by Tina Silvens
The Arid Kingdom
Book #1
The Mysterious Soldier
~ Part I ~
Bonus Chapters
Second Edition
Tina Silvens
Copyright 2018 by Tina Silvens
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.
This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it or downloaded it from the author’s website, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Bonus Chapters from Part II
Credits and Acknowledgements
Connect with the author
PROLOGUE
“That’s it! That’s exactly how the protection is done! You made it, Selunia! You made it!” Elis shouted happily, clapping her hands.
Hearing her words, Selunia hastily opened her eyes and looked closely. She saw how a big transparent veil, on which light streams of protective energy played spectacularly, floated around her enthusiastic friend.
“That’s it!” exclaimed Selunia, overcome with emotion, hardly believing what she was seeing. “This time I’ve really succeeded at making a full protection—I think.”
“Why are you unsure?” asked Elis, pouting dramatically. “If you still don’t believe, why don’t you try to attack me?” she added, twirling once in place, to show Selunia that the sheer coating was entirely closed around her.
“Attack you?!”
“Yes, come on! Try! Rest assured; if it doesn’t hold up, I’ll protect myself, no problem. Just strike a few times, to convince yourself that you’ve made it!”
Selunia watched her diffidently briefly, while Elis playfully smiled at her. The translucent layer was emphasizing Elis’ light and gentle figure, given by her long strawberry hair, by her azure eyes, and by her delicate clothes—a pale pink, knee-length laced dress. Elis was Selunia’s bosom friend. Although Selunia knew how well-skilled she was in protections and energetic attacks, she feared she would hurt Elis. Still, at her persistent look, Selunia mustered her courage.
“Okay,” she said determinedly. “Be ready, then!”
Without giving it a second thought, Selunia raised one hand in the air, aimed it at Elis like a gun, and concentrated on the attack. The crystal pieces encrusted in the fighting gloves she wore rapidly emanated a string of shining rays, which flew over Elis like laser bullets. It was a simple and intentionally weak attack. Selunia wanted to be cautious.
To the joy of the two girls, the rays didn’t pass through the protective cloth, but vanished immediately on contact with it.
“Wow, it really worked!” Selunia exclaimed, amazed.
“Yeah, I did tell you you’d made it,” Elis jokingly reproached. “Lately, you’ve managed to master all the crystal-gloves’ fighting and defensive techniques.”
Selunia sighed. “Since I got the news from the general that he’d soon take me with him to the Arid Kingdom, I realized I needed to learn all these techniques as quickly as possible. I want to at least be useful there for real, because here at the White Castle, I haven’t succeeded in awakening my inner power...” she Selunia with sorrow and regret, lowering her eyes to the ground.
“Hey, Selunia, leave that aside for now.”
Elis compassionately got closer to her, followed by the protective veil. She shared Selunia’s regret. The absence of inner power was a great barrier to Selunia’s progress at the Castle and, with time, it would become an obstacle to their friendship. She, like Selunia, was well aware of this matter.
A male voice came gradually from somewhere behind Selunia’s back: “And anyway, you don’t need that now!”
Both of them immediately recognized the voice. They turned to the newcomer. It was Ryan, the youngest prince of the White Castle: a boy around twenty, tall and with an angelic aspect just like Elis. In fact, everyone from this stronghold could be identified by this sort of look. The light or pale colors were characteristically theirs, especially for hair and eyes.
The stronghold itself was a place of paradise. In the middle it had a great building, like a white stone palace with a round shape, that integrated harmoniously with the large garden around it, which was full of flowers, bushes, hedges, and decorative trees. Pastel butterflies and singing birds embellished the sight.
The stronghold was an unusual one. No other buildings existed, aside from the central palace. All the members of the stronghold lived there. It had no fence, but a thick forest with a magical barrier, which made access to the inside impossible for ordinary people.
Selunia was the only one among the residents of the stronghold who was distinguished by strong colors: purple-blue eyes and warm-shaded dark hair. While they all had extraordinary appearances, she, except for her intense eye color, looked as normal as any mortal could. Still, she wore their style of clothing: something similar to Elis’ dress, but with a brown tint.
“Everything you can do with these crystal-gloves exceeds by far the skills of those from the Arid Kingdom,” Ryan said calmly, stopping in front of them. “Only to us, it’s something very typical,” he added, amused as he shattered the protection with a simple touch before Selunia’s forlorn eyes.
Elis frowned. “Ryan, you’re a meanie!” she scolded him.
“I’m not mean!” He quickly defended himself, visibly troubled by her words.
Selunia chuckled, watching how they behaved. Any small discussion between them amused her, as it always brought to light the fact that they liked each other.
“All I said is that everything she knows is enough for a place like the Arid Kingdom,” continued Ryan, staring at Elis. He then turned to Selunia and asked her, “Have you practiced the sword?”
