The Return To Erda Box Set

by Beca Lewis

  A pair of Hawks had landed behind them in the trees and gave Ruta and Beru permission to see with their eyes. Using animals and birds to see something was a form of magic rarely practiced, and neither Ruta or Beru knew how to do it. But with the Hawks’ guidance, they mentally entered into the Hawks’ minds and saw the world as a Hawk sees it. What the Hawks showed them was more terrifying than words could describe.

  At this point in the story, Beru sat down, clearly still upset by what they found, and Ruta took over. His grumpiness was gone as he gave the account of what the birds had shown them.

  Not only was the land brown and barren, it was shattered. It was as if a giant hand had reached down and grabbed handfuls of the earth and flung it everywhere. Trees were blown apart, their roots waving in the air. Every rock was a tiny fragment. The wind swirled dust tornadoes. The dust was often so dense the Hawks often had to rise above it to find their way.

  When the view was clear, the Hawks had swooped down close to the ground and showed them green blobs moving between the shattered land and into the forest. They were making a shrieking sound that seemed to stun everything around them. There was a moment of panic when one of the Shrieks noticed them, and the Hawks rose quickly and returned to where Beru and Ruta stood at the top of the mountain.

  Once their eyes were released, the Hawks told them what the Shrieks did. Many birds had died, fallen from the sky before they realized that they could rise higher than the sound. The animals were not so lucky. The Shrieks would stun them, and Shatterskin would literally shatter the ground, and every living thing. It was always total destruction wherever they went, and they were moving East taking the land bit by bit.

  I realized that Ruta was telling the story for me. This team of people knew this story. But even though they knew it already and had probably witnessed the destruction first hand, I saw tears hanging in almost everyone’s eyes.

  “What happened then? Is this how you all came together?” I asked.

  “In time,” Niko answered. “Yes, there is more to this story. But the important part for today is that Beru and Ruta returned to their villages and told them what they had seen.

  “Sadly, not only were they not believed, they were shunned.”

  Shatterskin Twenty-Nine

  After that story, Niko and Aki headed down into the village to let them know that we were coming.

  Ruta and Beru left the fire and settled down onto their moss mats without saying another word. I couldn’t blame them. What more was there to tell that could have made it better? That meant it was only me, the Priscillas, and Zeid sitting by the fire. Cahir was in the woods, patrolling. I knew Lady was there too. I could hear her drumming leading Niko and Aki safely to the village.

  For once, I was speechless. Shunned? What would that feel like? The people that you love stop talking to you. You become invisible to them? All because Ruta and Beru were trying to bring them a warning about what was coming? It was a classic story though. Even in my Earth home, there were those warning about more than meets the eye and coming dangers. There was the fable about Plato’s cave and the story of Cassandra. They too were ignored and mistreated.

  I could understand that first reaction. I didn’t want to hear about Evil or its coming, either. But at least I knew that pretending it wasn’t there was never going to make it go away.

  I thought back through the Cain and Abel story that Aki had told me that day back in the Castle. I understood that Cain was Abbadon. However, she never told me who Abel was in Erda.

  “I wondered when you would get around to that, Hannah,” Zeid said.

  I gave Zeid one of the faces I had been practicing after watching Pris, the master of making faces. It didn’t appear to work. He laughed instead.

  “Okay. You win,” I said. “I didn’t think of asking before, and maybe I should have, but now I am. Who is the Abel in Erda?”

  “Well,” Zeid said, getting serious, “It’s an important question. And it really wasn’t your fault that you didn’t ask. Aki blocked you from thinking about it because she didn’t think you were ready to hear it.”

  “Ziffer, zut, zounds,” I said, “What is this with you all? I’m not ready? Here I am getting ready to fight Shrieks and Shatterskin, and I still don’t know everything? When will I be ready then? When Shatterskin blows us all apart, and as our pieces scatter over the planet, one of you says, ‘Oops, sorry, forgot to tell you.’”

  Zeid turned to me and took me by the shoulders and shook me. The Priscillas clung to my coat. Pris buried her head under the collar. I couldn’t blame her. Zeid’s face looked like thunder. A part of me tried to see how he made that face. It was very effective. The rest of me was a bit terrified.

  A moment later I realized why he was angry, and he had a right to be. They were working hard to save Erda in general, and me specifically, and I was acting like a brat once again.

  My awareness must have shown because he let me go and turned back to the fire.

  “You are going to have to trust us, Hannah. We’ve been here in Erda the whole time. You’ve been gone. You’ve lost most of your memory of Erda, and not recovered your magical talents. We didn’t know that would happen when we sent you away. We thought you’d remember and that it wouldn’t take time to return to yourself.

  “We learned that we were wrong about that when the people you call the Forest Circle returned. It took time. Except for Suzanne and her father, Earl. They had been continually traveling between dimensions, instead of living just in Earth, so they never forgot. But those that we sent away to live in Earth did forget because we wanted them to, not realizing that they wouldn’t remember when they came back. When they returned, it has taken them varying degrees of time to remember and to recover.

