Born to Magic: Tales of Nevaeh: Volume I Read online

  As he spoke, the skiff began to move. It straightened and slowly started to cross the water under its own mysterious power. “How…?” he repeated.

  Stop questioning everything. Accept what happens, came Areenna’s sharp thought. Open, accept, stop seeking control. It can no longer be your way.

  He swept his eyes from the Island to her face and saw the determination in her eyes. He closed his and took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and let himself free. Yes, came Areenna’s response and with it a rush of warmth.

  They moved steadily, their eyes locked on the Island, each lost in thought, unaware of a larger boat trailing behind them. Midway between the Landing and the Island, a sensation of impending danger grew strong in their minds.

  The Island?

  Areenna shook her head. She looked at the sky and, tracing the emanations, focused on a ledge. Despite the morning sun illuminating the cliff-side, it remained in shadow. “The wraiths,” she whispered.

  No sooner had she uttered the words than a massive shape sprang from the ledge. Swirling within a gray fog, the largest creature she had ever seen rose skyward. Its wingspan was gigantic and the emanations coming from it swamped them with foulness.

  Areenna raised her shield instantly, blanketing the small skiff. Her hands balled into fists, the skin of her knuckles turned white as she fought the flood of despair overspreading them.

  Beneath them, the water churned madly. Waves grew and whipped against the skiff. Prepare yourself! Areenna’s command hit Mikaal and his power flared within his lower belly. Heat raced through him faster than ever before. He looked up and saw the massive beast flying over them.

  Still connected to Areenna, his vision shifted and he was seeing through Gaalrie’s eyes above the black-feathered wraith as the treygone arrowed down at the creature.

  No! Areenna commanded her aoutem. Stop!

  Gaalrie pulled out of the dive, twisted in mid-air and flew skyward. “It is too strong for her,” she said to Mikaal. “Be ready for its attack.”

  Mikaal braced his legs against the rowing bench and watched the wraith. The skiff was tossing about madly and he was having trouble holding his balance, but refused to give in. Water rushed over the sides of the skiff in waterfall-like torrents. When he looked down, he saw the water had filled the small boat halfway to the rails.

  “We’ll sink before we make it across.”

  “We must get there. Attack now. Chase it.”

  Mikaal released his power the instant she stopped speaking. Lances of fire streaked skyward, surrounding the beast, but as the flames reached it, the flying evil shifted direction and flew upward, its wings beating the air so powerfully their sound could be heard in the skiff.

  While the creature raced upward, the skiff sank lower. Only a few inches separated the water from the rail of the skiff. The small boat was sinking fast. And then there was a shout from nearby.

  “Here! Hurry!”

  Turning, they were greeted with the most unexpected sight of their journey. Timon was standing at the bow of his boat, the master boatsman’s arms outstretched, reaching for them. Mikaal grabbed Areenna about her waist, lifting her as if she weighed naught and raised her to Timon’s waiting hand.

  He pulled her up quickly and set her on the deck. Then he turned back to Mikaal, who leaped up and grabbed the edge of the deck. Timon caught him under his arms and dragged him in.

  “What is that thing?” he asked, staring up at the disappearing speck above them.

  “A wraith,” Areenna said as she watched the skiff sink beneath the surface. Then she turned to him. “We are grateful, Master Timon, but… Why are you here?”

  Timon laughed. “So like a woman. I have no idea why I’m here. I only know, when you left me to go to Dees, I felt something…a premonition you might say, telling me I would be needed here. I seem to have been right, yes?”

  “Yes,” Mikaal said before Areenna could speak. “But you have put yourself in great danger.”

  “Life is filled with dangerous things. But today I have seen something never before witnessed, haven’t I young prince?” he asked, looking at Mikaal.

  “You saw?”

  “How could I not? How was that possible, the fire? I have never seen the like before…man creating magic.”

  “We do not have the time to explain,” Areenna cut in quickly. “We must get to the Island. Can you bring us there?”

  “And will I get the explanation?”

