The Raiden

by Shelley Cass

  “Gods,” I breathed in awe. I could see hundreds of Elves and Nymphs moving about through different diamond shaped windows in the expansive trunk, or resting on ornate balconies. “Can’t believe I missed that.”

  “I can almost bet where the meeting room is,” Noal commented, an expression of daunted apprehension dawning on his face.

  “It’s the topmost room,” Nova supplied.

  “But don’t worry!” Naira laughed when he winced. “This is where the Lady lives.”

  “Her power runs through this whole tree and Nymphs and Elves can use it along with our own magic to help us travel through its rooms quickly,” Nova explained. “We zoom straight up as if we were made of air,” she snapped her fingers. “Just like that.”

  “Right,” Noal frowned. “But I’m not feeling very magical today.”

  “Obviously we have been sent to take you non-magical oafs.” Nova gleefully tugged on my hand to speed me up again. “We’ll channel our power through to you.”

  We joined the Elves and Nymphs streaming into the massive tree’s entrance hall, and I felt the overwhelming flow of the Lady’s energy filling the tower.

  “What is everyone else doing?” I asked. “What’s here apart from the Lady’s home and Council room?”

  “Everything,” Nova said, now pulling us out of the way of the streaming crowd. “Libraries, histories, a school room for the Nymphlings and Elflings.”

  Noal spotted a sign with strange runes on the wall behind him. “And what does that say?” he questioned, all curiosity. “It’s not in Awyalknian.”

  Nova hung upside down next to the sign. “It’s written in Nylvish.”

  “It tells you all the levels so you can find which one you want,” Naira yawned. “But the topmost room is pretty obvious, isn't it? I don’t think we need to look it up.”

  “You have a separate tongue?” I asked in surprise. “Why are you speaking Awyalknian?”

  “Silly, pretty, young thing,” Naira teased cutely. “The Nymphs remember it from when we lived outside, but many Elves don’t know it.”

  “That explains why the Elves are not very talkative,” I realised.

  “I just saw Ace. It’s time to go,” Nova interjected, flipping the right way up and brushing her floating hair in my eyes. “Hold tight!” she grinned, taking my hand as Naira took Noal’s.

  With a lurch, I felt my boots shoot away from the floor, and I was abruptly sucked upward, whizzing at top speed through floor after floor.

  I caught blurred visions of massive rooms, lounges and loud gatherings as I seemed to melt through the roof of each landing. My stomach was screaming as it was squashed down with the pressure and everything became surreal as reality rushed past. Only Nova’s grip on my hand assured me that I was still solid and real.

  Then the dizzying sensation was cut off and we stopped our motion sharply, materialising in a grand entrance way.

  “Disconcerting,” Noal remarked breathlessly, smoothing his mussed up blonde hair.

  “You’re squeezing my hand,” Nova scolded, peeling her squashed fingers free of mine.

  “Go on in,” Naira instructed. “We’ll be out here when it’s over to escort you back.”

  At the end of the spectacular entrance there were two golden doors that opened onto an opulent, breathtaking chamber. I could see that near the chamber’s high ceiling, with no strings or mechanics to work it, there floated an immense model of rotating art.

  Great coloured globes, some small and some large, were floating in circles around a central golden sphere. Some of them had rings encircling them that also spun, and smaller pale globes orbited all of them as they too circled the great golden sphere.

  Below this masterpiece there was a circle of chairs in the middle of a gleaming, polished floor that reflected the circling works. There were ten chairs made of shining silver and an eleventh chair with a higher back that was made only of beautifully stained wood.

  Behind the chairs was a huge diamond shaped window from which streamed golden sunlight.

  “Your jaw is hanging darling,” Nova told me, giving me a little push to get moving.

  “What is that wonder?” Noal asked in amazement, his eyes on the rotating globes above the chamber we were to enter.

  “It’s a model of our solar system silly, we’re the blue, green and yellow ringed globe,” Naira giggled, and then stopped when she saw our blank expressions. “Gosh mortals sure are slow.”

