The Comyenti Series
Book Bundle, Volume 1 and 2
(Call Off The Search #1 and
Children Of The Sun #2)
by
Natasja Hellenthal
Copyright©2014 Natasja Hellenthal. All rights reserved.
This e-book is a work of fiction. Names, characters and incidents therein are entirely the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the author. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Cover - Natasja Hellenthal
Editors - Martine, Brian Jackson, Kate Johnson and Cat Gouch
Beyond Books Press
Manchester, United Kingdom
First Edition - October 2014
Also by Natasja Hellenthal
The Queen’s Curse
Chained Freedom
Call Off The Search, Comyenti Series #1
Children Of The Sun, Comyenti Series #2
City of Dreams (coming November 2014)
Sky Whisperers (coming March 2015)
Acknowledgments
I would like to give a heartfelt thank you to my editors Martine and Brian Jackson, Kate Johnson and Cat Gough and the proofreaders Rene Meijer and Dermot Doherty. The end result wouldn’t have been the same without your helpful input and suggestions.
Thank you and my gratitude to Sir David Attenborough for all his enthusiasm, facts and insight on life on earth.
Dedication
I am dedicating this book bundle to my children, Amelia and Andreas.
Note to readers: This is a work of fiction and as such, controversial points of view may be written to enhance the readers’ experience. The author's goal has been, aside from providing an enjoyable story, to make the reader think critically about the abuse man heaps on our planet. Not all the views expressed necessarily reflect those of the author.
She would like, however, to help readers realise what harmful effects we are having on our own world and on all the creatures, big and small, we share it with.
Table of Contents
Call Off The Search:
Prologue
PART I Winter Heart
Chapter 1 Frozen
Chapter 2 Fish
Chapter 3 Hunger
Chapter 4 The Giant
Chapter 5 Listen
Chapter 6 Understandings
Chapter 7 Revelations
Chapter 8 Sacrifice
Chapter 9 Heartmerge
PART II Spring Tears
Chapter 10 Twello
Chapter 11 The Wizard
Chapter 12 The Once Priestess
Chapter 13 The Truthstone
Chapter 14 Teardrops
Chapter 15 The Chosen One
Chapter 16 Mindmerge
PART III Summer Struggles
Chapter 17 The Halfling
Chapter 18 One and One
Chapter 19 Brother
Chapter 20 Decisions
Chapter 21 Thoughts
Chapter 22 Stubborn
Chapter 23 Opponents
Chapter 24 A History Lesson
Chapter 25 Departure
PART IV Autumn Leaves
Chapter 26 Home
Chapter 27 The Poet
Chapter 28 The Training
Chapter 29 Spellbound
Chapter 30 The Choice
Chapter 31 Questions
Children Of The Sun:
Prologue
Part I Home
Chapter 1 Missing
Chapter 2 Search
Chapter 3 The Dwarf Prince Two years later
Chapter 4 The Magic Hammer
Chapter 5 The Summer Palace
Chapter 6 The Unicos
Chapter 7 The Well Of Forgetfulness
Part II Family
Chapter 8 The Hunters Ten years later
Chapter 9 Children Of The Stars
Chapter 10 Strength Five years later
Chapter 11 Darts
Chapter 12 The Ypaka
Part III Shazar
Chapter 13 Soulwind Six years later
Chapter 14 Shadow
Chapter 15 Similarities
Part IV Children Of The Sun
Chapter 16 Sula The Sun
Chapter 17 Bonds
Chapter 18 Heartbreak
Chapter 19 Mother and daughter
Chapter 20 Fathers and Son
Chapter 21 Son Of The Sun
Chapter 22 Family Tree
Part V Past, Present, Future
Chapter 23 Last Hope
Chapter 24 Love
Chapter 25 The Party
Chapter 26 Past And Future
Chapter 27 Nothing Personal
Chapter 28 Change Of Heart
Epilogue
Glossary
References
Call Off The Search #1
by
Natasja Hellenthal
Summary
The comyentis are different; beautiful and mysterious, possessing powers of which humans can only dream. And for this, they are hated, persecuted. For millennia, humanity has murdered and enslaved the peaceful comyentis wherever they find them. Jealous of their ability to merge their minds with animals to use their powers, to empathise with other beings on a deep spiritual level and even hear their thoughts, they seek out and destroy them.
Now the half-breed Sula, one of the last of her kind, lives in hiding. With not just her own life but her whole species’ held precariously within her hands, she feels the weight of her responsibility. As loneliness and alienation slowly engulf her, an attractive young human enters her world and she is torn. Should Sula trust him? Can she afford not to? Will she be able to overcome her aversion to humans to save her species from extinction? A life as a wandering hermit, or risk everything for love?
Sula’s life becomes further complicated when she meets another comyenti and is forced to make a decision. Follow her head or her heart?
‘Call Off The Search’, Book One of the Comyenti Saga, follows Sula as she fights for her family, her hopes, her freedom and the very existence of her species.
