|
Synopsis
Elves search for immortal love, men search for immortal life.
Elves and dark elves live amongst mortal men and dwarves. Men have struggled for centuries to create the elusive elixir of immortality, to be the first to make it and better still the first to taste it. News breaks out that one has finally been made, but just as quickly it is stolen by an unknown. The quest begins for duke Ealdor in the south to track down the thief and obtain the precious liquid at any price. If the elves find it first, he knows they will destroy it, and time is not a luxury he can yet afford.
For the creator of the terrible elixir, the price of artificial immortality has proven dear indeed, if it should fall into the wrong hands now
For Ahliya, friendship and trust hang in the balance with betrayal and treachery at every turn. Can she fight off her aggressors for long enough to stop Ealdor finding the elixir?
She and a handful of her closest friends take a glimpse into their futures in the form of a scrying bowl. The symbology it provides them is vague to say the least. The test if all of their futures will unravel as foretold will be if the first predicted tragic event takes place
With dark elves manipulating others around her, who is there left to trust?
First Chapter
Prince Leucan stared out of the study window; the first snows of autumn lightly dusted the twilit gardens outside. To the south and west the endless shadowed pinewoods and birches of Blackthorn forest stretched, engulfing the castle. Beyond that lay the plains, where he would shortly be headed.
What does Krill want you for? His fathers question shattered his train of thought. Leucan's gaze lingered in the direction of the plains for a few seconds longer and then he turned around.
He wants me to help a friend of his escape the woods of Meillion, far to the south of here. A girl called Ahliya .
His father frowned over the tips of his shoes as his feet rested on the desk in front of him. He remembered something faintly in the back of his memory. Krill was Leucan s best friend and travelling companion from outside of the forest. He seemed a sensible enough elf. The king put his book down and focussed on his fair-haired son. The last time Krill had visited had been little over a month ago. Many of the elves that dwelt here in Blackthorn had listened with awe as Krill gave them news of lands outside their sheltered realm. The most disturbing had been the rumour that mortals in the hot and dusty southern lands were trying to create an elixir of immortal life. The king shivered at the thought, and forced his thoughts back to the conversation in hand.
Didn't Krill try to get her out of there a while back?
Leucan nodded and turned back to the snow again. It was falling much thicker now. Krill had tried more than once to get out her of Meillion, but the same oppression she was fleeing from had so far blocked all her attempts to leave it. Parents who'd thought her presence a blessing not fifty years ago, now turned cruelly against her and she was virtually a prisoner. Leucan didn't know much about the cruel treatment she had suffered, he only heard dark hints from Krill himself.
What s she like? his father asked with feigned disinterest, his twitching feet giving away his intrigue. He wondered not only if the girl was pretty; but also if his only son was heading for danger of any kind. If so, then he would put a stop to his trip out.
Leucan just shrugged, still staring outside. He'd never met her. It was obvious that Krill had high hopes of more than just friendship, however. Leucan smiled to himself. Reading between the lines from his last meeting with his raven-haired best friend, a little over a month ago, it was clear that feelings were not reciprocated. She had apparently spelt it out to Krill that his offer to help was accepted purely in the realm of friendship. If she had to - she'd get herself out of Meillion. Krill hadn't stopped raving to Leucan just how gorgeous she was, and was falling over himself to impress. Leucan shook his head and tutted at his absent friend as he looked out over the deserted darkened forest.
"I haven t met her," Leucan replied honestly and noticing the glint in his father s eye, "She'll be too busy fighting Krill off to bother with anyone else, so don t get your hopes up." Leucan shoved his hands deep into his pockets and closed the shutters.
King Cadarn glowered back into his book at his son s resistance to any attempt to find him a female. They'd waited forever for a princess in Blackthorn and right now all their hopes were pinned on his only son. At times like this he wished he'd had a daughter.
Leucan turned and headed out of the study to avoid his father s favourite subject. He knew a lot more about Ahliya than he had any intention of letting on.
"Just make sure you re back in plenty of time for your birthday," the final word was hollered through the door, "the people want to celebrate your five hundred and fiftieth."
Leucan strode, into his adjoining room and rolled his eyes. "They have every devoted bit of me already," he said softly under his breath, his deep sense of duty playing tug of war with his own private wishes. He was not interested in arguing with his father tonight. No, his sights were set on getting out of Blackthorn and into the wild lands again, and to meet the girl he had heard so much about from Krill.
He threw his thick travelling cloak on and strapped a bag and quiver to his back. His elf made longbow shrank to half its size to slip securely into one of the straps on his back. Pulling a hat down low over his blonde hair he gave the soles of his father's feet one last look through the open door and tutting benignly at him, set off into the night.
In Meillion wood five days ride away Ahliya made her excuses from the evening meal and walked slowly back to her chambers her mind deep in thought and her heart full of trepidation. Scents of damp woodland mosses under foot mingled with that of food recently served somewhere amongst the leafy oaks. Tonight with Krill s help she was going to flee this dark spellbound place. All she knew was that he had arranged to meet a friend of his outside the borders for extra protection across the plains, but to get that far first they had to get away from the watchful eyes of her parents. Her adoptive parents.
Ahliya was brought as a young child to Meillion from the far off land of Norentyr to a childless and desperate Hael and Mirain. A cold-hearted Mirain pleaded barrenness to her husband, Hael. He in his turn pleaded with the elf gods for a child, even if it was not to be one of their own. He couldn't understand his wife s insistence that she was unable to bear children. He had never heard of an elf woman who couldn't.
Someone in the mythical land of Norentyr where the gods themselves dwelt took pity upon him and gave him one of their own to take care of.
Hael treasured the beautiful baby daughter when she arrived, becoming instantly attached to the bubbly child. But Mirain would have nothing to do with her, and looked at Ahliya with only hatred at the intrusion her presence brought.
As Ahliya grew up in Meillion, looking for all intents and purposes like one of the elves she was surrounded by, she became the apple of Hael's eye. Mirain's hatred of the child she did not want grew to into something unquantifiable just as Hael s devotion to his daughter blossomed.
Enough was enough for the icy Mirain. As Ahliya reached the tender age of twenty, the twisted elf woman reeled Hael s devotions back towards herself with dark brooding magic, and away from the daughter she had not asked for...
|