Tales Of Nevaeh: The Trilogy and Backstory of the Epic Sci-Fi Fantasy Series Tales Of Nevaeh: (The 4 Book Bundled Box Set)

by David Wind

  He spent another slow two minutes, hoping the dragging time would continue to make Olrac uneasy. His men split open to allow him through, and then, as he passed by Enaid, she whispered. “The Black Sorceress she is not.”

  He halted the kraal and turned to her. Leaning as close as possible, he whispered, “get word to Nosaj and Inaria. Warn them.” Straightening, he moved to Olrac.

  He smiled disarmingly as he drew close to the king. He looked into the man’s eyes. When he did, he found them distant and…controlled. “Greetings, King Olrac. I am pleased you have accepted my Lord’s invitation.” He stuck out his arm in greeting.

  Olrac looked from his face to his extended arm. “Do you wish you to sacrifice your arm? Is that why it is so extended?”

  “I thought more to greet you and talk,” Roth said as he continued to study the man.

  “There is no need to talk. You have challenged me. You have offered yourself as sole fighter for Brumwall. You are not my friend, you are not a citizen of my lands. You are my enemy.”

  “Have I done you harm?”

  “Harm? You very presence fills me with disgust. You should not be here, rather you belong in the wastelands with the rest of the twisted exiles. You are a dwarf who thinks he can slay a king and will die for it.”

  “Why bother? Surely, we can work out an agreement.”

  Olrac stiffened. “Agreement? Is this some sort of a joke. Has Ecorah sent a madman to hand over his domain? Is that what you are, a madman?”

  Roth cocked his head to the side and studied Olrac. “I see there is no talking to you. No reasoning with you. This black bitch owns you and controls you. You are not a king; rather, you are her slave,” Roth snapped, his voice low, his lips forming a sneer.

  “Enough!” Olrac said and drew his sword.

  “Wait, my Lord. I’m sure we can—“

  Timed perfectly, Regit rose to all fours and let out a blasting roar. Olrac’s kraal squealed and back stepped. Before the kraal could back up, Roth kicked his kraal hard. The animal reacted exactly as trained. Roth’s kraal reared on its back legs, and as it did, kicked Olrac’s kraal in the chest, knocking it off balance. Unprepared, Olrac slipped from the saddle, and landed on his back.

  As Olrac flew through the air, Roth jumped, drawing his longsword the instant his feet touched the ground. Four steps later, he bent, picked up Olrac’s sword and then, leaning toward the king, offered him his hand.

  Olrac, ignored the offered hand, rolled from Roth, and pushed onto his feet. He reached for the knife at his side, but Roth stopped him with his own sword. “No need for the knife, my Lord, use your sword.” Then he reversed the blade and extended the sword, hilt first.

  Olrac took the sword, but did not move. He stared at Roth as if he were insane. His eyes were clear for the first time since Roth arrived. Then he stiffened and stepped back, his eyes once again distant and clouded. “It is time to end this stupidity.”

  Behind Olrac, and in front of the army, the woman covered in dark robes raised her hand. Enna and Enaid reacted instantly, directing waves of power at her, doing their best to block the sorceresses’ abilities.

  Olrac raised his sword and started toward Roth. Roth braced himself, but something struck his arm, numbing it. The sword fell from his fingers as Olrac charged. Behind him, Regit let forth with another loud growl and charged.

  Olrac froze, but the gorlon did not go after the king; rather it took three bounding steps and then leapt up, striking the sorceresses in mid torso. The woman screamed and tumbled to the ground, the gorlon standing over her. Enna dismounted as well, and as she raced toward the fallen woman, white light flared around her hands and a lance of lightning cracked from her palm into the woman on the ground.

  The sorceress’ body arched, and then lay still. As both Roth and Olrac watched the scene, something twitched along his arm and rushed into his hand. He grasped the hilt of his sword, an instant before Olrac swung.

  When the king attacked, he did so with a flurry of blows that drove Roth back. Rather than recover and attack, Roth let him continue hammering at him. His armor, made from Trilimion, was impenetrable with their weapons. The padding beneath the armor absorbed every blow so that the blows were more like friendly backslaps.