  Areenna looked at Mikaal, who nodded. “Master Timon, if we survive the Island, you will have an…explanation, or as much of one as is possible. It will serve as payment for bringing us back. But,” she added, her eyes locked tightly with his, “you may not want it.”

  Timon smiled. “We’ll see. Will that thing return?” he asked, looking skyward.

  Mikaal followed his gaze and saw the shadow flying high above. “Count on it.”

  “Then let us make swift passage.” He moved to the wheel and turned the boat toward the Island. It lurched in the choppy waters, the bow slamming hard as it crested the waves.

  Where is Gaalrie?

  Watching. It follows us and she follows it.

  How do we stop it?

  Areenna closed her eyes, her mind racing. She opened her eyes, reached out and grasped Mikaal’s shoulder. Ilsraeth’s gift. When the wraith attacks, we must use it. Together, we can increase the power. We can hide ourselves and the boat.

  But the drain on us.

  Regardless, we must use this gift. “I know what to do, Master Timon, but you must trust me,” she said to the boatsman. “No matter what happens next, keep moving toward the Island. The waters will soon grow worse.”

  Without taking his eyes from the Island, he said, “I’ll handle the boat. You keep that thing from us.”

  Moments later the churning waters grew wild. The waves crashed against the boat; its single sail billowing madly. The bow rode high on a wave and slammed down as it receded, sending water over its sides in pounding rivulets to swamp their feet.

  As the boat was lifted on another rushing wave Gaalrie answered Areenna’s call and dropped, Landing on Areenna’s shoulders, securing her claws to each shoulder of Areenna’s leather tunic. The massive black vision of evil dove at them.

  Areenna watched carefully, judging its speed and the distance separating them. When it grew large enough to blot the sun, she grasped Mikaal’s hand tightly and said, “Now!”

  CHAPTER 29

  ATOP THE PALISADES, the five riders drew their kraals to a halt in the center of the road leading down to the Landing. Five sets of eyes watched the small skiff carrying Areenna and Mikaal start its journey to the Island.

  “We’re too late,” Roth said, stating the obvious. “She delayed us long enough.”

  “They are on their way, which was our purpose in coming—to ensure they would reach the Island,” Enaid reminded him.

  Before her words registered on the others, Laira said, “There’s another boat.” She pointed to a larger boat that had just come into sight below.

  “No,” Ilsraeth cried. “It cannot be.”

  Everyone turned at her cry and saw the larger boat heading toward the skiff. “Who is it?” Enaid asked.

  “Timon,” Ilsraeth whispered.

  Roth stared at the boat while drawing up the memory the name had triggered. He remembered Timon. The master boatsman had been a strong fighter, well skilled and had fought many times at Roth’s side. “What would bring him here?”

  Ilsraeth and Atir turned to Enaid. “What know you?” Atir asked.

  Enaid shook her head. “Nothing,” she whispered.

  “Do not withhold from us Enaid. Why is Timon here? Why is Mikaal crossing to the Island with Areenna? It is forbidden.”

  Before she could respond a wave of darkness such as they had never before experienced washed over them. They looked up and saw the giant wraith appear in the sky. Moments later they watched the waters grow storm heavy and start to toss the skiff about like
a toy.

  Enaid directed her powers at the black infection flying across from them, but it deflected her effort easily. “Help me,” she asked the others.

  Together, the four women joined powers and attacked the beast. But it was to no avail as the creature appeared unaffected. Moments later they withdrew. “It is too strong, the distance too far,” Atir said.

  “What has she created?” Ilsraeth whispered. “That…thing, it is like nothing else. She controls it, but the atrocity is more than what she intended. I cannot explain…but I know this.”

  When the beast dove, they saw fire streak upward at it—fire emanating from Mikaal, not Areenna.

  “Impossible,” Atir said, her voice trembling as she spoke. “What have you done, Enaid?”

  The three women turned to fix Enaid with heated stares. “How has this…this outrageousness happened?”