  “Forget it for now. We don’t want to boggle them before they speak to the Council,” Nova told her, and then turned to us. “It’s just a pretty model, now go.”

  This time Naira and Nova shoved us both so that we lurched across the entrance hall and finally entered the Council room to find the Lady of the Forest waiting for us.

  Asha, Ace, Frey and a small number of Nymphs and Elves we hadn't met before were with the Lady and I was instantly grateful for having spent eighteen years learning protocols and diplomatic practices at home, even if it had been from Wilmont, as Noal and I stepped forward together.

  We both simultaneously swept ourselves into low, Awyalknian courtier-styled bows.

  Chapter Eleven

  Dalin

  “Welcome friends.” The Lady’s eyes were as green as emeralds and her skin was as rich and dark as the earth. No jewels decorated her ample, motherly features, and yet she was radiant. She was at once ordinary, yet extraordinary, and she captivated me completely.

  “I didn’t realise you had such elegance in you,” remarked a familiar voice as we bowed, and I straightened to see that Kiana had already arrived, and had been standing behind Frey. She was dressed in something similar to her hunter’s garb.

  “The outfits help,” Asha commented. “They were a mess before they got to the City.”

  “Be kind. The Raiden and Noal have earned their seats in this room,” the Lady said simply, though her presence seemed to fill every inch of the large chamber.

  She gestured for everyone to take their respective seats, and I found that since we had last looked, the circle had been widened and three more silver chairs had been added so that we could also be seated.

  “You are the first human beings to see our City and to be included in a Council,” the Lady informed the three of us, and though she was small and round looking, at the same time it was like she was bigger and stronger than everything else in the room.

  She spoke again in her musical, deep voice. “We have called you here to discuss the threat facing our world, but also to share ancient knowledge that has been forgotten by the human race, so that you can be fully prepared for all that confronts you.”

  “We are honoured and thankful,” Kiana responded, leaning back in her chair and resting her elbows on the armrests. Her face was blank and polite, but her glittering eyes betrayed how wary she was.

  The Lady inclined her head. “One thing we wish you to know is that the current threat to the world’s harmony was something that was foreseen at the dawn of time. It is I who personally spread the word to all peoples, in the hopes of avoiding all danger. But as hundreds of mortal lifetimes passed the warnings were forgotten by many, just as people gradually forgot that the Elves and Nymphs were real.”

  Kiana nodded. “Every child has heard tales of the Army for the World. But they are considered to be nothing more than stories in every land but Lixrax.”

  “Lixrax remembers some things, and perhaps our secretive Jenran neighbours do too,” the Lady agreed. “Though only Deimos and his descendant Darziates have ever truly acted on my warnings, with Deimos going so far as to begin the first War for the World.”

  My eyes had gone wide. “Your warnings?” I breathed in surprise. “How?”

  “I will show you of what I speak,” the Lady said. “Because I have the memory that spurred Deimos into action, the same memory that each of his heirs was passed, and the same memory that caused Darziates to begin his war.”

  “The same memory?” Kiana questioned.


  “My mind caught it by chance from a dying Sorcerer who had lived in hiding, readying to send it to his son,” the Lady explained. Then she gestured to the space in the middle of our circle of chairs, and I was amazed to see a patch of light begin to break into swirling colours that joined to form the wavering shape of a woman.

  I felt sure that the image was that of the Lady, and my eyes were wide as I looked at the real Lady sitting peacefully in her chair, and also the image of her standing in the middle of the circle. However in the image her hair was auburn, she was tall and powerful looking, and her stance was strong.

  The Lady of the Forest.

  I sat forward in disbelief, staring with complete wonder at the enchanting, dreamlike vision, realising that I’d seen that figure inked carefully across history books, embroidered gloriously on tapestries, and had heard tales of her as every child in Awyalkna had.

  “Ohhh … you’re that Lady of the Forest!” Noal breathed incredulously.

  The image, or memory, then spoke as if in response.

