by David Wind
The atmosphere around Roth and Enaid turned cold. Above them rumbling black clouds gathered. Cold air flowed from the clouds and red lightening danced madly until the clouds themselves speared downward. Seconds later a huge, black and misshapen form grew from the swirling blackness and stood twenty feet in front of Roth and Enaid.
Twice the height of the King with broad, misshapen legs and long, dangling arms, it roared rage down at them. It took a moment for Areenna to realize exactly what she was seeing. The form, horrendous and deformed as it was, had once been a woman, evidenced by small sagging breasts and female genitalia.
She gagged, but could not stop the vision even if she wanted to. Slowly, the scene unfolded. The distorted woman stepped forward, red, glaring eyes fixed on the two small figures before her, one long arm upraised with the palm of a seven fingered hand directed at Roth. Enaid moved sideways just as the apparition sent a shower of reddish lightening toward him.
Raising both arms, palms forward, Enaid drew up a cone of white light and sent it directly at the red lightning. The light shimmered and then exploded when it met the red bolts.
The creature screamed in anger as she put even more force into her next volley. Her rage-fed attack began to push Enaid’s barrier back. On the right, Areenna saw her father and mother pushing toward Roth and Enaid. They stopped within yards of the future high king where Areenna’s mother knelt, raised her own palms toward Enaid and sent shafts of pale blue light at her cousin to reinforce and strengthen Enaid’s power.
At that moment, Roth spun from behind Enaid, raced forward and, with his sword raised high, jumped into the air and sliced into the black witch’s arm, severing it close to the elbow.
Releasing an unearthly howl, the misshapen creature turned to him. When she did, Enaid sent a bolt of silver lightning at her head. In less than a heartbeat, the wounded creature dissolved into the mist it had come from and disappeared, leaving its army unprotected.
Two hours later, the dark army was defeated, its legions decimated with barely a few hundred left alive. The remnants of the dark army fled as fast as they could, returning to wherever they’d come from.
As swiftly as Enaid had entered Areenna’s mind, she was gone. Areenna gasped, then opened her eyes and sat up. She hugged herself, feeling strangely cold beneath the warm sun. “I never imaged…the stories never—”
“Nor could they. Those who fought and lived on that day could never express the horror of what they’d fought. Your mother was the power that helped me to stave off that witch. But now you know what will come next and, Areenna, it grieves me deeply to tell you she is not the worst, not by your most wild imagining.”
Areenna thought about the powers she had seen coming from both Enaid and her mother. Tears rose at the thought of her mother, but she forced them away. “The lightning? You used it both as a shield and as a weapon. How did you do so? I can build a wall of defense, but that…”
“By willpower. Stand,” she said. When Areenna was on her feet Enaid pointed to a tall tree high above the tree barrier around them. “When you fought those things, you created a weapon. Do so now.”
Areenna closed her eyes and called up her power. The familiar burning within her belly began and a moment later she held a glowing ball of white energy. Lifting her palm she sent it toward the treetop, where it exploded sending sparks and pieces of wood outward.
“Excellent, now feel yourself…thus,” Enaid whispered and gently touched the same spot in her mind. “Now, instead of sending this against a single enemy, first expand it like a mushroom.”
Areenna closed her eyes again, built the power and pictured a huge mushroom floating above them. Slowly, she set the mushroom down, surrounding her and Enaid within its stem.
“Perfect, now hold and draw more of your power into a weapon within the shield and release it, but do not release the shield.”
Areenna followed her mentor’s instruction and created another shimmering ball on her palms. She sent that ball into the shield and, with her eyes locked on the treetop, launched it without dropping the shield.
“Yes,” Enaid whispered as more of the treetop exploded.
Areenna released the powers the instant Enaid spoke and sank slowly to the ground. She was exhausted, her entire body covered by a thin sheet of sweat. “Oh,” was all she could whisper.
“Rest for a few minutes, we will do it over and over until it becomes easier.”
Areenna looked at the Queen. “Will it?”
Enaid smiled. “It will come faster, and be easier to control, but it will never be easy.”
“I will work more on this when I return to Freemorn,” she said.
Enaid started to speak, but stopped as a familiar prickling tweaked in her mind. Her gaze turned intense upon Areenna. “Have you… Have you been having strange dreams? Dreams of a place hidden within mists and felt a call to enter the mists?”
“How could you know?” she whispered.
“When did this happen? What color was the mist?” Enaid asked, already knowing the answer, wishing more than anything that Areenna’s mother still lived, for it was a mother’s job to speak of what she must.
“Reddish, strange. I—it started two weeks ago.”
Enaid raised her hand to Areenna’s cheek. “Child,” she whispered in a sad and low voice. “You are not to return to Freemorn. You are to go east. You must be tested and trained for what will soon be here.”
“East,” Areenna gasped. “I…”
“There is no choice child, not any longer. You are being called. It is your time.”
CHAPTER 9
THE RETURN TO the keep was made in silence. Both Enaid and Areenna had much to think on. For Enaid it was simple, she had to prepare Areenna for what she would face. For Areenna, it was more difficult: she needed to steel her mind to what would happen next, although she was unsure she could do so.
