Drasal Lands Page 4

I saw my father standing by the pen, brushing his horse. The woman with red hair, Neira, was there as well.

  "I cannot hide how I feel for you Aasulf." she said to my father. Her eyes were rimmed with red and she looked to be on the edge of tears.

  My father tossed the horse brush into the corner. "I cannot help that, but I do not feel the same way. I am sorry Neira."

  Neira rushed forward and wrapped her arms around my father's neck. She pressed her lips against his but he pulled away, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

  "You cannot tell me that you do not feel something for me!" she shouted.

  "I do not feel anything besides pity." he shouted back. "You know I am in love with Ambriel. I will marry her. She is your friend, and that you seek to destroy her happiness is a terrible thing Neira! Do you not see how terrible it is?"

  "She took you from me! She knew I wished to be with you!" she said as the tears spilled over.

  "Silly fantasies of a young girl Neira, nothing more." he said. "A person cannot be taken from someone to whom they don’t belong. I was not yours to be kept or to be taken."

  "But I love you Aasulf." she said quietly.

  I watched my father turn and walk away from her. He said nothing as he left her alone in the stable.

  Flash of light, white and blinding and I saw my parents on their wedding day.

  My mother in white and my father in his best attire. They were smiling and happy and then they were gone.

  I was in the forest on the lands of Castle Drasal. I saw Neira stumbling through the underbrush.

  "Where is she going?" I asked. Neither Uror nor her sisters spoke.

  I watched Neira sit down on the ground. "Maidens of Fate!" she screamed.

  I saw mirror images of Uror, Skuld, and Veroandi appear before her. I looked back at them. They were stoic.

  "We do not interfere in the fates of mortals." Uror told Neira.

  "I want her dead! I want them both dead! You will do this for me!" Neira screamed.

  "You do not command us." Skuld said flatly.

  "And yet you appear here before me!" Neira shouted. "Is there nothing I can give? Nothing you desire?"

  "From you, mortal?" Veroandi asked.

  The mirror images of the Fates disappeared and Neira sat alone in the dirt.

  "She wanted you to kill my parents?" I asked. I was numb.

  "Indeed." said Uror.

  I watched Neira turn and ran into the woods.

  "There is one last thing I need to show you Erelia." Uror said to me. "It will be difficult. But you must see in order to understand."

  I nodded my head although I was not at all sure I wanted to see what was next.

  A flash of light. I stood in my father's quarters in Castle Drasal. My mother was sitting in the corner, dozing off as she held a baby in her arms. A cup of some steaming liquid sat on a small table next to her. She stood and placed the infant in a small wooden crib. She returned to her chair and I watched as her eyelids fluttered to a close and her breathing became slow and steady.

  I smiled. "That is me."

  "Yes." said Uror.

  As my mother slept I heard the familiar sound of the door to my father's chamber open. My mother did not stir.

  I thought for a moment that my father would enter he room to join her. I was horrified to see that it was not my father at all. It was Neira, slinking in and standing over my mother.

  "No!" I shouted.

  Neira reached into the folds of her cloak and pulled from it a small glass vial. She silently removed the top and emptied its contents into my mother's cup. She then walked to my crib and stroked my cheek.

  She disappeared out the door just as mother groggily opened her eyes. She picked up the cup and drank its contents before crawling into bed and nodding off to sleep. I knew that this time she would sleep forever.

  Suddenly, I was sitting in my father's bed, the Maidens of Fate surrounding me. I cried for so long that I thought they would simply abandon me. They did not.

  "She killed my mother." I said.

  "Your father knew she was behind it." Uror said. "She envied your mother's elven bloodlines, she envied her beauty, and she envied the love your father had for his Queen and his daughter."

  "Neira did not kill Sharian. She has locked him away. She hopes you will come for him so that she may do away with you as she has done with the rest of your family."

  "I have no chance of defeating her. That is what Ozemis said to me." I sobbed.

  "On your own, it cannot be done. She has given her life to the darkness that dwells inside of her. She has embraced it and so she has become more powerful than we could have anticipated." said Veroandi.

  "You said on my own, do you mean to say there is someone who can help me?"

  "The bloodlines form your mother's elven heritage are long and stretch back eons. There is one who shares that blood line, a powerful elven Queen who rules the elven kingdom in the Northwoods. She is known as Alvena and she is the only one who can help you."

  "Why?" I asked.

  "Alvena is inherently good." said Skuld. "She is as good as Neira is evil. There must be a balance. This is the way of all things in this world and the next."

  The Fates gathered to each other once again and as they stood together I knew they would leave me to find my own way.

  "What is my fate?" I asked. Ozemis' vision lingered in my mind.

  "Your fate in uncertain." said Veroandi. "When I look I see nothing, which means only that the choices you have yet to make will be what decides your fate."

  Skuld reached into the folds of her ragged dress and pulled from it a glowing object that was almost as long as her arm.

  "What is that?" I asked.

  "It is the life of Neira." said Skuld. "Every soul has one, and when their time in this world is done, it is cut like a length of twine and that soul then passes into the underworld to be judged."

  Veroandi then produced a pair of golden shears and attempted to cut the glowing string dangling from Skuld's hand. It did not break.

  "Neira has used an enchantment to protect herself from the debt that all souls must pay. Death." said Veroandi. "In order for you to destroy her completely and save Sharian, you must break the enchantment."

  I stared at the glowing piece of twine and thought how delicate mortal souls must be.

  And then before I could blink, I was alone. Sitting on the edge of my father's bed was a badly worn piece of paper folded four times over. I opened it and saw that it was a map of Drasal's vast lands and the lands that lay beyond its borders. Clearly marked at the top of the map was the Northwoods.

  I knew what must be done. I would go to the ends of the earth to save Sharian and avenge my mother and father. I knew that the journey would be treacherous and I did not intend to make it alone.

  My eyes washed over the map and I gazed at another area where a destination was clearly marked. Marauder's Grove. I needed to see Ozemis again and I needed to plan my father's funeral.

  THE END

  PART 1

  Drasal Lands:Journey to the Northwoods

  Book 2

  Join Princess Erelia Starsinger and Ozemis as they make the treacherous journey to the Northwoods in search of the Elven Queen Alvena. Will they survive the journey? Will Erelia ascend to the throne before the evil Scias has a chance to thwart her? Can Sharian be saved? Find out in the pages of Drasal Lands: Journey to the Northwoods, Book 2, coming Winter 2015!