  “That’s why we have taken so much time to reintroduce you to Erda. But Shatterskin is still marching East, and we can’t wait any longer.”

  “Who else did you send away, Zeid?” I demanded. “The ones that forgot. And why them. And why me?”

  “You haven’t figured that out, Hannah?” Jake answered

  “Because I am Princess Kara Beth?”

  “And that means someday you might be what, Hannah?”

  “Queen? Queen of what?”

  Zeid waved his hand to take in our surroundings. “This, Hannah. All of this is your land. You are the daughter of the other brother. You will be Queen if he dies, or if he chooses to turn it all over to you. That is if we can save the planet from Abbadon. Otherwise, there will be no Kingdom left, and no beings of any kind for you to take care of.

  “You were sent away, which for us was a brief span of time. We didn’t know if Abbadon would target you first, so we did what we thought was best. Maybe we were wrong, given the outcome, but there is nothing we can do now.”

  Zeid rose to go, and I grabbed his hand. “You haven’t told me yet, Zeid. Who are my mother and father? Where are they? “

  Zeid turned and knelt in front of me. The look of sadness on his face scared me. “Your mother is dead, Hannah. She was visiting one of the villages in the West when the Shrieks arrived. Everyone died. There were no survivors. The entire town was stunned, and then shattered and swallowed. Buried. That’s why your father, in his grief, sent you away to be safe.”

  “And my father?”

  “Survives. But his grief has weighed him down, and he is dying from it.”

  “Does he know I have returned?”

  “Yes. At least part of him knows. The part that has given up does not, and that’s the part that governs him right now. Once we have defeated the Shrieks and Shatterskin we’ll go to see him, and hopefully, he will recover because you have returned. If we don’t, it won’t make any difference anyway.”

  This time I didn’t stop Zeid from walking away. My world was shattered once again. All along I realized that I had ha
rbored the belief that Leif and Sarah might be my birth parents. Now I knew they were not. My mother was dead. My father was dying, and I still didn’t remember them. I didn’t even know their names.

  I looked down at the Priscillas in my lap. “You know who they are don’t you.”

  They all looked down at their hands trying not to make eye contact with me.

  “Please,” I said. “At least tell me their names. Perhaps it will help me remember.”

  Pris looked up and sighed.

  “My parent’s names, please?”

  “Rowena and Darius.”

  I hoped their names would open the door further into my memory, but nothing happened.

  I don’t know how long I remained staring into the fire until the Priscillas talked me into lying down, reminding me that the next day we would be going into Beru’s village. I would need my rest.

  “Give it time,” Pris said, as I lay on my moss mat. The three of them hummed until I fell asleep, hoping I would dream of my parents.

  Shatterskin Thirty

  If I dreamed, I didn’t remember. I probably didn’t have time enough to dream because Niko and Aki woke us all in the middle of the night and told us that we had to go. No one asked why. For once I kept my mouth shut and did what I was told to do.

  Cahir came to my side, and we were off through the woods. As always, we had a safe path, provided by Ruta and the trees. A path that closed behind us as we walked. We could see where we were going because there was a faint light coming from the ground. As soon as we passed, the light faded away.

  I had seen this phenomenon before, so I wasn’t surprised, but this time as I walked I could feel the energy coming from the ground through the soles of my feet. When I bent down to touch the earth, I could feel a slight vibration. It was like the breath I had felt when I had the dream of the planet breathing in and out.

  When I stood, Zeid smiled at me. He must have sensed what I had felt. There was nothing to say. Something had clicked back on. It was a good sign, one that we both needed.

  Without speaking out loud, I asked Pris where we were going.

  “The village,” was her answer. I knew there wouldn’t be any more explanation, so I let it rest.

  As we crested the hill, the village of Kinver appeared below. The sun had just risen and was painting the roofs of the buildings a soft pink. I could see what looked like the main street of maybe ten stores, and a few roads that fanned from there. It didn’t seem larger than maybe one hundred buildings.

  The closer we got, the prettier it looked. Kinver was filled with gardens of all kinds. Although it was fall, there was enough left in each plot to see that there were both flowers and vegetables in the mix.

  Once we reached the road into town, I could see two groups of people facing each other. In the middle was a man who appeared to be keeping them on their respective sides.

  “What’s going on?” I asked Niko.

  “Now, Hannah, what does it look like to you?”

  “Disagreement.”

  “And so it is. Now we need to resolve it. And that, my dear, will be up to you.”

  I stopped in my tracks. “Wait. What are you talking about? I don’t know these people. I don’t know what to say to them.”

  Niko turned and looked at me the same way he looked when he sent me out to spar with Zeid.

  “They know you, Princess Kara Beth. They don’t know that you don’t remember them. They know your ability. They trust you. They will follow you. We have told them what Beru and Ruta warned them about is true. We scared the living crap out of them. Or I hope we did.

  “But they are still not sure. The villagers think that if they stay here, they will be safe. The Shrieks and Shatterskin are far away. They don’t believe that they will ever come this far East.

