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

  Areenna shrugged. “No, but I can hope.”

  “And if they don’t come? Elyl and the others have wasted a night when they could have rested and been fresh for the battle.”

  “If they do come, then they will not have wasted anything: if they don’t, the same is true, for Mikaal, Neleh, and I will still use the platform.”

  Roth shook his head slowly, and then put both hands on Areenna’s shoulders. “It’s been almost a year since that council in Tolemac. In that time, you have become much more than what you were. And Mikaal… even more than I had hoped he would grow into. Whatever happens today, know you are a true Princess of Nevaeh; and, as I have learned since, you have become a Women of Power without equal. I believe in you, Areenna, as much as I believe in my wife, my son and myself. I have come to know this too… if we are to survive today, if we are to defeat the darkness these animals bring to our homes, it is you, not I, who will lead us.”

  She swallowed the emotions clogging her throat. “And Mikaal,” she whispered.

  Roth smiled and squeezed her shoulders before releasing her. “And Mikaal. Now, what plan do you have should The Eight not come?”

  Areenna looked at the almost completed platform, and the giant cinnamon and black feathered treygone standing in its center. Come to me, she asked. Gaalrie spread her wings to their six foot width and darted from the platform to Areenna’s waiting arms.

  She looked into Roth’s eyes. “Something no more or less dangerous than what any other here faces today.”

  <><><>

  Fifteen minutes later, Areenna stood in a spot between the armies of Freemorn and Tolemac, dressed in the armor Roth had made for her many months ago. Mikaal was ten feet away, putting on the last of his armor. They neither spoke, nor communicated silently. Each was lost within their own thoughts.

  She looked at the cloudless sky, so azure blue it defied belief that today would bring a battle such as never before seen in Nevaeh. Yet she was calm, knowing whatever was to happen today, would, and she was but one person within many thousands who must face the enemy.

  She recognized as well, how this day today would determine the rest of her life: today would either set them free or end their lives. At day’s end, she would know if she was to become Mikaal’s mate, become a mother, and become a queen… or no longer exist, for she knew, life depended on victory.

  “You are far away,” Nosaj noticed.

  Areenna turned to look at her father. “I’m right here. You are ready...the fighters prepared?” She knew the answer but needed something for conversation.

  “They are. I never thought I would be again fighting these… things, and doing so without your mother; rather, I expected to be taking measure of the young princes who came to steal you for their queen.” He smiled and shook his head. “But life does not always go the way you expect. I need you to be smart today. I need you to survive.”

  Areenna took his hand in hers and felt the warmth of his skin and callouses lining his skin, some from work, and the others from weapons. “I will do my best,” she whispered.

  “If I make it not through this day, Freemorn must be ruled, and you are the heir to the throne. Mikaal will be Father Guardian of Freemorn, and future High King as well. Things will become a delicate balance with the other domains.”

  “This is not the day for that discussion. And you will make it through the day.”

  “It is exactly the day, and you cannot ignore it. If I fall today, you must rule tomorrow.”

  “And if I fall today?”

  Nosaj blinked; a tear slid down his cheek. He pulled his hand free of hers and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her to him. He kissed her on the forehead and forced a smile. “That will not happen. Your mother foresaw you sitting the throne.”

  “Even so,” she whispered, “the future is not written in the dirt we stand upon, rather it is in the very heart of Nevaeh, and her heart is ever changing. I have discovered this past year; nothing is absolute. So, Father, make certain you rule tomorrow. I will not be an orphan.”

  Nosaj crushed her to him, armor to armor, father to daughter before releasing her. “I will see you at day’s end.”

  Turning quickly, Nosaj strode to his waiting warriors. She watched him for a minute and then turned just as Elyl came to her.

  “It is done, My Lady.”

  Areenna reached out to him and cupped his face for a moment. Then she lowered her hand and grasped his arm midway to the elbow. Elyl returned the gesture.

  “May your feet be swift, your sword true, and your way safe,” she intoned.

