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

  “I tried to kill you.”

  Areenna smiled. “Yes, but it is done with. Do you know what happened to you?”

  The puzzled expression returned. He shook his head. “The last I remember before this morning is when Orlon and I were in the outlands and we met a beautiful woman. She took us to a cavern above the ocean and… That’s all I remember.”

  “She was beautiful, you say?”

  “She was and it surprised us that she was nice to us. We are—”

  “—you are men, nothing more, and nothing less.”

  “We are exiles. We are not fit to be with others.”

  “By your own choice,” Areenna stated, dismissing his words with a wave of her hand. “Can you stand?”

  He nodded and stood. His torso was average, but his legs were not. One was thick, the other thin. His skin had the look of old tanned leather but Areenna sensed he had not yet lived thirty years.

  “Return not to the badlands; find someplace else, perhaps further south.”

  “I am in your debt, Lady.”

  “Your friend is dead by his own blade,” she said, motioning to the other. “Will you give him burial?”

  He looked to the man and back, his eyes troubled. “I will.”

  “If ever you seek dominion, call on Freemorn and ask for King Nosaj. Tell him I offered you welcome.”

  The man smiled, his oddly shaped mouth twisted. “You tell me to speak to the King? He would not see me.”

  “He will. Tell him his daughter Areenna, bid you welcome. That is all you need do. Your name?”

  “Elyl,” he answered.

  “Elyl, will you allow me to try and prevent the sorceress from taking you again?”

  His pale eyes never wavered from hers, “Yes, My Lady.”

  She closed her eyes, built a block within her, and pushed it at him. Like a door closing, it fell securely into place. “It will help, but you have to keep your mind strong as well.”

  “I will,” he promised.

  When he turned to go to his companion, Areenna retrieved her herbs and walked to Hero. Halfway to her kraal she heard him call out, “My Lady.”

  She turned. “I thank you My Lady, for sparing my life. I will not forget.” With his words said, he went to the body where he squatted and lifting the man effortlessly, carried him into the deep woods.

  Angered by the Black Sorceress’ use of these defenseless men, Areenna watched him disappear into the trees. She stared at an unseen distance. “You will not win, you rotten—”

  Areenna shook away the memory, but she was thankful for it, because the memory served as a reminder that no matter where she was, no matter what she was doing, she would never again let her guard down, never.

  “A lesson well learned,” Mikaal said from behind her.

  Areenna smiled and turned to look at him, she had been so lost in the memory of the day in the Blue Desert that she had been unaware of Mikaal’s presence, either behind her or in her mind. “Indeed it was, My Prince.”

  Mikaal returned the smile. “My father wants to see us.”

  <><><>

  Ten minutes later, Areenna and Mikaal were in the library sitting across from Roth and Enaid. The light from the illuminating nightmoss filled the room with a warm glow. On the low table, separating Areenna and Mikaal from Mikaal’s mother and father laid several hand drawn maps. The maps were highly detailed with notations written in Roth’s neat lettering. Before each of them were the traditional glasses of wine and water.

  Roth’s face was set in edgy lines; he sat stiffly. Although Enaid appeared more relaxed, Areenna sensed her tension as well. Next to her, she knew Mikaal was aware of their strain in the same way. They’re worried, she told him silently.

  In answer, he took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Releasing it, he looked at his father. “Are these the routes to the Frozen Mountains?”

  Roth nodded, bent toward the table and pointed to the top map. He touched his forefinger to the spot marked Tolemac. “The trip is well over two thousand miles. In my time, we called the Frozen Mountains the Canadian Rockies. They were not as they are today.”

  Areenna and Mikaal studied the map. A moment later, they exchanged glances. “Something is wrong,” Mikaal said without turning from Areenna. When she nodded, he turned to his father. “When they told us what we had to do, they put a picture in our minds. This—”

  “—isn’t where the mountain is,” Areenna finished Mikaal’s statement. “It’s further.”

  “You’re sure?” Roth asked.

  “Very,” Mikaal responded. “It is beyond these mountains, and it is by itself. It is also taller than any of these, and has two peaks.”

  “Two,” Roth whispered. He stood and went to the bookcase behind Areenna and Mikaal. He reached up to a high shelf and pulled down another rolled sheet. He placed it on the table on top of the others and spread it open.

  “The tallest mountain I know of on Nevaeh is in what used to be called Alaska. Your journey,” he said, looking up from the map and staring at them, “will be longer than I thought. You’ll have to cross the Frozen Mountains, and from there, move north and west to the interior, the center of Alaska. The mountain you seek, McKinley is its name from my time, is unpopulated wastelands. What could possibly be there?” he asked, knowing there would be no answer.

  Listening to him speak, Enaid followed his finger while he detailed the route they would have to take when something began vibrating within her. The chamber faded when she entered a vision. The vision built before her; her breathing deepened and she found herself floating just above the peak of a mountain—a frozen mountain. Looking around, she saw ice and a few outcroppings of rock. Thick layers of hazy fog, cast like a quilt over the ground, prevented her from seeing it. She could make out only the desolation of snow and ice. To her left, she spied an unnatural curve in the side of the mountain, near the top.