  “You, Kara Beth, have to convince them to do two things: fortify their town, and practice their magic skills again. And, you who don’t remember enough to be effective, have to convince them that you still have magic, and you need some of them to join us as we head out to destroy the Shrieks.”

  My blood was boiling. Niko spoke to me as if I were less than nothing. The more he talked, the madder I got. It wasn’t my fault I didn’t remember anything. I didn’t ask to be Princess Whatever. Niko spoke to me as if I was utterly incapable.

  No, I didn’t remember being any kind of princess, but I did remember being Hannah. Hannah who was more than capable in Earth. Much more than she was in Erda. Hannah who had talents and abilities that changed people’s lives. I remembered her.

  Niko kept poking at me with words. I felt something happen. Power surged up my legs and out my arm, and I touched Niko with it. He fell on his ass. And laughed.

  “Now, that’s my girl,” he said. “Use that.”

  Realizing that he had just used me, made me even angrier. So angry I only had a small awareness that my touch had landed my martial arts instructor right on his butt in the middle of the street.

  I marched to the front of my team. Yes, my team. I stopped in front of the man who was standing between the two crowds.

  One side cheered and bowed to me. The other glared. Perhaps that group of people didn’t recognize me. I lifted my hand above my head and sent a bolt of lightning from my hand. It shocked me almost as much as it astonished the crowd. Both sides started cheering as I pretended that I knew what I had done.

  I turned slowly, staring at them in turns, giving them a look like the woman they knew would be their queen someday. Powerful. In charge. I thought of the words Suzanne had spoken, “beautifully terrifying,” and tried to look that way.

  I saw part of my team standing together to the right of me. Niko, Aki, Zeid, Ruta, and Beru. The Priscillas were tucked into my coat pocket. I could see Lady sitting in a huge tree right outside the village, and I knew Cahir was waiting for me on the outskirts of the crowd.

  I felt powerful. I knew the fight was for me to do. The team knew it, and now I knew it too. I had remembered enough magic to make the village stop and listen. I had to use the gift of words to convince them to do what needed to be done and to recognize that their daughter and friend, Beru, was a hero.

  Standing in front of one of the crowds was a little girl. She was leaning against her mother, and her father had his hand on her shoulder. She was counting on me to keep her and her family safe. I was not about to let her down. When she smiled, I knew that she had not forgotten her magic and was ready to use it. At that moment, we understood each other.

  I bowed, planted my walking stick firmly into the ground, and began. And the village listened.

  Shatterskin Thirty-One

  I found Beru standing in one of the gardens on one of the smaller roads off of the main street. It looked as if it had been neglected for a long time, so I wondered what had brought Beru to it.

  After my demonstration of lightning leaping from my hands, and the two crowds becoming one, Niko took over. I’m sure he sensed my desperation. Shooting lightning bolts were enough for me to handle at the time.

  By the time Niko was done with them, the village of Kinver was eating out of his hands, both literally and figuratively. First, he convinced them that there was a danger, and it was necessary to protect their village. Pay attention, post scouts, prepare to fight, practice their magic, and cloak the town the best that they could. It wasn’t a skill that was often practiced, but Niko promised to give the most gifted among them a how-to lesson before we moved on.

  Imagine that. A how-to lesson on how to cloak a village. Not one on how to put up a gutter, or run a program on your computer—a magic lesson. I couldn’t get over how cool that was. Maybe I was getting used to being back in Erda while maintaining the wide-eyed wonder I had brought with me from the Earth Realm.

  I thought that Niko would collect people to march wit
h us, like an army, but he said that fighting the Shrieks and Shatterskin could not be won by brute force but by outsmarting them. However, a small group of men did volunteer to come with us, and after conferring with Zeid and Aki, he agreed to take them on.

  After that, he fed them. All of them. Once again, there was food. A long table was placed in the center of the main street, and everyone was invited. Food of all shapes and sizes was piled on the table by Niko, Aki, and Zeid. No one seemed surprised. Maybe magically appearing food was ordinary, or after seeing lightning bolts shoot into the sky, the villagers were ready for anything.

  After taking enough food to satisfy the little hunger that I had, I went off in search of Beru. She had disappeared as soon as Niko began his talk.

  It didn’t take me long to find her it was such a small village. Beru was standing alone, and either didn’t hear me coming, or allowed me to think that she didn’t. As I came closer, I could see the tracks of tears on her cheeks. I was surprised. Since I had known her, I had never sensed a trace of sadness, in spite of being shunned. Now that the village had welcomed her again, and she and Ruta were no longer outcasts, she was sad.

  “Why the tears, Beru?”

  When she didn’t answer, I waited and listened which is what I should have done in the first place. In all of the village, I had not seen Beru greet anyone. Where were her parents?

  “They aren’t here any longer,” Beru answered my unspoken question.

  “They died?”

  Beru turned to me with a slight smile on her beautiful face. “No. At least I don’t think so. After I left, the village didn’t treat them well, so they moved. No one is sure where they went. I hope it was further east though, and not to the west.”