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

  Late on the night at the start of their fourth week of travel, Areenna and Mikaal made camp within a cutout of the mountainside. The trail they had been following since using the kralets as decoys had risen steadily. They were hundreds of feet above the arctic ice fields, which lined the coast of the Frozen Mountains. Only ‘Frozen Mountains’ were not exactly what the name proclaimed them to be. Yes, they were cold and primarily covered with snow, but many areas of the red and brown mountainside held no snow, only the dead remains of trees so old they seemed to be made more of stone than wood. The land itself was abnormally warm. Intuitively, Areenna knew to stay too long on the bare ground would be somehow dangerous to them. It was as if the ground contained strange poisons killing whatever lived upon it as it had done to the stone-like trees.

  Their supplies were nearly exhausted. They had been lucky a few times in finding game. One time they’d come across a lone rabt, which, although scrawny, held enough meat for two sparse meals.

  A few days after that, Gaalrie had found a peculiar looking tarq. The only way to tell it was a tarq was because of its horns and hooves; but unlike most targs, this one’s horns were larger and curved in a semi-circle ending with the tip at eye level. Its thick coat of wiry hair was grayish brown, its rump white and it had a very short white beard beneath its chin.

  After the hunt and with as much of the meat as they could carry stuffed in bags with snow, they had moved on. Thanks to the snow and cold, the meat had lasted a week.

  Wrapped in their fur cloaks, and sitting before the small fire, they finished the last of the meat. They ate silently until Mikaal wiped his hands and turned to her. “According to the map, we will be at the chasm in two or three days and then we must cross the mountains.”

  “Your father was right. We have made good time since losing her creatures. With luck, the crossing will be as smooth.”

  “You get no sense of the wolf-things?”

  She shook her head. “I have no feel of them nearby. Nor that spirit-thing of hers. Gaalrie has seen nothing of them either.”

  Mikaal nodded, stretched and pointed at the sky. So different from Tolemac.

  So beautiful, Areenna responded. The stars were like a shimmering blanket of gems sewn into a black quilt. Their patterns, woven so randomly, made her believe a woman of great power had created a magnificent quilt in the sky.

  She yawned as the toll of the long day of riding settled over her. Before she could say anything, Mikaal spoke, “You are tired. We should sleep.”

  She nodded and smiled. Sleep had become a troubling time for her, yet it was the most important time of the day. To protect themselves from the cold while they slept, they had begun to combine their sleeping silks. Beneath the protection of the furred cloaks, atop the silks, they would lie next to each other for the added heat of their bodies. When she’d awaken each morning, she had found, somehow during the night they had drawn into each other’s arms.

  Having him so close was a wondrous comfort, but vastly disturbing, as her body had begun responding to their closeness. While she was well aware of the normal reactions of her body, it was because of who they were and even more so what they must do, that what should have been natural to them had become both a curse and a deep inner need.

  “What?” Mikaal asked, seeing her far off look.

  Areenna smiled at him. “Nothing, my mind wandered. And yes, I am tired and need sleep.”

  Rising, he went to their supplies. Areenna followed behind and together they set their sleeping silks on the most level section of the inwardly curved mountainside cutout. Then they put their swords and knives next to the silks.

  Ten minutes later, their personal needs taken care of privately, they laid on the silks and pulled the cloaks over themselves. No words passed between them as they lay on their backs, their sides touching from shoulder to hip, until they fell asleep.

  <><><>

  The scene before her was extraordinary. Large boats filled with the soldiers of the Master rocked on the water beneath. The ships had arrived during the day. While he had not shown himself to her, not communicated with her, his presence was everywhere. She took in the powers dancing in the very air itself, breathing in the essence of the great Master with every breath. She had been waiting patiently on the Cliffside for him to call her.

  Then, at last, from behind, she sensed him and turning, found herself face to face with her Master for the first time in five decades. She knelt, her head bowed before him, trembling with the anticipation of his words.