“Bah, I know the sword sufficiently, too,” came her bored answer.
“Who needs a sword when you’ve got crystal-gloves?” added Elis, amused.
Selunia still went to take a sword from a nearby stone bench, and started to superficially execute some sword attack moves before Elis’ entertained eyes.
Ryan watched her for a few moments: how she was twirling, slowly cutting through the air. He shook his head. Then, drawing a folded piece of paper out of his pocket, he told her, “Okay, enough, I got it. There’s no need for you to show me anymore. I came to tell you that I’d just received a letter from the general of the Arid Kingdom.”
Selunia turned to him, concerned. She quickly threw the sword aside and dashed to take the letter out of his hand. As soon as she opened it, she read it impati
ently. Shortly after, her eyes widened; she said with surprise, “The general will take me today!”
“What?!” exclaimed Elis, startled. “So early?”
“When today, more exactly?” asked Ryan, surprised as well. “How unexpected...”
“Around twelve o’clock,” Selunia answered, letting her arms fall by her sides.
“Truth is, it’s not a great distance between us and the Aridens’ Palace,” Ryan said thoughtfully.
The girls looked at each other with sadness. Their separation had come sooner than they’d expected. Selunia sighed. She was trying to come to terms with her fate. She didn’t dislike the idea of setting off to the Aridens’ Palace, but the idea of leaving the White Castle didn’t make her happy.
Elis shuddered a little, forced a smile to reappear on her face, and said, “Well then, let’s get you ready for your departure! What are we waiting for? Come on!”
Grabbing her by the hands with a contagious joyfulness, Elis dragged Selunia after her.
Ryan watched how they went to the palace. He had a reasonable, detached attitude towards her leaving.
Chapter 1
Selunia was in her room in full swing. Helped by Elis, she was packing her luggage. She was leaving for a place, Ardensis' residence, from which she didn’t know whether she’d ever return. His family ruled over the Arid Kingdom from Aridens' Palace.
In her heart, there was a mixture of happiness and sadness. Happiness, because she was leaving for a place she’d been to before as a child, and where her parents kept telling her she must go. Thanks to their words of encouragement, Selunia strongly believed that there she would be accepted better than at the White Castle, that her abilities would be much more useful there, and that she would be given an honorable title.
She was upset because for years, she had been trying to awaken her inner power—which it was well-known that she possessed—without success, without getting even the slightest result. At the White Castle, without this ability, she couldn’t obtain even the stature of a novice soldier.
She got to the age of nineteen only able to master the crystal-gloves, while everyone else had long since been busy with developing and controlling their inner power. Because of this, the vast majority of the White Castle’s inhabitants were distant toward her, her only good friends consisting of Elis and Ryan, whose high rank protected her from teasing and mean comments. Now they were her source of sadness. She was about to say goodbye to them, not knowing when she would be able to see them again.
Elis, noticing Selunia standing stock-still in front of an open drawer in a melancholy state, went to her and asked, “Um, Selunia? Do you really want to go there just because your parents told you so? Do you remember what you told me some years ago?”
“Mmm, what? What was I saying?” Selunia asked, distracted by the question.
Elis chuckled for a moment. Pretending to be Selunia-child, she said theatrically, “I want to be Prince Soris’ right hand! Prince Soris was my best friend while I stayed in that palace. I want to thank him somehow when I grow up. I’ll learn to fight for him!”
“Aaa, yees...” Selunia confirmed, embarrassed, lowering her eyes back to the drawer and setting to noisily searching through things.
Remembering her short, innocent childhood with Prince Soris, her face lightened with a smile. Seeing that, Elis came to her and whispered in her ear, “But it’s not just gratitude, right? You like—”
“Hey!” Selunia exclaimed to stop her. “It’s been a while since then; it’s been more than a decade.”
Trying to count the exact number of years, Selunia abandoned her search, looked seriously into her friend’s eyes, and asked, “Do you think he still remembers me after such a long time?”
“You remember hiiim!” sang Elis in reply.
Selunia sighed deeply, watching her happily dancing around the room. She knew very well what Elis was implying.
Elis continued, amused, “Finally you’ll meet the one who makes your heart beat fast like a bee’s wings, hihihi! I’ve been waiting for so long to hear your story of...”
“Elis!”
“Oh, come on, Selunia, don’t be so shy! You know pretty well what I feel for Ryan. Why don’t you admit that your heart is still—”
“Elis! If it were truly so, I’d have told you. Don’t tease me about what I said when I was little. Even then, it was about just a simple friendship... Now, putting this joke aside, do you realize that you and I might never see each other again?”
Suddenly the room went silent. Elis stopped her hopping. Selunia had said something she didn’t have the courage to talk about.