  “At the beginning of time I was created and given the knowledge and the will of the Gods. When I first woke I held in my hands two prophecies that would reveal themselves to me upon my arrival in the new world. The first prophecy was revealed only moments after my arrival, and the voices of the Gods warned that the world’s races would become separate through the ages. The prophecy also told of a deadly threat that will be born into the world at the end of the ninth age. The voices of the Gods said that the world and her many races must be united to survive. If the world does not unite before the beginning of the tenth age, and the threat is able to succeed, the world will be destroyed in a storm of ice and fire. I am now travelling far and wide to spread the warnings of the Gods, so that in thousands of years the world will be ready, and can be saved …”

  Before we could ask any questions, the image of the Lady morphed and we sat back rigidly in our chairs, shocked as the shapes of light now formed into the image of a man’s face. The face was unfeeling and its hard eyes seemed to glare out at us.

  “Son. I have chosen this as my time to die. In two hundred years I have learned all I must to pass on to you. I have added my knowledge to that of all of our ancestors and you will awaken with this knowledge, your true purpose and identity when this message ends and at the moment of my last breath. You must be rid of your foster family and embrace your destiny from that moment.

  “Know that you are the one that the line of Deimos has awaited. You are to be the most powerful of all, and already I feel that your darkness stirs. Know also that the words of the Lady remained unheeded – until the first Sorcerer, Deimos took it upon himself and our blood line to save and unite the world. Through darkness he sought the world’s salvation, and knowing that the ignorant races might seek to ruin him, his heir was smuggled away and that is how our line continued.

  “You must grow strong in body, mind and power. Use time to be rid of the magical ones who may seek to stop you, and reclaim our lost Kingdom. You will not age, and have no fear of a mortal’s death. Reclaim our Kingship again, and rise to unite the world.”

  The face distorted and the voice echoed away as the solid image broke apart, and I slumped in my chair as if I’d been released from a spell.

  Noal let out a stunned breath beside me and Kiana was frowning in thought.

  “Deimos and his family began a Quest for dominance of the world, all out of a warped want to save it,” the Lady confirmed. “That memory of myself was centuries old, passed on along Deimos’ line. But the memory of the Sorcerer was the message that turned Darziates into what he is, giving him the same memories, feelings and goals as his ancestors.”

  “This is so much more than a war between Awyalkna and Krall,” Kiana enunciated slowly.

  “Yes. And Darziates has truly proven himself to be the most powerful of his line,” the Lady continued. “He has now ruled Krall for five hundred years. And he has wiped out the magical races who might have opposed him in the mortal lands.”

  “There were others?” Kiana asked, sitting forward.

  The Lady was silent for a moment, her emerald eyes almost clouding. “To ensure that none would remain strong enough to again contest his fight for world dominance, he murdered the Larnaeradee, Unicorns, Centaurs, Dryads, Sprites and water deities.”

  Kiana’s shoulders dropped, her posture deflated. And I remembered that she’d always wanted tales of the Fairies and Unicorns from her father, and that she still carried the Unicorn figurine.

  “So the Sorcerer moves against Awyalkna, will then move on Jenra, and next will cross the seas to take the other magical races,” Ace growled.

  “What about Lixrax?” Noal asked with apprehension.

  “He already has Lixrax,” Ace rumbled darkly in answer.

  “No!” I gasped in dismay. “How?”

  “He has forced Razek to ally with him,” Ace explained. “And they have to follow the Sorcerer for the same reason that the people of Krall follow his tyranny without rebelling.”

  “Fear?” Noal questioned in a coarse voice.

  “Many are controlled by fear,” admitted the Nymph. “The peasants, the powerless, the weak. But an army of such magnitude could stand in revolution. They don’t though, because –”

  “They’re as rotten as the Sorcerer is,” I supplied, feeling certain of my response.

  “Not everyone can be single-mindedly evil,” Asha disagreed. “The people of Krall were a fair race before Deimos and then before Darziates. They were not warlike and their land flourished.”