  Several minutes into this barrage of sword falls, Olrac drew back. Roth had already felt the difference in the last few blows, which were weaker and less frequent. His chest heaved with his efforts and his eyes were wild and crazed. “Fight dwarf! Come make this battle worth the life you give up.”

  Roth smiled and stepped forward. With Olrac’s next blow, which Roth countered easily, he began his own assault, swinging fully, yet making certain that when his sword landed, it did so with the blade flat.

  After a half dozen strokes, Roth stopped. “I offer you my king’s bond, that Ecorah will not retaliate, that he shall hold you faultless. We know it is she, who controls you.”

  Olrac’s features showed confusion. His eyes flashed clear and then went distant. He drew himself up, held his sword with both hands. “You know not what you speak of, fool.”

  The instant he stopped speaking a lance like spear of fire sped from the tip of Olrac’s sword toward Roth’s chest. In that same fraction of time, both Enaid and Enna reacted and in the heartbeat before the fire struck, it disappeared. In the next instant, a shimmering globe surrounded Olrac.

  He screamed, but the voice coming from Olrac was not his; rather, it was the high pitched and frantic screaming of a woman. A moment later, the protective globe glowed red and shattered, revealing Olrac. Then, as everyone watched, Olrac fell to the ground.

  The officers of his army raced forward, but Roth, who ran to the fallen king reached him first and, kneeling next to him, lifted his head. A moment later, Olrac’s eyes opened. He blinked several times, then looked at Roth in a way that told Roth the man had no idea of what had happened.

  “My Lord, how feel you?”

  Olrac pulled away from Roth. “Who are you? Where am I?”

  Enaid and Enna came to them, Enna kneeled next to Olrac. “What is your last memory?”

  Olrac stared at her. “Enna, what do you here?”

  “Protecting Brumwall from your attack. What is you last memory?”

  Olrac squinted as he worked to remember. Finally, he gave a nod. “Dinner. The first snow had fallen. We were having dinner when someone arrived at the keep…I don’t remember who…”

  “Highness,” Enna said, “winter’s first snow was nine months ago.”

  Olrac’s brow creased. “Impossible.”

  “Really?” Enaid said. “And even if we were to believe you, what have you to say about your preparations to attack Brumwall.”

  “Attack Brumwall? Are you mad?”

  Enna shook her head. She looked up at two of his officers. “Tell him,” she commanded.

  The first man stepped forward. “Your Highness, Queen Enna speaks the truth.”

  Enna leaned closer to the king and whispered, “One of the Afzaleem took control of your mind and your body. Do you want to remember? It can be painful.”

  “No, I do not want to remember.” He took a deep breath. “But I must. I need to know what I have done.”

  While Enna began to work on the king, Roth motioned the two officers over. “Do you understand what had happened?”

  The first one said, “She…she controlled the king.”

  Rather than explain what Enaid had told him about the workings of the Dark Ones and their Afzaleem, he nodded. “The rest of the forces. Where do they attack?”

  The officer looked from Roth to the man next to him. When the second officer nodded, the first said. “One force takes boats directly across from Triot. The second…”

  When his voice trailed off, Roth said, “At the tip of the lake?”

  “Yes.”

  “How large is the force?”

  “Which one?” the man asked, confused.

  “Both!” Roth half shouted.

  “Four, ma
ybe five thousand.”

  From behind him, Enaid leaned forward. “Which force is the largest?

  “The one across from Brumwall.”

  “The sorceress, she is with them?”

  “She is.”

  Enaid said to Roth. “She has the ability to stop the oil from burning.” Then she turned to the officer. “Have you an idea of when they attack?”

  The officer looked up. The sun rode mid-sky. “Tonight. They plan on crossing tonight, in the dark.”

  Enaid stood. “We must warn Nosaj and Inaria.”

  Roth stared at Enaid for a moment, then said. “Yes, find a way.” He mounted the kraal. “I will try as well.”

  “Solomon, it is two days.”

  “I will have to make it less.”

  “Hold!” Enaid shouted.

  Roth pulled back on the reins and looked at her. Enaid bent and said something to her mother before mounting her own kraal. “You go not alone. My mother will find a way to get a message to Inaria.”