  “Not now!” Enaid snapped, turning back to the battle below. The creature was flying high above boat; the waters below it were rushing madly in every direction and the small skiff was sinking rapidly.

  The scene unfolded quickly. Just as the skiff sank below the water, Mikaal and Areenna scrambled onto Timon’s boat. Then, on the deck, Areenna and Mikaal came close together and, an instant later, as the giant wraith descended, the boat and the people on it disappeared.

  The wraith’s scream was ear-shattering, and the five on the crest of the palisades cried out in pain, the women’s’ aoutems began to wail. The flying abomination, the culmination of the black sorceress’s evil, shrieked its outrage and dove to the spot where the skiff had last been. It slammed into the water, the impact of its gigantic body sent water spraying fifty feet into the air. Moments later, the wraith broke out of the water and circled in a frenzied search for its prey.

  They watched silently for a quarter hour; tension growing thick around them. The only sound was of their breathing, until, at last, Timon’s boat reappeared across the water, docked against the far Landing. The wraith flew off, howling in earsplitting rage.

  Only then did the three women turn to Enaid again. “Tell us, now!” Atir commanded.

  Enaid squared her shoulders and drew herself straight. She looked at Roth first and smiled gently. Then she looked at each woman in turn before saying, “It is not what you think. I have not gone to dark magic and even if I had, it would be impossible. Mikaal was born of power.”

  They stared at her. Their silent command was for Enaid to continue.

  “He is the complement to her, and she is the Sister of the old foretelling.”

  “She is a child,” Ilsraeth said, her voice almost inaudible. “Yet the power I sensed in her… She used the gift and not just she, but everything vanished.”

  Enaid looked over her shoulder but the distance was too great to make out anything other than the boat. When she turned back, she found the others waiting, their faces expectant.

  She turned to her mate and put a hand on his arm. “May I explain, My Lord,” she asked formally.

  Roth held her gaze, but before responding to her question, turned to the three women. “You two,” he said to Ilsraeth and Atir, “are the rulers of your dominions, along with your husbands. And you will one day be the same,” he added to Laira. “I ask for your word that what passes here not be spoken of until the proper time, if such a time ever comes.”

  He gazed deeply into their faces and waited.

  The wait was short. Ilsraeth spoke first. “You have my pledge, My Lord.”

  Atir repeated the same response, but when it came to Laira, she seemed to be staring across the water at the Island, but without any focus. “What is it child?” Enaid asked.

  Laira’s eyes rolled back and she collapsed. The women bent to her. When Atir reached out to touch Laira, her aoutem came squirming out from within her cloak, hissing and snapping at the hand reaching for its mistress.

  Atir pulled her fingers back quickly, having known well the ret’s sharp teeth in the past. “She is caught within a vision. We can do nothing but wait.” The queen of Aldimor sat on the ground next to her daughter. Moving carefully, she took her daughter’s hand in her own. The ret hissed, but allowed this action.

  Atir looked up at Enaid. “I give you pledge for my daughter. Speak.”

  <><><>

  The three in the boat watched the dark creature’s feverish hunt for them as they crossed the water unseen. The power of the gift slowly drained Areenna’s strength as it did Mikaal’s. She reached her free hand to her shoulder and grasped Gaalrie, drawing on whatever energy her aoutem could provide.

  A surge of strength rushed into her and from her to Mikaal. They accepted the treygone’s help and renewed their power even as the boat reached the Island. The dock was the twin of the Landing they’d left a short time before and Areenna breathed a sigh of relief. The only difference between this and the one across the water was that this Landing was at boat level, not above it.

  The Landing was clear and clean and somehow sparkled in the sunlight. Not the same could be said for the Island, for the red mists had grown heavy and at the very edge of the Landing, visibility was nearly impossible.

  “Master Timon,” she said as Gaalrie left her shoulder to settle on the boat’s railing. “Should you decide to wait for our return, you will be safe here. It is a place of sanctuary from what lies within the Island and without as well.”

  “And if I choose to leave?” he asked with raised eyebrows.

