When the announcement was made at the opening of the celebration that the Queen was with child, jubilation swept throughout the city like the rising swell of an ocean wave. It moved outwards from the city of Sandrine to the rest of the kingdom like wildfire. Messengers departed the instant the news was revealed, riding to the four corners of Carleon to deliver the announcement that an heir was coming, finally marking the successful ascension of King Dare to his throne.
Days before the celebration the city of Sandrine was transformed into a magical version of itself, full of lights and coloured banners, streamers hanging from every window and awnings on every street. Merchants were commissioned to provide food and ale for all the guests in and out of the palace. City workers were soon erecting tents, assembling tables in squares where the feast for the commonfolk would be held, while stages were erected for the performers who would be entertaining the masses. Fireworks were prepared, and a steady stream of cooks, performers and guests began arriving into the city to take part in the celebration.
It was a celebration that superseded the grandeur of the King’s coronation following the destruction of Balfure and the final sacking of Abraxes. Too many had suffered and died during Balfure’s tyranny for the King to make his ascension to the throne a celebration. Furthermore, there were families still burying and mourning the dead after the battle of Astaroth had come to an end. It was enough to have a coronation and a wedding that symbolised the beginning of a new age for kingdom without the need for any extravagant pomp.
The arrival of a new Prince was something else entirely. It was the hope of new life and a future that promised stability for the next fifty years. That was cause enough for a celebration of a special magnificence.
The inhabitants of Sandrine lined the streets watching the procession of guests, fascinated to see folk they had only heard about in legend, such as the mage Tamsyn and the High Queen of the Elves—the very beautiful Lylea who was mother to their own Queen. The alliance made elves known to the people of Sandrine, but even the most jaded were dazzled as Lylea rode by in her robes of white. They gaped in wonder as she passed them, thinking that she could be one of the Celestials walking in their midst.
Once the announcement was made the festivities truly began and continued into the night. The setting of the sun only brought more revels to the already exciting day as fireworks were launched into the night sky and magic tricks were performed by skilled, if powerless magicians. Gasps of excitement swept through the crowds as each explosion of colour and light superseded the last spectacle. Fireworks of giant wyverns trailed sparkles of glittering embers as they flew overhead in the night air, followed by horses thundering across the sky and butterflies streaking past the audience like clusters of falling stars.
The merriment was no less spectacular within the palace of the King. Guests were received with much warmth while as friends were reunited, regaling each other with tales of their homeland and their adventures since parting company. Keira related to Dare all the gossip in the Green while Celene, once a member of his Circle during the war, told Aeron and Arianne how things faired Gislaine, the city she and Ronen now ruled in the Southern Provinces. Meanwhile Kyou explained to Tully the tremendous undertaking that was the refortification of Sandrine’s defences and how fared his family who had returned to Iridia and awaiting his return upon its completion.
Neither Tamsyn nor Lylea made any mention of the Enemy for the moment.
*****
It always amused Celene just how nervous the King seemed to get whenever she, Keira and Arianne wandered off to talk privately away from the hearing of their men.
She had no idea what secrets Dare thought she might impart upon Arianne, or Keira for that matter but Celene took great delight in making the King of the realm a little anxious whenever she made the suggestion. It was truly ludicrous when one considered how highly she held Dare in regard, and obviously she would never dream of embarrassing him before his Queen. Well, not much anyway. Besides, the only stories she had of him were of their adventures when they crossed Avalyne to create the alliance needed to launch his campaign against Balfure.
In a houseful of sons, Celene was the only daughter to Yalen, Angarad’s King. Her mother Celene, for whom she was named, died in childbirth leaving her to be raised by her father, who saw no reason to treat her any differently than a boy. While certain aspects of her upbringing were handled by her nurse Ilsa, for most part Celene was educated and raised side by side with her brothers.