  She floated closer and saw within the curve a faint outline that was long and high, and knew this was where Mikaal and Areenna were to go. As soon as she understood the vision, she was back in the library chamber where she found the three staring at her.

  What was that? Areenna asked silently.

  You saw?

  Areenna shook her head and said aloud, “Only the last of it.”

  Enaid took a deep breath, reached over and grasped Roth’s hand to ground her to the room. “I have seen where they must go,” she said to Roth before turning to the others. “As you face the mountain, high on the northern side, you will find a spot, carved out, not natural. There is an entry there: how to open it, I know not. It is the place you seek.”

  “May we join you?” Areenna asked aloud.

  Enaid nodded and opened herself. The three joined instantly. Moments later, they separated and all turned to Roth. Mikaal leaned forward and placed his finger on the map at the north side of the mountain. “This is where we go.”

  Roth did the calculations in his head and exhaled sibilantly. “You will need a lot of supplies. I doubt there will be much game if any, where you travel. Once you leave the northern border of Welkold, you will need everything you can carry. Water can be drawn from the ice and snow, but food will be a problem.”

  Areenna thought back to her day on the Island and the eight sorceresses who had given them their mission. She shook her head. “We will take all the supplies we can manage, but they would not send us to this place only to have us die of starvation. No, there will be something.”

  She glanced at Enaid, who still gripped Roth’s hand. Enaid nodded slowly. “It must be so.”

  Roth held adamant. “Still, you will re-supply at Welkold, take everything the kralets can carry without overburdening them. You may take much on faith, but preparation is the wisest way.”

  When Mikaal and Areenna nodded their assent, Roth drew his hand from Enaid and stood. “I have no idea what you will be facing, but I have no doubt it will be dangerous and not from the ice and cold, but from them.” He paused to fix t
he two younger ones with an intense stare.

  After a minute of silence, he said, “I have told you both many things about the Dark Circle, but there is so much more. It is time you learned the rest, for you must prepare for anything and everything. It was in the year two thousand and one, when the first of the massive attacks began and war was born…”

  CHAPTER 3

  “The attack came in the morning. The terrorists took over four flying machines—in my time, we had many types of machines,” Roth explained, pacing around the library in tight steps. “The flying machines were called airplanes. People used them to travel to different parts of the world. We could fly from a place such as Northcrom to Fainhall in only a few hours… in the time between morning and mid-day.”

  He saw their expressions of disbelief and smiled. “Oh, it’s true. Our sciences were amazing, but our science was the weapon that killed our world.”

  “That morning, which was remembered by the numbers 9-11, was the true beginning. Two airplanes were taken and flown toward Manhattan—The Island—a third and a fourth were flown to a place called Washington. The first two airplanes struck the two tallest buildings on the Island and killed thousands of people. The third was flying toward its target when the passengers rose up against the terrorists and the plane crashed in what we now call Aldimore. The fourth reached its target in Washington… Dees as you know it now.”

  Roth paused for a breath and saw the questions flowing across Areenna and Mikaal’s faces. He held up a forestalling hand. “That was the beginning of the war, which was started by religious fanatics. Following the attacks, small wars erupted in places called Iraq and Afghanistan, Syria and Iran, Israel and Palestine. These wars went on for many years, until finally a sort of peace was drawn.”

  When he saw the puzzled look on their faces, he understood why. “You’ve never heard the word ‘religion’ before, have you?”

  When they shook their heads, Roth exhaled. “Religion is a belief in a… higher power, a power that oversees all. There were many philosophies about religion: my own personal belief is religion was a way to show people what is right and what is wrong. However, these religions were controlled by people, not by any higher… authority. Because people are diverse, religions were diverse. In much of the world, there was what we called religious freedom, where people could believe in whatever they chose. Most people used religion to help guide them in their lives, to bring value and faith and to follow their conscience; but others used religion for their own benefits and to control others. Such were the fanatics of the Middle East. A few bad people, who could make others think in the same way as themselves, controlled them. These fanatics had one goal, to make everyone in the world believe as they did. They refused to tolerate anyone who thought differently and so they waged war on everyone who did not believe in their way. They treated women as property… slaves. They believed that only they had the right to rule.”

  “Religion is bad?” Areenna asked.

  Roth smiled. “Religion was meant to be good. It helped people to understand what was right and wrong, but people, bad people, would subvert religion to use it for their own power. The belief in a higher being protecting and helping them, especially in the worst of times, was something people needed.”

  Areenna glanced from Enaid and to Mikaal. “This higher power, what did it do?”

  Roth had to think of a way to explain. It took a few moments. “The people believed this higher power created life, brought all that lived and grew on the world to life. They believed this higher power gave them life, and when it was time, took them back again. It controlled all, saw all, and was above all other things.”

  Areenna saw Enaid’s shadowy smile. She studied Roth for a few seconds and said, “I understand. We too believe in a higher power.”

  Roth was startled. Never once in twenty-four years had he heard of this. “You believe in God?”

  Areenna’s features turned puzzled. “I know not such a word. We believe Nevaeh itself, the world we walk on, created all. All life springs from her and all life returns to her. She gives us many gifts and asks only for us to nurture life.”