  With that, Roth and the princess galloped off, using the lower route along the lake rather than climbing the hills.

  <><><>

  Prelude To Nevaeh

  Part III

  5250 AD

  Salvation

  Chapter 7

  THE HOURS MOVED as fast as the kraals, while Roth’s thoughts spun out weave after weave of strategies to stop the invaders, if indeed the Black Sorceress could prevent the tar from igniting, then Apolis and all of Brumwall was in terrible danger.

  The swiftly fading afternoon sun offered the last of its heat to the two riders as their kraals galloped over the gravelly terrain between the mountains and the lake; the hilly land rose and fell like the large smooth waves of the sea.

  Enaid’s aoutem, Regit, bounded effortlessly next to her, while Roth stared ahead, judging every rise and fall of the ground with caution. The last thing they could afford was to have a kraal go down.

  “How long can they keep up this pace?”

  Enaid shrugged. “As long as they have water, they will keep their energy. A little food at times might help.”

  While those were not the first words she had spoken since they’d left the main body of the army earlier, she’d been silent except to answer a few questions. Although he hadn’t minded the quiet, there was an unusual distance between them. “Have I offended you? Did I do something to earn your anger?”

  She turned and stared at him with large gray eyes. “Have you no idea?”

  He started to speak but she cut him off with a wave of her hand. “You faced the king of Llawnroc, a man controlled by the most powerful Afzaleem Sorceress in Nevaeh, and ask if you have offended me?”

  He stared at her, a slow smile spreading across his lips. “Yes.”

  In answer, she kicked the flanks of her kraal and pulled ahead of him.

  “Damn,” he muttered, pushing his own kraal to catch up. “The kraals will never make it at this pace.”

  She growled a curse and slowed. “Yes, you made me angry…no, not angry, I was scared; frightened that either his sword or her sorcery would end your life.”

  He leaned across the gap between the kraals, grabbed the hand holding the reigns, and pulled them gently back. When the kraals stopped, he dismounted, reached up, and drew her to the ground. He raised a hand and stroked her cheek. “But you knew this. We planned it together. Enaid, you knew as well as I, you would protect me against any powers. You knew all of this!

  He caught her shoulders with both hands and pulled her to him, lowered his mouth on hers and kissed her deeply.

  When they parted, she glared at him. “That doesn’t make it better. Then you tried to charge off, leaving me behind. You even ran back to my father to say goodbye, but not to me.”

  He laughed. “So it wasn’t the sorceress, it was the charging off that angered you.”

  “That you would leave me, yes.”

  “I wasn’t leaving you. I was going to warn them at Apolis, nor did I say goodbye to your father. I told him to take Morvene while their army was in Brumwall. And…can we discuss this while we ride?”

  “In a moment. Know Solomon Roth, since the day we met, we are one. What we do, we do together, especially in battle: You with your steel, I with my powers. Now…” she paused, her voice softening, “there need be no more discussion. I have said what I said, and you have heard me.”

  “I have, my Lady.” He turned to his kraal, but found it, along with Enaid’s mount and Regit, at the lake, drinking its fill.

  Walking to the lake, he asked, “How long until we reach them?”

  Enaid looked at the lake, the mountains, and at the sun. “Ten hours at the pace we have been keeping; but it will be up to the kraals, if they can stay strong.”

  “Once night comes, it will be cooler and they’ll ride easier.” His last word came as they reached the kraals, who had drunk their fill.

  Before mounting, Enaid reached into the small bag hanging on the side of her saddle and withdrew four grainy cakes. She handed two to Roth and kept two for herself. Take one, and give your mount the other.

  While the kraals chewed, Enaid split her cake with Regit. They mounted and began their mile-eating pace, which was somewhere between a lope and a gallop. As they raced on, a shadowy smile lingered on his lips as he thought about her reaction to his fight with Olrac.

  <><><>

  Eight hours later, beneath a waning sickle moon, Roth saw something dark ahead. He moved his eyes quickly, using the Seal’s night vision training of quickly shifting his eyes from side-to-side until he was able to make out several shapes. “Enaid,” he called, knowing that as she rode, she snatched bits of sleep.