  Elyl bowed low before her. “And yours as well, My Princess. I… I will see you at the end,” he declared, spun, and limped away, his strangely shaped body held tall and proud.

  “He adores you, you know.”

  Areenna jumped at Mikaal’s voice. “I sensed you not this close. He is a wonderful man, it is sad he spent his life in exile.”

  “Perhaps when this is over, things will change.”

  She looked into the depths of his gray eyes and nodded.

  <><><>

  Roth paced before the small field table, his eyes darting everywhere, taking in everything. The past twenty-four years had brought him to this place and time, and they wandered through his mind, making him wonder if he could have done anything different. He fought against the thought that the battle might go against them, that these strong, intelligent people might not survive, and it saddened him.

  As the emotions tore through him, Enaid came to him and, sensing his stress and concern, cupped his face in her hands. “Never, not in all the history of our people has there been anyone like you. You have brought all of Nevaeh together, brought peace, harmony, and a sense of pride to everyone. Think not of what might happen! I trust you to make what should happen a reality.”

  He kissed her hands and lowered them. “Should you be speaking to Areenna, she seems to be in charge.”

  Enaid laughed. “Only if you allow it to be so. Areenna knows she is not in charge; she also knows that for you to lead our people to victory, she must do whatever is necessary, even if it means telling you what to do.”

  He smiled with Enaid. “What word of the two women?”

  “Gaalrie watched from up high. Areenna says they went directly to The Masters. Before her aoutem returned, she saw them kneeling before The Masters.”

  “With any luck at all, they will attack today. Sooner I hope, than later.”

  “Laira says she saw the attack begin at mid-morning, but that was all. She’s tried to force a further foreseeing, but to no avail. I want not to ask Areenna to do so. It would disturb her concentration for the battle.”

  “I agree. To see what happens would shake anyone. If she sees a loss, she will not be prepared to win.”

  Enaid nodded. “Exactly. She knows so herself.”

  “I have not traveled as far as I have, nor have I lived as long as I have to fail now. We will defeat them.”

  Enaid took in every inch of his face. “For twenty-two years, have we been mated; for twenty-three years have I known you. I want another twenty…. no, fifty at the least.”

  Roth laughed. “I’ll see what I can do. Now, Woman, get into your armor, I want no part of you vulnerable.”

  Enaid laughed. “To them, do you mean?” With that, she spun and went to where her armor lay.

  Roth turned back to the table, and to the linen sheet covered with his notes and drawings. He studied it carefully and when he looked up, found Timon standing there.

  “My Lord,” the master boatsman began.

  “There is no one around, you need not be formal.”

  “Solomon, has anything changed or do your plans still hold?”

  “They hold, with the exception of that monstrosity.” He pointed to Areenna’s tall platform.

  “Yes, I’ve been wondering on its purpose?”

  He grunted. “She says nothing, only that it is necessary.”

  Timon stared at the platform
made of newly cut pines. It stood eight feet above the ground, and was ten feet square. “All I can say is, Areenna is… special, and if she says it is needed, then it will be.” He paused thoughtfully. “Perhaps a place to dance in celebration of their defeat?”

  Roth couldn’t stop a loud guffaw from escaping. “Perhaps you’re right… who knows. We have two hours, maybe three before they attack, if our ruse with the two women succeeded. They will try to surround us. We must counter first. Morvene, Kashold, and Lokinhold’s troops are already at the far edges of our encampment. Half ride kraals, which makes it difficult for the ghazi to defend against. The rest move behind the riders. Half your fighters with kraals will join those of Tolemac and Freemorn and attack in a wide line while the rest follow behind, closing the circle around them.”

  “And you?”

  “I lead the main body as I should. Enaid, Mikaal, Areenna, and myself. The Sixes will be with us.”

  “You would put Areenna in the forefront?”

  Roth shook his head. “Not I. She said she must be there.”

  “Then there is no choice.”

  “Which is why Noslen and his Six group ride with us. She and the woman-child are to be protected.”

  “The little one fights as well?”