Like all women of the Angarad, Celene was required to wield a sword. Angarad could not be expected to defend its borders against Balfure if not all her people were schooled in the art of war. It was a matter of pride that the Angarad believed themselves to be greatest sword masters, riders and combatants amongst the race of men. This included the females of their population. Despite their dedication to combat, the Angarad were not mindless warmongers thirsty for blood. Learning to wield a weapon was paramount, but the mind was an instrument too and it had to be honed as sharply as the blade.
Warriors of Angarad were masters of war in all its form, both on the battlefield and off. Their military education was not simply about physical combat, but also learning that war could be an art, that armies moved like pieces on a board and a victory could be achieved long before they even touched the field. Her father had been a great proponent of this idea, and though it came at a bloody cost at time, he was able to outmanoeuvre most attempts by Balfure to take Angarad.
However, even his determination was not inexhaustible. She lost three brothers and had two remaining by the time Dare appeared at the capital city of Wyndfyre proposing an alliance. Although the relationship between Angarad and Carleon was close before Balfure, the occupation had kept Angarad isolated but still her father had listened. The exiled King of Carleon proposed something that had not ever been suggested, an alliance that united elves, men and dwarves.
The advantages were great, and though her father had reservations about dealing with the elves, he had no such qualms about embracing the dwarves as allies.
When Iridia fell, the dwarves suffered the worst of it. Hunted for their expertise, they were scattered throughout Avalyne, seeking refuge with anyone who would give them shelter. Some came to Angarad offering their skills as master craftsmen in exchange for a home. Her father saw the advantage and very soon as sizeable contingent of dwarves were making their home in the Eirian Hills outside Wyndfyre. For the next two decades, the peoples worked together and kept Angarad free of Balfure. By the time Dare arrived in Wyndfyre, the dwarves had become such a large part of Angarad life that it was difficult to imagine a time when they were apart from it.
The Angarad had no such experience with the elves.
Although Dare travelled to Angarad with an elf from the court of Eden Halas, her father was reluctant to believe the elves would participate in any alliance. The immortal elves had never shown any interest in the affairs of men in the past and had given no indication that this was likely to change. It was believed that the elves’ part in the Primordial Wars, playing the role of cannon fodder for the Gods, had made them weary of all affairs save their own. However, things have changed, Dare explained.
The elves were under threat too. The Veil protecting Eden Ardhen, home to the High Queen, was breached with the lady forced to flee to the other side of Avalyne. Her son, Adric, had been killed in the defence of the city by Berserkers. Such cause for anguish by their most revered elder was affront, but the reality that their numbers were no match for Balfure stayed their hand and left them seething with unresolved anger.
It was Celene who convinced Yalen to let her join Dare’s Circle—to travel with him and if he did indeed have the support he claimed to posses from the elves. Her father was reluctant to let her go, but he had sons to defend the realm and he could not deny a daughter who was trained but untested, the chance to prove herself. He understood her need to find her own destiny, to blood her sword and be the warrior he had moulded her to be.
Celene was nineteen years old when she joined Dare. The exiled King had accepted her presence with some ambivalence, as he was unaccustomed to a woman with a sword. Unlike Angarad, the women of Carleon were not warriors. However, time and experience would soon make him appreciate her skills as they faced many evils over the years. From fighting Berserkers, goblins and ogres, and hiding from the Disciples, she had been at his side as the Shadow Lord hurled all the darkness he could at Dare to prevent him from uniting Avalyne.
When it was time for the campaign to begin, Celene rode at his side along with Aeron and Kyou, leading the warriors of Angarad into battle.
It was during the siege of Astaroth, deep in the heart of Abraxes that Celene was almost killed by an ogre. She had faced them before but this one was of a breed she had not seen, with a serpent’s tongue and clawed feet. It resembled a lizard more than an ogre. She fought it as best she could but there came a moment when Celene came face-to-face with the realisation that the thing was going to kill her. No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than a soldier of Carleon drove a spike through the creature’s side, taking advantage of its single-minded pursuit of the warrior maiden to the expense of all else.