  Enaid lifted her head quickly, fully alert. “What?”

  “Ahead, riders.”

  Instead of looking, she closed her eyes. An instant later, they opened wide. “Inaria. I heard her not, I was asleep.” She looked up and saw a traimore circling high overhead.

  They drew their kraals to a stop, as Inaria reigned in her kraal and stopped between them. “We received the message from your mother, who said you ride to us. One of our women sent her aoutem to seek you, so we would know your distance from us.”

  “How much further?” Roth asked.

  Inaria’s pale blond hair whirled when she turned to him. “An hour or so with speed. We have fresh kraals for you.” With a wave of her hands, two of the Freemorn’s soldiers brought the kraals to them. Five minutes later, with their saddles changed, thirst slaked, and some dried dar meat from Inaria’s saddle bag making its way toward their stomachs, they were off, this time at a full gallop.

  As they rode, Enaid to his left, Inaria to his right, he asked, “How has Nosaj set up the defense?”

  Inaria glanced at him, and then looked ahead, her eyes locked on the barely visible ground. “The main body of our army is set above the landing. On each flank, higher up, are the archers.”

  “How many ride, how many on foot?”

  Inaria was silent for a moment. “Four hundred in each of Freemorn’s companies, all ride. Two more companies of Brumwall foot soldiers, about 600 total, and two Free-Blade companies, mounted. Around eighteen hundred fighters.”

  Roth pictured it in his mind, as best he could. “Good. The problem is the sorceress. How do we stop her?”

  “I know not,” Inaria whispered.

  “Solomon,” Enaid called. “This sorceress, this Black Bitch, this…thing that was once a woman, is stronger than any of us.”

  Roth stayed silent for several minutes as the ground flew beneath the hooves of the kraals. When he’d worked it out, he said, “Is she stronger than two of you?”

  “Yes,” came the reply from both women.

  “Four of you?”

  Enaid stared across at him. “Possibly.”

  He turned to Inaria. “How many Women of Power are with you?”

  “A dozen with strength, but none as strong as Enaid or myself.”

  “Can they work with you? Work as
a…team…a group against her?”

  Enaid’s teeth glowed beneath the starlight as they played with her lower lip. “It is possible for several of us to join together, yes.”

  “Good.” He stared straight ahead and lost himself to thought while they pushed the kraals as fast as the animals could run.

  Chapter 8

  THE MOON WAS gone when the man leading the small group veered his kraal onto the mountain slope. “We go above the army so she sees us not,” Inaria explained. “Only a few minutes more.”

  Ten minutes later, they reached the main encampment. Prince Nosaj was the first to greet them, not with a smile but a frown. With a strong grip to Roth’s forearm, he nodded. “How bad is it?”

  Roth shook his head, arched his back to stretch out the hours in the saddle. “Bad, but we can handle this.”

  “Your thoughts?”

  Roth looked at Nosaj, and saw his face was open. He liked this man, who, although a prince, would ask another’s opinion. “If everything I have heard about this sorceress is true, then she is our most important objective. If we can neutralize her, it will be an almost even fight. They bring three thousand or so against us.”

  Frowning, Nosaj looked down toward the lake, which without moonlight, was blanketed in darkness. While he could not see the boats in the water, he knew they were approaching land. “If the tar works, the fight should not last overlong.”

  “If it doesn’t?”

  “Then it depends on how well they fight.” Nosaj shrugged. “There’s only a few hours before sunrise. You need rest.”

  Roth smiled ruefully. “I’ve had enough rest to last me a while.” He said, noting Nosaj’s raised eyebrows. “Let’s talk about the archers. I believe the weight of what will happen falls more on their shoulders than the others.”

  “How so?”

  “I need something to draw on, to show you.”

  “Come,” he said.

  <><><>

  Twenty minutes later, after Roth and Enaid ate and drank their fill, Nosaj and Roth stood at a field table looking over the rough map Roth had drawn. Enaid, Inaria and four Women of Power, along with the captains of the Freemorn, Brumwall and Free-Blade companies stood in a semi-circle on the other side. The latest report on the enemy was that at least a hundred small boats bobbed in the calm water.