees or being hit by their low boughs, he cannot complain. A thundering sound rips through the air, startling Joel enough to make him almost lose his seat. Regaining his balance, he pats the horse’s neck in gratitude that it had not faltered. “I have no idea what your name was before, or even if you had a name, but from here on out, I will call you Thunder.”

  The thundering noise is louder now, but it no longer frightens him. He is more scared of the cliff ahead and the fact that Thunder exhibits no signs of stopping. He pulls up on the reins but the stupid creature ignores him. Digging his heels into the sides of the beast, he screams hysterically, “Stupid. Blind. Dumb beast!” Closing his eyes, he holds his breath in preparation for the fatal plummet he knows awaits him. He feels the muscles of the horse move beneath him as the stupid, blind, dumb beast continues its deadly gallop into oblivion. When the weightlessness that should have already come fails to arrive, he shuts his eyes tighter, fearing that this is some malevolent trick to get him to open his eyes and see the nothing below him as he falls to his doom.

  He lurches forward as the horse comes to a sudden stop. Confused, Joel chances to take a peek. Lara sits on her horse before him, her features a mixture of amusement and frustration. Joel looks behind him to discover that he has safely crossed the rift. And to his right rises a magnificent waterfall. He looks back at Lara, flustered and fuming, “Why didn’t you tell me that the stupid horse could fly?”

  Lara sets her jaw. “It can’t. You forget so quickly that I control the wind. And the horse is not stupid.” She sniffs. “Considering your attitude earlier, it only serves you right. Now, I need your help. Or rather,” she motions towards the ground, “they do.”

  Joel peers around the horse’s head which had been blocking his view. He scrambles off the horse when he sees Kae and Chase frozen in the epitome of death. His heaving frame towers over them, casting a long, dark shadow upon the ground. The sight of his brother lying there makes his stomach heave, but he finds himself unable to look away. He stares for a long while and an emptiness begins to consume him, driving away the pain and the regret that he had felt numerous times before. He ponders why this is so and comes to the conclusion that whereas there previously was the possibility of seeing his brother again, death is a journey from which he, or anyone else for that matter, cannot return home. At least, home in the sense of the earthly place we are eager to leave and upon leaving it yearn to return to through the course of our mortal lives.

  He feels that his mind should be racing in a desperate search for answers as to why his brother is still here, what had happened, and what he can do to help, but is not surprised that he has been so analytical up to this point. Somewhere deep inside, he feels a twinge of sadness but he shuns the feeling. Too many tears have been wept already. And his grief will not save his brother.

  Joel looks at the waterfall before him. “With all its power and majesty, we have no way to harness it. If only I could take that energy and transfer it to them, just as I had drawn the energy from the stars last night.” He looks at Lara, the skeleton of an idea forming in his mind. “Can you build a fire?” Remembering his manners, he quickly adds. “Please.”

  Lara nods and sets about collecting the needed materials.

  He turns his eyes upon Kaela. She looks so peaceful. The sadness slowly creeps upon him again, cutting through the numbness and finally breaking his trance. He swallows the remorse building up in his throat, but it is there again and he must swallow once more, and once more. His vision clouds as the well-springs of his eyes are replenished, threatening to overflow and fall forever upon the pallid statue of the angel in blue.

  His tears fall upon Kae’s body, but instead of rolling off her skin in thin rivulets, they dissolve upon contact with her flesh as the dry earth would hungrily drink the drops of an infrequent rain. His eyes burn with the salt of his tears and all he can say is “Of course.” Joel catches a teardrop on the tip of his finger and carefully places it upon Kae’s partially open lips. He watches hopefully, leaning over her so the remainder of his tears would not be wasted on the earth. When he can cry no longer, he tells Lara, “I have done all I can. Take her into the water. Let her breathe its air.”

  Lara follows his instructions, taking her sister in her arms and floating into the mists over the river. Joel watches until they disappear and then turns his attention to his brother. The fire Lara had built is a strong one, and he is glad for it. He needs all the help he can get. Taking a deep breath, he focuses on the task at hand until that is all that exists. All other thoughts are driven away and his emotions are forced into the deepest chambers of his heart. Placing the palm of his right hand on his brother’s neck and holding his other hand palm up out towards the fire, he closes his eyes. At first, there is only darkness with the morning light creeping in at the edges. Letting go of the physical boundaries of the world, the darkness consumes the light and is complete. He can feel a warmth on his left that is accompanied by a dancing red light and he invites it into himself, drawing the energy of heat and light and transferring it into the receptacle that is Chase’s body.

  The source of energy dwindles and the link is broken. Joel opens
his eyes and his senses are bombarded with the life thrumming around him. Through the gray tendrils issuing forth from the charred kindling of the fire, he can clearly see the array of blues, reds, and yellows that color his surroundings, blending wonderfully into the purples, oranges, and greens that are its derivatives. The smoke from the newly extinguished fire invades his nostrils but the piney smell of the forest holds rein here. He can hear the water thundering over the cliff as if he were directly below it, and he could taste the sweet honey air. When he pushes his left hand against the earth for balance, he can feel the earth pushing back. And so each atom, each fiber of his being, was intrinsically connected to the rest of the universe and the rest of the universe to him. He is able to perceive the tiniest speck of dust and ascertain the smallest trace of a thought. For each leaves their own signature, a message floating in the sea of oblivion waiting to be deciphered, and only he has the key.

  He senses Lara approaching and turns to face her. He smiles inwardly at the surprise registering on her face, catching her despite her extensive measures to be stealthy. She clears her throat. “I did not want to disturb you, but it seems you have finished here.” She kneels beside Joel but stares at Chase. “I knew that if they had any chance at all, you would be the one to give it to them. Now all we can do is wait and pray that our hopes are not unfounded and our efforts are not in vain.” She clasps her hands before her and frets. “I understand how you transferred the energy from the fire to Chase, but what energy is there to be had in a tear? And how come you only had me build one fire instead of two?”