  “Yes. Again, the choice was hers and Areenna’s.”

  Timon stared outward for a moment. “I remember when she appeared on the ridge of the valley of the mountains. If it were not for her, Areenna and Mikaal would be…”

  “Still, she is but fourteen.”

  “Four years younger than Areenna: what thought you about Areenna at the beginning?”

  Roth shrugged. “The same as you think of Neleh.”

  Timon clapped Roth on the shoulder. “I believe we will have a day ahead of us, one that will be unlike any we have seen before. I don’t know whether to be frightened or excited.”

  “At least you have a choice. For me there is none. Frightened is all I can feel. Frightened for everyone who goes forth today and more so for the people they leave behind.”

  “For him?” Timon used his chin to point at Mikaal.

  The high king met the master boatsman’s eyes. “For him and for every son and daughter of all the men and women who fought twenty years ago. This day will haunt them as those things we saw and did have haunted us every day since.”

  Timon gripped his forearm and Roth did his. “Not the formal,” Timon said, echoing Roth’s earlier words. “Stay strong, fight well, and we eat together this night. If not here, we eat together in whatever awaits us at the end of this life.” Timon turned and walked away.

  “I will see you then, my friend, here or wherever,” he whispered in a voice too low for Timon to hear.

  <><><>

  They sat in a triangle, hands held, eyes closed. The three, joined tightly in both touch and mind, watching the ground skim beneath Gaalrie. The treygone flew swiftly, perhaps a thousand feet in the air, showing the three everything she saw.

  Three-quarters of a mile from them, and directly below Gaalrie, was the horde of ghazi. Following Areenna’s asking, the treygone turned almost straight up and flew another thousand feet higher before leveling her body.

  When she did, Areenna gasped at the sight spread across the ground. Seventy thousand ghazi marched toward the Nevaens. Their front line was a quarter mile wide. The rest of the mass was a half-mile deep.

  She called her aoutem back and opened her eyes. “How can we possibly surround them?”

  Mikaal blinked several times before he looked at her. “Because they will be doing the same thing. When they do, our riders will surround them. A fighter on a kraal can take down twenty times his number.”

  “I hope so. We must tell your father where they are.” Areenna released Mikaal and Neleh’s hands and stood. They did the same.

  They went to Roth and told him where the ghazi were. As soon as they did, Roth sent the signal to form ranks. Like rabts in a grain field, everything moved in every direction. In what appeared to be chaos, the men and women of Nevaeh went about preparing to face the enemy, each wrapped in their own thoughts, each moving with a purpose they breathed in with every lungful of air.

  <><><>

  Forty minutes later, at the first sight of the ghazi, Mikaal turned Charka and rode through the lines of the fighters. When he reached the mouth of the pass, he dismounted and walked to the edge of the tree-filled mountain. Kneeling, he drew up the powers that were already churning hot within him and, with his palms facing the trees, sent two streams of fire into their midst.

  Destroying the trees tore at him, but there was no choice. He pushed his ability to the limit, sending flames skirting along the ground and up the slope for hundreds of feet, sweeping his palms up and down the lengths of the trees. When the fires expanded, he went to the other side of the pass and repeated everything.

  When he returned to Charka, he wondered how many Nevaens saw him, and if they realized the fire came from him and not from flint and rock. Then he laughed. By the end of the day, everyone would know what he was.

  Turning Charka, and with the smoke now beginning to billow heavily skyward, Mikaal rode back to the front of the fighters.

  CHAPTER 39

  THE INSTANT MIKAAL reached the front line, he joined Areenna and Neleh. Then, Roth gave the signal to move forward. For one moment, there was dead silence, and then the thunder of twenty-five thousand soldiers and ten thousand kraal moving forward filled the air.

  The high king and queen rode in the center, flanked on one side by Mikaal, Areenna, and Neleh, the other side by Ilsraeth and Timon. Alongside the future Woman of the Village rode Princess Laira of Dees, the five hundred troops she had escaped Dees with marched among the soldiers of Freemorn. To their right, Nosaj and Tissel led the army of Freemorn. Next to Ilsraeth, rode King Retlaw and Layra.