Prologue
‘Run! Run like you’ve never run before, boy!’ the man shouted, catching up to his son, half dragging him by the elbow. Kaleis could hear the dogs barking nearby, they sounded frantic. He obeyed his father, trusting him, taking up his quick pace but they still weren’t fast enough. Not nearly as fast as they could be…
As they made their way up the mountain pass, climbing over one ridge, and then another, the boy tried to ease his breathing whilst chanting softly. Adrenaline poured through his body and his heart was like a mad bird trying to break free. Anger and fear tugged at him.
‘It’s no use! It doesn’t work now! Don’t you think I’ve tried?’ Damaz exclaimed, helping the boy up over a large boulder. His father’s handsome face was pale and half covered in blood. There was a big slash on one side, even though he tried to hide it with one hand stained red, his son noticed when he looked over his shoulder. His father was bleeding profusely.
‘Dad, your ear!’ Kaleis called out with a startled face. ‘And where are mum and Cohel?’
‘They’ve got them.’ Silent tears were welling up in Damaz’s eyes, fighting off the thought of not being able
to save them. They had been so careful, to no avail. ‘We’ll have to come back for them later.’
Kaleis sensed his father’s defeat and it angered him.
‘No, we have to help them!’ he screamed incredulously and made an attempt to jump off the boulder but his father caught him by the waist.
‘We can’t turn back now! They’ll kill us. Against their dogs and weapons we are defenceless, son.’
‘No!’ Kaleis screamed and tried to struggle free.
His father’s face was grim and his eyes gleamed as he turned his teenage son to face him. He held Kaleis by the shoulders in an attempt to stop him resisting so.
‘Listen! They won’t kill them straight away. They’ll try to get the magic out of them first as they did with… We’ve…we’ve got time.’
Kaleis could tell his father didn’t really believe it himself and this made him more alarmed. Both father and son knew very well that there were times the hunters didn’t take prisoners and instead just killed their catch straight away. Especially now after decades of hunting and experimenting, trying to decipher the magic, humans were beginning to lose faith in ever knowing the powers Kaleis’s and Damaz’s people had and instead had called out for global genocide to get rid of them.
The barking of the dogs was interspersed with the loud shouts of the men, and father and son grew more anguished. They looked up at the mountain. Perhaps they could take off from there.
‘Come on! Remember what your mother said. If something ever happened to her she wanted us to be safe!’ And he urged his son to continue their escape. The summit was hidden behind grey clouds. His instinct, as any animal hunted, was to run, to hide and regain the courage needed to help his family; what was left of it…
‘They won’t be able to get their powers,’ Kaleis said angrily. ‘They’ll kill them! That’s what they do when they can’t get what they want. We can’t let them do that!’ The boy jumped away skilfully.
‘No!!!’ Damaz screamed after him, grabbing air and falling down to the ground.
Kaleis ran straight into the dogs that came around the ridge but they were too busy fighting amongst themselves to pay much attention to him. Just then an arrow sent the boy staggering. He hit the ground, and landed close to the edge of the ridge. More arrows hit their target and he flinched from pain. The dogs were called back, accompanied by cheers. Grunting in pain the boy scrambled half up on his hands and looked his father in the eye. Damaz sat frozen on his knees looking down at the boy horrified.
Before he could do anything his son gasped for air and rolled over the ridge and disappeared out of sight.
‘Attack!’ the men yelled, getting closer with their weapons and nets. When they spotted the man arrows and spears went flying. Damaz reached out for the edge of the ridge where his son had just been but a spear was faster and hit him in the side and an arrow in his arm. Lying flat on his stomach he looked down to see the lifeless body of his son causing another pain to hit him hard; a sharp pain from within his heart.
Feeling the life ebbing out of him, tears out of his eyes and blood seeping out of his mouth, Damaz glanced back at his attackers to sense their fear and hatred for his species.
‘Yes! Get that you freak of nature!’ one man shouted in triumph.
‘Let the dogs have him!’ another man roared and the hungry pack was set loose.
No, neither beast nor men will ever have me! And with his last ounce of strength Damaz pushed himself away from the hunters and off the edge…towards his son.
Side by side they were left to the elements and as the sounds of men and dogs grew fainter, peace once again was restored.
Rain had begun to fall; a persistent drizzle on the forest floor hitting the father and son’s opened eyes at the mountain’s foot. Rain that soaked through their bloodstained clothes, over their now marble skin and on into the soil, as if to wash away the crime.
PART I Winter Heart
The storms and snow may kill the flowers,
but cannot deaden the seeds,
for the snow keeps them warm from the killing frost.
Kahlil Gibran
Chapter 1 Frozen
In wintertime everything seems to stand still, all frozen and hidden beneath the snow and ice; unseen by the eye. Everything and everyone hidden away, asleep in burrows and caves, between roots and in holes dreaming about summers past and summers yet to come; waiting patiently for the sun to bring back its warmth.