Areenna was aware of how the East contained frightening visions for most of the people of Nevaeh. It had been from the East, according to the legends, where the horror that had encompassed their land began. It was also the area of greatest power for women.
She had heard the stories of how, for untold centuries, women who were born with abilities went to the East. Many of them returned, others did not. Areenna knew there was something there, which either made one stronger or took one to its bosom, but no one ever knew what happened to those who did not return, for it was always a solitary journey when women went east.
Areenna’s thoughts weighed heavily, bringing back a long forgotten conversation with her mother. It was shortly after she’d found Gaalrie and had been nursing the treygone into the beautiful adult it would one day be. Her mother had come to her at bedtime and explained that since she had found her aoutem, they would move to the next level of training. In the same talk, her mother had also told her how one day she would make a journey to the East, for such a journey would be an important part of her future.
Four years later, riding alongside the high queen of Nevaeh, she recalled the conversation and was filled with melancholy at how her mother had been able to see the future so clearly, yet not see the terrible end that would befall her two years later.
“What is it child?” Enaid asked, breaking their silence just before reaching Tolemac. “I sense much sadness coming from you.”
Areenna forced a smile. “A memory of my mother. And Enaid, I am no longer a child.”
Enaid laughed. “No, child,” she said in emphasis, “but you will always be a child to me—you and my son. It is the right of a parent, and as far as I am concerned, you are as much a daughter to me, as your mother was far more a sister than cousin.”
Areenna bowed her head in response.
Enaid smiled. “Tell me, Areenna, what memory of your mother brought on this sadness.”
The use of her name rather than the endearment did not escape her. “It was a few days after I had found Gaalrie. My mother told me how, one day, I would go to the East. That is all.”
Enaid stared at her; the silver motes within her green eyes cast off a low glow in the late afternoon sun. “There’s more. You’re angry as well because she left you.”
“Yes, how could she know what would happen to me years after she died, yet not see her own death coming so soon?”
Enaid gazed at Areenna in silence and, after a few moments said, “I had never given it much thought. We…I never look to see such things for myself. It is unwise to look in that direction, but your mother was a powerful sorceress and she had an uncanny ability to foresee true—her ability was much stronger than my own. Yet,” Enaid said with a shake of her head, “I think she would not want to know about her own death, as I would not either. It would shadow everything she would do from that point onward. Do you understand?”
Areenna nodded. “It was just a memory.” Then she looked into the distance as another memory surfaced. When she grasped its entirety, she looked at Enaid. “My mother must have had some idea of what was coming. Why else would she have begun my training when I was only nine?”
“Of that, I cannot say, other than she had much reason. But, Areenna, I am certain you will handle the East with the same strength that you have handled everything since you came of age.”
Areenna did not reply; she was not so certain.
<><><>
“Father, we need to speak.”
Nosaj who had watched his daughter dismount her kraal in the courtyard below turned from the window. He enjoyed the familiar rush of warmth and love her entry always brought. She was so much like her mother there were times his eyes tricked him into thinking she was the only woman he had ever loved—it was not that he did not love his daughter fiercely, just differently.
“The princess returns,” he joked.
“She does,” Areenna replied and Nosaj was instantly aware of something wrong.
“What happened?”
Areenna spent the next twenty minutes telling him about the afternoon and her training before saying, “Enaid shared a vision with me. It was of the final battle of the war, when you and mother went to Roth and Enaid’s aid and helped to defeat that terrible creature.”
When she paused, Nosaj experienced something he’d never before felt. The low edge of her anger directed toward him.
“Why have you never told me about the final battle you and Mother fought?”
“Why would we? Your mother and I made a decision we believed correct. What need was there of telling you about something no longer important? The war was over, the enemy defeated.”
Areenna closed her eyes for a second before pinning her father with a glare. “No Father, you and mother were wrong. Not only did you deny me the knowledge of what you did, of the strength and of the deeds of the parents to whom I have been born, but you left me unprepared for what I have to face. You need to know the enemy was not defeated. Who do you think we battled in the forest when we went to protect Duke Yermon? No Father, the war is not over and it seems I have been chosen to play some part in this.”
“What do you mean?” A sensation of dread built within him.
“Enaid says I must go to the East, I have to go there to be trained further.”
It took Nosaj a moment to recover. He knew of women who, unlike his wife, had gone to the East and never returned. “Then Enaid will be going with you?”
“No. Enaid must remain here. Mikaal will be going with me.”
“Mikaal?” Startled displeasure was strong in his voice.
“Mikaal. He too must be trained.”
<><><>
The time following the evening meal was filled with preparations and meetings—between Nosaj and Roth, between Enaid and Areenna, then Mikaal, Areenna, and Enaid, then Roth and Mikaal. The first of these meetings began an hour after the evening meal. Nosaj had climbed the inner stairwell to the upper parapets hoping to be alone for a few minutes in an effort to digest everything that had happened since he’d left Freemorn.