  When they came, her body arched backwards. His eyes, burning amber orbs surrounded by a thin circle of red, stared into her very core. Hairless, his skin was the color of a dark gray stormy day. His features were barely recognizable as a man: a nose, short, flat and bent, hovered over the small round dash of a mouth framed by thin lips five shades darker than his gray skin. He was taller than she, and slightly bent. She could not make out his body beneath the black robes he wore. Elongated fingers and hands peeked out from the folds of his robe, his nails black and more like claws than a man’s hand.

  “Long have you waited, long have you served. The end is near and we are strong. Stand!” he commanded.

  She drew herself upward until she stood almost eye-to-eye with him. He reached out, his hand open, his fingers and nails stretched wide. He placed his hand on her head and a bolt of power raced through her. Her muscles tightened and expanded. He filled her with tendrils of his deeply dark power, more so than she had ever experienced before. Breathing deeply, her chest expanded with every breath and she was renewed.

  “Tell me of the two.”

  Within her mind, a picture of Areenna and Mikaal rose. “They are powerful together. Why this is I know not, Master, but such power as I have never seen. I tracked them to here,” she said, and drew a mind picture of the Frozen Mountains. “Somehow they have been able to hide themselves with a block I cannot find. My pretty wolves, they tracked them by scent, but they were deceived—”

  “You have lost them?”

  “My creatures follow them now. I sent them back and found where they had gone. They are four or five days behind.”

  His anger grew, hitting her like a fist. She staggered back but did not fall. “It was not a fault of mine, Master. When they returned from the… Island in the East, they were changed.”

  “You were warned. You were told.” He reached out an open hand and balled it into a fist. As he did so, the power he had filled her with, twisted and constricted harshly, squeezing inward and sending shards of crippling pain through every part of her being. Master, look within me, see what happened, she begged, fighting the inner agony he poured through her.

  Opening his hand, he released the torturing pain and with two fingers, drew her to him as if she were no more than a puppet. He pushed her to her knees, and placed a gray and claw-like hand on her head. Show me!

  For an hour she poured out her memories, from the first instance her wraith had met Areenna and Mikaal to Tolemac to the battle within Tolemac’s council chamber. She showed him the death of the duplicate king, the clone the Master had sent, and the giant snuck she had released on them. Then she showed him how they had evaded her and how they had grown in powers with every mile they had traveled.

  She played out the battles along the road to the Island, and the way she had delayed the two most hated ones, Roth and Enaid, in their attempt to help the other two reach the Island. She went on, holding back nothing of how the two had defeated her mighty wraiths. When she reached the point of their final battle on their return from the Island, she revealed how the man had unexpectedly shown unheard of powers and had used fire—long streams of shooting flames—to kill her greatest and most terrible creation.

  It was not my fault, my Master…

  Releasing her, he withdrew his hand from her head. She collapsed on the hard stone of the Cliffside, the pain ebbing from her twisted body. She lay there at his feet, waiting, wondering if he would spare her.

  “
Rise,” he said.

  She gained her feet as quickly as her deformed body permitted and stood before him, her eyes pleading.

  We have seen your truth. The fault is of the Circle, for we did not see clearly. We need more. Show me the woman-child first and then the… man.

  She brought up a mind picture of Areenna and showed him Areenna as she had been as a young child and then as she was today: tall and slender, lean of muscle with skin the shade of golden oak and pale hair framing an oval face. Green eyes sat beneath curved brows, set above a smooth aquiline nose.

  Yes, she is the one we have foreseen. She is the one we must have. Show me the man.

  The Black Sorceress projected her thought to the Master, building a picture of Mikaal. Gray eyes with black straight hair cut off just above wide powerful shoulders. His features were almost the same as Roth but set in lines that turned Roth’s sharp angles into smooth curves. Mikaal was tall and broad, with long dense muscles bespeaking strength and endurance.