  “The fact is that any who could stand against him have been corrupted and conditioned into loyalty,” Ace said flatly. “Sorcerers have the power to corrupt even the purest of men to feel hatred and anger. Darziates has ingrained it into his soldiers to be loyal.”

  “And Razek was forced to ally with Darziates to avoid a similar fate of mindless obedience for his people,” Asha explained.

  “Oh Gods,” I whispered and Noal had become as pale as I felt.

  Awyalkna could not stand against the Sorcerer, his Witch, his army of beasts, his thousands of men and now also the elite Desert Storm of Lixrax. Even with the help of the Jenrans, if our Quest was successful and they agreed on an alliance, there was no hope of having enough forces to save Awyalkna.

  Noal shook his head in disgust. “Even if the Sorcerer thinks he’s doing us all a favour, how can he be so deluded to think that the entire world will just bow down gratefully and accept his reign?”

  Asha crossed her legs where she sat in the air. “The way that he sees it, he’s the only one trying to do something to stop the ‘threat’, and is the only one able. He’s worked hard, but he has made a very big mistake.”

  “And what mistake is that?” Kiana asked.

  The Lady’s eyes swept over the three of us. “He never heard the second prophecy. It was revealed after I withdrew into the Forest.”

  “Then what is this second prophecy?” Kiana questioned, her sharp eyes glinting.

  “You,” the Lady answered with certainty. “The Three.”

  Kiana said nothing and Noal and I followed her lead.

  But we’d all heard that same name before. We’d been called ‘the Three’ by the Dryad spirit of the Willow when she’d saved us from Agrona.

  “Darziates thinks that he must be the one to unite the world against the ‘threat’ warned of in the first prophecy. He seeks to end the boundaries between all peoples by imposing himself as the one ultimate King,” the Lady told us. “He does not realise that by spreading his evil and suffering it is he who has become the threat.”

  I felt my jaw drop.

  Kiana nodded in understanding. “He has become the monstrous event that he seeks to avoid.”

  “Yet the second prophecy has revealed that there are to be Three able to stand against this threat and to unite the races against the Sorcerer.

  “There is to be one to bring the Three together in their Quest, and to keep the partne
rship of mortals strong.

  “There is to be one to unite the lands of men. To lead all mortals of the world against the Sorcerer’s storm. A King of Kings – the Raiden.

  “And there is to be the One, to summon and lead the magical races to combine with the mortals led by the Raiden. The One will end the darkness.

  “Thus, all races of the world will be united against the threat of Darziates,” the Lady finished.

  Asha raised red eyebrows at us knowingly. “You know, there are three of you on your Quest.”

  Kiana looked doubtful. “That prophecy could be describing any three people on the planet.”

  “No,” the Lady shook her head firmly. “It describes each of you quite precisely. The one meant to bring the Quest together would be Noal. He ensured that after the Raiden was healed you did not part ways, but joined forces. Now he will continue to bring friendship amongst mortals.

  “And the Raiden – to be able to rally the faith and loyalty of all men, and to be a ‘King of Kings’, he must have royal blood. He must have the ability to inspire the respect of those around him, and have the power to lead. That is evidently Dalin.”

  Kiana folded her arms in scepticism and a knife of guilt twisted in my stomach.

  I felt the blood draining from my face and Noal’s eyes met mine.

  “And the One to lead the magical races must be magical herself. She must be a Larnaeradee at that, if she is to be a Summoner and able to speak the uniting tongue of Aolen. That is obviously you, Kiana.”

  Kiana drew in a deep breath. “I don’t believe that Dalin could be descended from royalty, or that I could be a Fairy without us having realised it.”

  I felt sick.

  The Elves sat forward in their chairs with the first signs of frustration I’d seen on Elvish faces and the Nymphs buzzed in the air agitatedly.

  “There has been much for you to take in,” the Lady at last answered gently. “Much has been revealed that must be processed.”

  “Yes,” Kiana agreed diplomatically.

  “The afternoon is waning. The Council can end for today so that each of us may reflect and rest.”