Elis took on the face of someone who had accepted her destiny, and calmly said, “At some point, we’d still have to go our separate ways. Maybe not this year, but I’m sure that later Ryan will receive the Initiation Mission, and I’ll go with him, and who knows when we’ll come back to the Castle?”
Elis, hands at her back, leaned against the edge of a table and said regretfully in a low voice, while hiding her face from Selunia as if she didn’t want to be heard, “If only we all had the same ranking...”
But Selunia heard her. Elis’ words drew a sharp cut in her soul. She bent back to her drawer and shut her eyes tightly to block the tears, then said with sorrow, “You know very well that I tried as much as I could to awaken my inner power. For a while I even gave up on using the crystal-gloves just for that, but aside from injuries, I didn’t get anything.”
She suddenly raised her face up to the ceiling to refrain from crying. “I feel so sorry... I don’t understand why nothing worked for me, when I was just like you.”
“Selunia! Please don’t be sad! After all, it’s our fault as well that we didn’t succeed to help you. Everybody here was so hostile to you.”
Elis came back to her, took her by the hand, and encouraged her. “I’m sure you’ll make it there! I’m sure your parents know best why you should go there. I think we should see the good part of things. Who knows, maybe there you’ll be able to awaken your inner force, and later you’ll come with me on missions!”
A blink of hope rose on Selunia’s face. It was a great idea. For a few seconds they stared at each other; then they burst into laughter.
“Ahaha, what’s with this serious mood?” shouted Elis, trying to regain her usual joyous attitude.
“That’s right!” exclaimed Selunia, laughing. “Come on, let’s have some fun!”
They spun round in circles a few times, holding tightly like two little girls. It was an attempt to forget about the sorrow, about the sad part of the situation, an excessive joy that superficially covered the emptiness inside.
Suddenly Elis stopped in place, as if she had remembered something important. “Oh, Selunia! Why didn’t I think about this? Since we’ve already mentioned Prince Soris earlier, do you intend to go to him dressed like this?”
“Then how?” asked Selunia, confused.
“Hmm, the first impression matters. Come with me to choose a beautiful dress!”
*
In the meantime, although it wasn’t even eleven o’clock, General Waltario of the Arid Kingdom arrived at the White Castle courtyard, led by Prince Ryan.
“You came much earlier than expected,” he told the general.
“Yes,” sighed the general. “I must move tactfully, and make sudden changes of plans to make sure I’m not detected. Theoretically, the long war is over, but practically, we’re still on alert.”
Keeping up a short, cordial discussion with the prince, the general advanced on the white stone pavement of the stronghold’s yard, to the small castle where Selunia’s room was to be found.
With an always serious and determined look, the general was a man of great wisdom: tall, with short hair, grey here and there. He wore large, simple metallic armor with a golden badge—a symbol of his high rank. This equipment made him look a lot heftier than he was, and even more imposing. He carried a big pack
et in one hand.
Getting almost to the entrance, he stopped briefly to admire the building and all the things around it, enjoying the castle’s specific quietude and peace. The general was well-known for his skills in the army’s affairs and, although he had the dignified look of a real commander, he was a kind-hearted man.
“Your palace is so grand!” he exclaimed, impressed. “It's good you're independent of the Arid Kingdom and Central Palace's control. In our palace, it's a terrible mess.”
“We have our own problems too,” pointed out Ryan respectfully.
He didn’t know the general very well, but his imposing character made Ryan carefully choose his words before speaking out. The general was the only person from the Arid Kingdom whom he’d ever talked to. Besides, the general was the only one who could get in touch with the White Castle. Selunia’s parents were on good terms with him; they had shown him, at some time, a place in the barrier-forest where he could lay letters for the Castle and, in the end, get access inside. Each time, it was Ryan who opened the magical barrier and led the general to the castle.
Shortly afterward, General Waltario arrived at Selunia’s room. She greeted him respectfully, but also in a familiar tone.
Ryan looked confused about the formal turquoise dress Selunia wore. It was long, tight-waisted and sleeveless, with white lace and flounces. It gave her a fairy-like aura. He went to Elis and asked in a whisper, “Is this the same dress from that party two months ago?”
“Yes,” whispered Elis. “She’ll get to meet Prince Soris, after all.”
Ryan pondered for a few moments. Should I tell her that those from the kingdom are barely recovering from a long war? I don’t think it’s a good occasion for her to go in fancy dress. And I’ve heard the prince is quite a boor... Oh, but if I tell her that, Elis will get upset for sure.
After a somewhat short talk, during which the general reflected on the passing of time, Selunia received the big packet from him.
As she curiously measured the box covered in ash-colored cloth, Waltario told her, “You should put on the costume from the packet. I’ll explain what it’s all about later. Now, I’m a bit in a hurry. I’ll wait for you in the yard. In about a quarter of an hour, we’d better be leaving.”