  We must separate them, understand who he is and destroy him… obliterate any part of him!

  “How, my Master?”

  Show me where your creatures are.

  She sent her senses out and when she found the spirit and the wolves that raced along the trail overlooking the Arctic Ice Fields, she showed the Master. They are a few days ahead.

  Good. Turning, the Master went to the edge of the cliff, where he could see his ships anchored below. He spread his arms, the fingers of one hand drawing in the air. When he stopped, he turned both black palms down toward one vessel in particular. His hands turned perpendicular and came close to but did not touch each other. An instant later, he turned them to face upward and behind him, ten dark-skinned and hairless things—things that could have been but were not men—appeared. They were tall and wide with heavy muscles and powerful legs. Their eyes, holes buried deep within their faces, were an odd color of amber. Mouths, almost oval, showed ragged rows of teeth. Their noses were flat lumps set on their faces, the nostrils wide and flaring. They wore shirts of dirt-covered rusted chainmail that dropped to mid-thigh and boots of stiff leather. Swords hung at their sides; each carried a knife and two carried axes strapped to their backs.

  The Master stepped close to the first of them. He placed his hands to each side of the man’s head. When he released the head, the man and the nine with him turned and began running at a pace that would cover miles as fast as a trotting kraal.

  His strange, almost oval thin-lipped mouth twisted into a smile. They go to join your wolves but on the far side of the chasm, which is the only way through the mountains. They will be there in time to stop them. Be ready at the rise of the day. We meet then. He disappeared on the last word.

  <><><>

  The frosted air, moved along by unseen winds sweeping down from the mountaintop, bit at her skin. Grayish white clouds gathered around the peak, hiding the very top from sight. She could not feel her face or her hands, even though her hands were under the heavy cloak. Areenna looked around for Mikaal, but could not find him. She sought him with her eyes and her mind when a shift rumbled through her. Turning, she found herself staring at a spot carved into the side of the mountain.

  It was wide and flat and made of something other than rock. Twice the height of a man, and five times as wide, it was the most unnatural thing she’d ever seen. Then it wavered. Shimmering mist grew before the spot and seconds later, eight figures appeared within the shifting haze; the eight sorceresses of the Island stood before her, their tightly wrapped cloaks hiding what she knew lay beneath—bodies of half woman-half snuck.

  Here is where you must come to. In here is what you must find. Here is where your fate and Nevaeh’s rests. The words came from a single mind, yet Areenna knew all eight were speaking at the same time.

  We are coming. We move as fast as we can, she told them.

  There is much danger both following you and coming at you. You must go faster for time is running out; the darkness approaches quicker than foreseen. A Dark Master has reached our shores.

  The one in the lead, the one who had tested them on the Island, pushed her arm through the cloak, a long black finger pointing to the shimmering wall. This is where you gain entry.

  Before she could speak, the Eight were gone. Areenna opened her eyes to find Mikaal lying next to her, his arms around her, his eyes wide and staring at her. “You saw?”

  “I saw,” he whispered. “I saw where we must go. I saw the shimmering wall.”

  “I saw as well. And heard…”

  We must move faster, she told him. “How do you feel? How is your strength?”

  “I am fine. I feel nothing of the attack,” he said, rotating his shoulder smoothly.

  She joined with him. She found everything was as it should be. His strength had returned; his body healed.

  “Are you satisfied, My Princess?” he asked sarcastically.

  She reached out to cup his cheek. A month of whiskery growth rubbed at her hand. “Mock me if you will, My Prince, but…”

  He smiled. “The lessons of the Island are with me. The fight with those creatures served well to remind me of such. I will not lie to you with a false need to protect. I am healed.”

  “Then we can move faster,” she said, lowering her hand and sitting up. “What do you make of the dream—the vision?” she asked, still not rising.

  He studied her before shaking his head. “I’m not certain. It appears to me this sheet of… metal perhaps, is an entryway inside the mountain.”