  “Then I wish you good fortune and thank you for our lives, which you have saved.”

  “And if I wait for your return, do I get the truth of who the two of you truly are?”

  “If you are here when Mikaal and I return…if we return, we shall be forever in your debt.”

  “That is not an answer.”

  “It is the best I can do, Master Timon, but you already knew so did you not? And if you choose to stay, Gaalrie will keep you good company.”

  Timon looked uneasily at the reddish haze curtaining the Island. He was a brave man, yet his eyes reflected apprehension. “We’ll see what develops while I wait here. That is my only promise.”

  “Understood,” Mikaal said before Areenna could reply. “Whatever happens, we are indebted for your help.” Turning, he hopped from the boat to the Landing, and held out his hand for Areenna, who took it and joined him.

  When their boots touched the Landing, Areenna sensed its protection and gave a sigh of relief. Her energy was growing again, quickly, as it had when they’d reached the opposite Landing. More importantly, and as she had said, she knew this to be a safe place where Timon could wait for them should he choose.

  While Mikaal helped Timon secure the boat with the boat’s own ropes, Areenna felt Gaalrie’s touch and turned to the treygone, who was staring at her from the boat’s railing. She reached up and stroked Gaalrie’s head. You must wait here unless I call. Keep watch.

  The treygone’s anxiety wrapped around her and, as her aoutem had done for her since their bonding, Areenna bathed her with a calmness she did not feel. Gaalrie settled easier on the railing, and Areenna gave her a final gentle stroke before turning to Mikaal.

  “I’m ready,” she said.

  Mikaal turned to the steps leading to the Island and nodded. “Then we should go. We have perhaps eight hours of daylight left.”

  Placing a hand on the pommel of his longsword, he started forward, Areenna a step behind. We must go slow and be watchful, she warned silently.

  He pushed his senses forward, as she had taught him. He hit a blank wall. What is it?

  Areenna joined him and fared no better. Perhaps when we are on the Island itself we cannot use our abilities, she offered, doing her best to hold back the anxiety created by the blankness ahead.

  They climbed the short ladder and stepped through the misty curtain and onto the Island, where they both stood frozen, their eyes searching everywhere. They were on a pathway, a dozen feet across, made of rocks, chunks of debris and earth and littered with a layer of reddish dust
. Everywhere they looked were piles of rubble—twisted beams of steel rose from the ruins, covered with deep brown red rust that shed a constant stream of fine particles onto the ground.

  “The haze is caused by this,” Mikaal said aloud, waving his hand toward the various metal beams. “It is strange, there is only a thin coat of dust on the street, yet it appears to fall constantly.”

  Areenna looked around while he spoke, taking in everything, yet she sensed no danger. She closed her eyes and pushed again. She was able to feel Mikaal and, pushing harder, focused her energies on this one task. A few seconds later something touched the edge of her senses, but what, she could not determine.

  “We must be careful. This place is…different. Our abilities may not work properly. There is something…”

  “I feel it,” Mikaal said. He drew his sword, more for comfort than need. He reached inward and drew on his power. Areenna did the same.

  Forward?

  Forward, Areenna agreed.

  She moved next to him. Together, they walked deeper into the Island, the presence of the long dead hovering at the edges of their minds.

  <><><>

  It was impossible! How could they have disappeared? She paced angrily along the edges of the high cliffs of the southern palisades, not hearing the crash of waves below or the whistle of the winds through the rocky crevices above and below her.

  Just as she had been about to destroy them, a boat had appeared to take them safely from the small skiff. And through the wraith’s eyes as she joined with it to dive at the boat and finally destroy it and those on it, she watched the boat and the people vanish.

  Impossible, she thought again. The woman child was too young to possess such a degree of power. How could she have done so?

  Stopping her mad pacing, she forced herself to think. She knelt on the rocky ledge and closed her eyes. She rejoined her greatest creation and flew with it, high above the Island and the two ancient and protected Landings. Below, she saw the boat tied to the Island Landing.