It was not easy, for he was having strong doubts about himself and his high king. The strange unveiling of who Roth was had been hard to accept, but learning of Mikaal’s powers had been more difficult. On top of those things, knowing the King’s son and his daughter—his only child and all that remained of his wife—were about to leave for the East tugged harshly on his thoughts. He could not stop himself from wondering how such unexpected happenings came about.
“Nosaj,” called Roth, tearing Nosaj from his reverie.
“My, Lord,” Nosaj responded with a bow.
“Come, walk with me my friend.” Linking arms with Nosaj, he started forward.
Roth was very aware of how on edge Nosaj had been since the women returned to the keep. The tension had grown even thicker during the evening meal when Enaid had explained more of what was needed. Mikaal had stayed wisely and unusually silent, even distant from the arguments that had followed.
“While we seem to have no choice as to what our children must do, we do have a choice in what we shall be doing. Nosaj, war is coming again to devastate our lands. We must be prepared for what Enaid believes will happen. She has foreseen this war coming and the parts our children must play. But, old friend, it is up to us to prepare ourselves and the dominions for the coming war.”
“Do you believe the others will join us?”
“They will join us or fall, but we won’t be able to tell them what is about to happen until Areenna and Mikaal return from the East. Those who choose not to join with us…who fall because of their short sightedness, they… Let us hope there will be but few.”
“With luck,” Nosaj half whispered.
Roth shook his head. “Luck will not play a factor. It will be they who determine their future. My friend,” Roth said, putting his hand on Nosaj’s shoulder and squeezing gently, “I can tell you this with a clear and open heart—your daughter was born to this. Your wife knew it even if she did not tell you of it, or perhaps she could not because of her premature passing.”
“But the dangers of the East to them both…”
“No,” Roth said, still holding the King of Freemorn’s shoulder. “I have been told Areenna’s powers are second to none, and with Mikaal, her power has somehow increased. If anyone in our world can go to the East and return, it will be your daughter. Your wife knew this, for she told Areenna so years ago. Enaid, too, explained all to me when she returned this afternoon. She also told me we have perhaps, a year at the most before the vileness comes at us. The Circle of the Afzal will attack within a year.”
“The Circle of…what is that?” a puzzled Nosaj asked.
“I am sorry my friend, I’ve forgotten myself. You call them the dark circle, but when they first started to attack the world, in my time, they were known as terrorists—people who destroyed what others had built and they had as many names as they did factions. But by the twenty-second century they had found a leader who brought them together. From that merging they began to call themselves the Unified Circle of the Middle East. Over the next few years, as their power and reign of terror grew, their name changed to the Circle of Afzal, named after their leader Afzal Mahmud Tarek. But to those of us who remained opposed to them and their horrors, we named them the Circle of Evil, and our name proved to be correct, for they were abominable and evil as they rained death upon the world. Now you call them the dark circle. But whatever name is put upon them, they remain the embodiment of evil.
“What they unleashed changed everything. It changed who we are and who our women have become and it changed them, too. It turned them into physical and mental horrors. Their dark powers are so potent...” He stopped and reined in his emotions before going on. “They have only one driving need—to conquer the world and make us into their images. Stopping them is what I will die for rather than allow such depravity to overtake Nevaeh. I have not travelled through three-millennia to allow them to destroy our world!”
“My Lord, I understand what you’re saying, but there are not enough of them in Nevaeh to make war upon us,
” Nosaj said confidently.
Roth gave his friend’s shoulder another gentle squeeze. “In one of Enaid’s visions, she saw a great fleet of ships being built. They will bring tens of thousands of their warriors across the sea.”
Startled, Nosaj stared with disbelief at Roth. “But this is impossible. The waters are too treacherous.”
“Believe me, this will happen. It matters not to them how many ships or men might be lost, all they care about is conquering Nevaeh, for we represent everything they stand against. They will be here, and if we do not prepare, we will fall.” Roth paused, deep in thought before he said, “They are vastly different from us. Their mutations are horrible, caused by the radiation they unleashed. Their men and women are more like wild, misbegotten animals. Yet, at the highest level, the leaders of these repulsive people have mutated as well, both physically and mentally. Like our women, their powers are very strong, but only as long as they can draw life energy from others.”
“Here, in Nevaeh, before the radiation could affect everyone, the scientists of my time created a defense to help fight off the worst of its effects, and the mutations in Nevaeh are vastly different. Instead of becoming misshapen, the men grew stronger and our women gained wonderful abilities. And these special abilities, this magic as you call it, is what has and will protect Nevaeh from them.”
Roth paused to breathe. “But this time it will be Areenna and Mikaal who will have to find the way to lead us.”
“But we have defeated the Circle. They are weak.”
Roth raised his eyebrows. “When I first began to gather armies to fight them, they were overconfident. In the years we fought them, I used that weakness against them. What allowed us to win was their belief Nevaeh could not be united. In their arrogance, they refused to consider it possible for us to defeat their sorceresses and the armies they had built from both our exiles and those of Nevaeh who had physical mutations.”