  In the very center, directly behind the high king, and before the line of kraal-riding warriors, the three groups of Sixes followed. Ten yards back, in an unusual formation, three quarters of the mounted warriors rode each flank of the Nevaen army, while the remaining kraal riders stretched across the front line, just behind their kings and queens and princes. The foot soldiers came next, armed with swords, knives, axes, and short spears; the archers, almost three thousand strong, brought up the rear. Strategically placed for battle, the archers needed the distance to give them the proper elevation for their shafts to curve in the sky at the exact angle that would bring destruction to the oncoming ghazi.

  Thus the army of Tolemac, curved like a sickle moon, and a quarter mile wide, comprised of warriors, farmers, and merchants, as was the entire Nevaen force, faced the might of massed ghazi horde a thousand yards ahead.

  Roth, judging the distance to the ghazi, looked to his left. The sun was at the exact center of mid-morning, and burned brightly in the cloudless sky. When he returned his attention to the oncoming enemy, he directed Enaid, “Signal the women. It is time. Tell them the riders are to hold position until the ghazi begin their attempt to surround us.”

  Enaid nodded, closed her eyes, and pushed her thought out. “It is done.”

  “Pass the word, at the signal arrow the archers are to begin. They know what to do once we close ranks.”

  “Yes, My Lord,” she said formally and, lifting her bow from its hook on the saddle, withdrew an arrow from the quiver. She wrapped the first five inches with one of the three pieces of cloth hanging at her waist and set the noc of the shaft into the tightly strung gut. “When you are ready.”

  They moved forward for another ten minutes. When the distance was right, he told Enaid, “Now.”

  Enaid turned to Mikaal and held out the bow, its arrow set. “Fire.”

  Mikaal flicked his wrist, and the cloth exploded in flame. Enaid’s lips moved soundlessly, and the flame turned a brilliant yellow. She drew the arrow back, and when the flames licked at her knuckles, released the shaft. The arrow rose skyward, hurtling toward the ghazi, the yellow flame burning brightly, leaving a
trail of greyish smoke behind.

  Before the arrow reached the horde, the sky darkened as three thousand acont wood arrows followed the yellow flame. Each directed toward the area of the tall rolling platform pulled by twenty harnessed ghazi.

  As the arrows sped downward, Roth signaled the charge; and, as two thousand Nevaen fighters urged their kraals forward, the three thousand riders on each flank prodded their kraals forward, not at the ghazi, but around them, while the ghazi ran in formation in an attempt to circle the Nevaen army.

  <><><>

  The armies were three hundred yards apart, the noise so loud nothing else could be heard. Areenna rode forward on Hero, his muscles rippling as he charged the ghazi. Gaalrie flew overhead. She took comfort in having Mikaal at her side, and admitted that she was frightened. Who wouldn’t be, she told herself, staring at the oncoming mass of ghazi. She knew, as her father had often told her, fear was not a bad thing; rather, it was another weapon for a warrior. Controlled fear added a clarity of detail to the eyes, enhanced reactions, and made you cautious, but not overly so.

  Nothing she had ever done or seen, not even the battle in the Frozen Mountains, had prepared her for what lay before her. Drawing a deep breath, she turned to Mikaal, and took in the set of his face and the determination in his eyes. Then he drew his longsword, and looked over at her.

  Stay strong!

  Before she could answer, a sense of great danger twisted through her. “Shields!” she shouted aloud and silently an instant before The Masters released their first bolt of destruction, which zigged along the ground toward the riders. Thirty Women of Power working together, created a shield that the reddish energy struck and died.

  Now! Areenna said to Mikaal and Neleh. Reacting as one, they combined their abilities and, from Neleh’s hands, a beam of pure white exploded outward. It struck the shield of The Masters and dissipated, but not before the ghazi in its path were blown in every direction, their bodies summersaulting through the air.