Only a few know that that’s not completely true. Some things just don’t rest, don’t linger or stand still. They’re always moving; even in winter.
A bitter sharp wind rushed along Sula’s bare face. For a moment she closed her eyes against the pain, concentrating on her Mindskill. Tears falling, slowly turning to frost on her eyelashes, hindered her view. Losing contact with the goose, Sula’s cheeks and chin hurt all of a sudden and her skin was getting numb from the cold. She wore a hood over her head while the rest of her body was well wrapped within a few layers of cloth underneath her dark green woollen cloak, just in case. Clothes as warm as feathers, next to wool, were the best insulating material.
She was the snow goose now, not physically, but in her mind and she was flying high up in the thick winter sky. She controlled the bird’s ability to fly so fully that she tricked her body to think it to be a goose. Luckily she didn’t actually have to use her arms like wings to fly by flapping. Instead she held her arms spread out wide to balance it; the way her mother had taught her, years ago.
By late afternoon, she had been flying the entire day since sunrise, and was beginning to feel worn-out; slowly losing contact with the goose’s abilities and that side of her mind; her Mindskill tricking her body. The high level of concentration and her aching limbs began to exhaust her and take its toll. Her body commanded her to take rest and recharge. And she had to obey her body’s natural instinct in order to survive, goose or not. She couldn’t keep demanding more from her body than it was able to give, otherwise it would simply stop serving her.
The frozen landscape, almost completely white, apart from some specks of dark green or grey; the hint of treetops, beneath her became almost monotonous. Pine woods lay buried underneath mounds of snow. The snow, almost creamlike, covered the rolling hills, numerous ice lakes, and a single frozen river covered in snow that she had been following since dawn. So much of the scenery was white and her panoramic view so dreary that it became more and more of a blur beneath her. She blinked a couple of times to try and regain some focus. At least she was in Northland now and it wouldn’t be far to her final destination.
Sula tried to get to the uninhabited lime caves of the Balla mountain range; a mystical old volcanic landscape, showing itself already as a blue-grey white peaked wall in the distance.
She felt free and content in spite of her physical weariness and the elements. She just loved flying and it had almost become as easy and natural as walking. She loved to have a clear view over everything and that feeling of being weightless. As close to freedom as a humanoid would ever feel. Defying gravity; free of the heavy weight of one’s body and the world pulling it down. Sula imagined only death could be any closer to that feeling; being just spirit.
Snowflakes began to whirl from the dense clouds just above her and they were more rapid and painful than she had expected. Snow this high up combined with wind meant ice. Snow swirled into her face, stinging her eyes like small knives, which she couldn’t do anything about, for even geese had eyes and they weren’t immune to pain. Sula had to fly lower.
The snow had found its way up her nose; blocking her breathing, nearly choking her. She was human enough to be affected by the elements and that side of her was too weary now not to feel it, above the goose’s abilities. Moreover she flew too low by now and she was paying the price for her misjudgement.
The thick grey clouds blurred her sight altogether and the icy flakes remained on her eyelashes, almost freezing her eyes shut and melting in the slits of her eyes which were hard to
keep open. It was time to go down.
She was late this year. Last year she had already settled in the cave by the time the snowstorms began.
With mixed feelings she thought about the group of travelling gypsies she had followed earlier during the autumn in the East; the reason why she was late. People, whom she had believed, had some useful information. It had been a mistake and now she had put herself in danger.
“Your duty is to survive,” she heard her mother’s voice say in her head. All of a sudden she saw smoke rising above the treetops; she sharpened her weary eyes. On flying closer it revealed itself to be several plumes of smoke coming from…rooftops. Panic overcame her. A human village!
Instantly she lost contact with the goose inside her and began to fall to the ground with incredible speed. With a lot of effort she managed to regain control of her mind and reached the goose that was controlling her body, in order to stop herself from falling further. She flew lower; almost level with the trees. Branches and needles nearly hitting her in the face, and with the snowflakes still hindering her sight, making her virtually blind. She held her hands out to protect herself whilst gasping for air…
It went all terribly wrong.
She couldn’t risk anyone seeing her, but at the same time she had to avoid being hit by the branches and trees. Whilst trying to fly as low to the tree line as possible, back to the river, she lost her balance and like a young bird just learning to fly, she tumbled more rapidly than she would have wanted, towards the river she had been following.
As she fell she spotted someone or something through the branches; a dark shape on the icy river and she headed straight toward it!
Luckily she could still steer to some degree, and managed to miss the figure narrowly. This figure appeared to be a well wrapped up person, standing with his or her back towards her, with a strand of fair hair coming from underneath their hood. That was the only thing that caught Sula’s eye though: that fair strand of hair amongst the whirling snowflakes, wind, branches and chaos.
The Comyenti Series Book Bundle, Volume 1 and 2 (Epic Romantic Supernatural Fantasy) Page 1