  “Yes, but how do we get inside?”

  He cocked his head slightly to the left. “Did you not see the indentation on the side? They showed it to us for a purpose. What other meaning can be taken?”

  “We’ll see. But now we should eat and be on our way.”

  Fifteen minutes later, they sat before the fire, sipping cups of morning tea and eating a small amount of the remains of dried dar meat from their meager supplies.

  Areenna finished her tea, put down the cup and froze. Above her, Gaalrie cried out. She joined with her and an instant later, called the giant treygone to her.

  The bird dropped to Areenna’s waiting arms and when she landed, Areenna drew her to her chest. Behind them, Charka cried out and came to them, pressing his head to Mikaal.

  Areenna closed her eyes. “We are found. The wolf-creatures are on our trail again and…” She stopped speaking as a whisper of a mind touch brushed through her. Her eyes flew open. “There is something else… something darker, viler than is even she,” Areenna warned and worked her way through the blocking shield she’d erected around them after the first attack. As soon as she did, she caught the faintest trace of a deep dark evil that sent shudders of revulsion through her in heart-stopping waves.

  Cutting off her searching thought, she pulled Gaalrie even tighter to her chest. The Afzareen… A Dark Master… it seeks us now.

  CHAPTER 21

  A Dark Master. Enaid stiffened the instant she sensed the evil. She turned to Roth, about to speak when from behind him, Layra, Ilsraeth, and Atir turned from where they sat to stare at her.

  Rising, she went to them. “You felt it?” The three nodded. “Then it has begun. We must raise a strong shield. One he cannot penetrate. He must not know our strength. We need to come with surprise.”

  She looked beyond the three women of power, to the hundreds who were preparing for the day. The forces from Fainhall and Kashold had joined Tolemac’s army. Two days ago, they had received word that Welkold had gathered their forces. Trebor had also sent word that King Libon had dispatched three long-carts of arrows and lances a week earlier. The weapons should reach today. Roth had asked Enaid to send a return message to hold Welkold’s troops until he sent word.

  “The shield will hold through the wastelands, but when we enter the badlands—her territory—we will be found,” Atir said to Enaid.

  Sitting, Enaid exhaled a long-held breath. “What have you seen?” she asked the three.

  Il
sraeth shook her head. “Only that there is a Master here. This has not happened for…”

  “Before our births,” Layra finished for Ilsraeth. “Only the old legends of their powers have we.”

  Reaching out, she grasped Atir’s hand on one side and Layra’s on the other. When they were connected, Enaid began the formation of a powerful block and shield, building it slowly and carefully, drawing upon the offered powers from each of their abilities until they swayed within the grip of the formula Enaid called forth. The powers swirled around them like an unseen tornado and built in strength until it was solid. Then they encircled the army of the three dominions with the shield, and nine hundred souls became invisible to any of power who sought them.

  When they finished, Enaid went to where Roth stood. Three steps later, she stopped and turned back. “Ilsraeth, where is Timon?”

  The queen closed her eyes. When they opened, she said, “He is a day out. The boats arrive in the morning.”

  Enaid spun and went to Roth, who stood waiting. “What has happened?”

  “Much, Solomon,” she said and told him of what she had found.

  <><><>

  On the early afternoon of the third day after sensing the Dark Master’s presence, Areenna drew Hero to a halt. She turned to Mikaal. “The kraals need to rest. We have ridden for three days without stopping for more than a few minutes. Hero needs rest and so do I.”

  Mikaal’s strength was almost gone. “We have one, maybe two meals left for ourselves and the kraals. Send Gaalrie to find a place to camp. We must hunt.”

  Areenna called to her aoutem and asked Gaalrie to find them a suitable place. The treygone rose, her silver, black, and cinnamon feathered body casting a pale shadow over the snow-covered slope of the mountain. While Gaalrie flew ahead, Areenna and Mikaal went on.