  Roth took this in. He had heard Enaid say many times how the earth was where she gained her powers. “I have never heard this before.”

  “Why would we speak of it? It is part of us. It is the way we are, it is how we have always been.”

  Enaid smiled. “The story,” she reminded him.

  “The story, yes,” he said and continued. “For a hundred years, the fundamentalists battled everyone who was not a believer. As their doctrines spread, they began to take over their part of the world. The fundamentalists—the terrorist groups—joined together and when they did, they grew in power, grasping for more and more as their ranks swelled, spreading their beliefs to all who would listen. But much of our world resisted. Soon they began to fight with weapons powerful enough to kill thousands, and then hundreds of thousands. In their mad quest to control the world, they poisoned it.”

  Roth stopped, his body pulsed with the emotions his words had drawn forth, emotions he had thought himself well past. Enaid grasped his hand and drew him closer to her. She put his hand to her face and pressed it to her cheek to help calm him.

  Releasing her hand, he turned back to his son and Areenna. “In their drive to conquer, they used what are called nuclear bombs: weapons so powerful they destroyed entire cities, cities of which the whole population of all the dominions of Nevaeh could fit within. This war of terrorism went on for another decade. Most of what we called Europe and the Middle East and Asia were engulfed in radioactive fallout, hundreds of millions of people died because these people, who were known as the Circle of Afzal, wanted to convert everyone to their beliefs.”

  “And the world was changed,” he whispered. “I… I can’t describe what happened, I don’t have the words to make you understand everything.”

  From within her, Areenna knew instinctively she could reach him. “My Lord,” she said in a voice so low it barely reached his ears, “would you allow me to join with your mind?”

  Enaid, startled by Areenna’s words, turned to her. You can do this? I have never been able to do so.

  I believe so. I… my abilities have grown and changed since the Island.

  “Solomon?”

  Roth turned to Enaid. His voice was deep and solemn. “Someone must know the whole truth. What happened, the truth of what they did must be carried on.” To Areenna he said, “No woman has ever been able to do this with me.”

  “My Lord,” Areenna said, “If you allow it, I think we can join with you.”

  “We?”

  “Yes, Father,” Mikaal said, meeting his father’s eyes. “Areenna and I, we… we can become one.”

  Roth looked from Areenna to Mikaal. “How is this possible? You know I am different from everyone else.” His eyes swept across his son’s face before moving on to Areenna. He saw that while she was still so young, her eyes were those of a woman ages older than the woman-child seated before him.

  “We are as well. I don’t know why, but after we left the Island, we were different. Were you here when the silver… lance destroyed the Island?” Mikaal asked.

  “Silver lance?”

  “It came from the sky and when it struck the ground, the Island was destroyed,” Mikaal said.

  Roth closed his eyes and shook his head. “The silver lance is called a missile. No, it happened after I left.”

  “It landed in the meadowland in the middle of the Island. There were people there who were unlike any we have ever known. They had white, yellow, brown, and black skin. They all died.”

  “How could you know this?” Roth whispered.

  The memory of the glass tunnel rose swiftly in her mind’s eye. She again experienced standing in the tube of glass and seeing it all. “We were shown,” Areenna spoke this time. “We were underground, in a… tunnel of glass. Trapped inside the glass were animals and people. It was a terrible sight for most were not
whole but only shards of what they once were. We were told it happened when the… the missile came.”

  Roth picked up his glass of wine and drank deeply. “Yes,” Roth said.

  “Yes?”

  “Yes, try to see my memories.” His voice was low, and Enaid, sitting next to him, stared in question.

  “What bothers you?”

  “I have never done this. There are memories no one should have to know, memories of my… time to here.”

  “Think of only what you want known. This is not the reading of minds, only of what you want to share,” Enaid said.

  Looking into his wife’s gray eyes, flecks of green and gold floating within, he nodded and turned to Areenna.

  Areenna reached for Mikaal’s hand. With their fingers interlocked, she said, “Think of what you want us to know. Start with your early memories and tell us the story with your thoughts.” She paused. “Nod when you are ready.”

  Enaid took his hand in hers. She smiled gently at him. Slowly, he thought about the old files he’d watched as he’d grown up, the old newscasts showing the destruction of the attacks of 9-11, and the terrible aftermath.

  A pale light built within the room, emanating from both Areenna and Mikaal’s hands. It built from a soft glow into a stronger light, which soon engulfed the four, and suddenly, Roth was watching the first plane crash into the World Trade Center, on the eleventh of September, two thousand and one.

  Dreamlike, his memories came forth, some of which surprised him with their detail. He led them forward from that terrible day, his memories sweeping the others along.

  They witnessed the destruction and deaths caused by the two airplanes; they watched a third crash in a field and the fourth dive at the Pentagon building. They saw the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As the years flew across Roth’s mind, they saw different groups of fanatics battle each other while destroying the countries they fought over until Afzal Mahmud Tarek united all the fundamentalist groups at the end of the Twenty-First century and created the Circle of the Afzareen—the disciples of Afzal as they became known.