In its death throes the beast swung its large mace one last time, but it was enough to sweep the soldier off his feet with a blow that should have killed him. Celene heard his bones crack against the boulder when he landed making a chilling sound that would follow her to the grave. Stunned by the sudden rescue, she recovered her senses and rushed to his side, refusing to abandon this man who came out of nowhere to save her. She found him where he landed, his head bleeding and his body limp. However there was still enough breath left in him for Celene to drag him off the field and place him on a cart bound for the healers’ tent. Then she returned to the battle.
Days later, she sought him out to learn that he did survive, despite the severity of his wounds. He was not conscious when she happened upon him because his skull had almost been split open by his landing against the rocks. It was many days after she found him, that he finally regained consciousness and introductions were made.
His name was Ronen and he was a Captain of Carleon. Celene knew the name. He was the first Captain of Sandrine to pledge allegiance to the exiled King when Dare came to the city during the occupation. While Celene had not met him in person, Dare had spoken of the captain who was tired of enforcing Balfure’s tyranny and wanted to be a soldier who fought for his people instead of being the instrument of their oppression.
After Balfure had been vanquished for good and the army recovered its wounds, she would visit him everyday at the healer’s tent and they would talk. She of Angarad and he of Sandrine. He was surprisingly educated for a soldier and had the heart of scholar. Like her, he had lost family to Balfure’s forces and in their shared grief, they formed a deep understanding of how each other mourned and loved.
When it was time for him to return to Carleon with the rest of wounded, the ache she felt at his departure was like nothing she’d ever known. She missed talking to him, missed how he made her laugh or point out how she was far too serious for a maid, even one who wielded the sword. She did not know if Dare had any ulterior motive when the King asked her to accompany the wounded soldier out of the war zone, but for once she had not minded being sent off the field.
She knew she was in love with Ronen before they even got halfway to Sandrine.
*****
‘So tell me, Arianne,’ Celene asked as the she, Keira and the Queen walked the gardens of the palace, away from the noise of the celebration taking place in the Great Hall. ‘How does it feel to have the House of Icara’s newest heir growing inside you?’
Since her marriage to Ronen, Celene had spent four months of the year at Sandrine. This was required for Ronen to fulfil his duties as Bân. During the sojourn, Celene had become a trusted friend to the terribly homesick Arianne, who missed Eden Taryn and was still finding her way among humans after being sheltered behind the Veil for so long.
As two friends, they could not have been more different. While Arianne was elven grace personified, Celene’s hair was like the gold of a sandy shore and her disposition just as breezy. She had hazel eyes and preferred breeches to dresses. However, they both shared a liking for the absurd and as Dare and Ronen had often remarked beyond their hearing, they shared the same stubborn streak capable of bending iron.
‘Nicely put, Celene,’ Arianne replied with a smile, accustomed to Celene’s teasing. Celene had a mischievous wit, and Arianne knew that much of the reason why she enjoyed her company was because the daughter of Angarad could make her laugh.
‘I agree,’ Keira said giving Celene a look of amusement. ‘You sound like Tully when he’s describing one of the sheep after quickening!’
‘Fine, fine,’ Celene said as she rolled her eyes. ‘Your highness, is your heart all aquiver and your soul warm with the joy of delivering to your lord and master his first heir?’ She smirked.
‘I think I preferred the first way,’ Arianne returned, making her face at Celene's amendment. ‘However, to answer your question, I feel well. I am told that this will change as the child grows, but I suppose it is the same for all women, human or elf.’
‘Tully is looking at me strangely,’ Keira frowned. ‘I think your situation has made him wonder why we aren’t like everyone in the village, saddled with a dozen children. Not we have failed for the lack of trying.’
Although she was smiling as she spoke, it did not reach her eyes. Both Arianne and Celene understood that this would bother Keira, because the people of the Green tended to have large families and lack of children at Furnsby Farm would not have gone unnoticed by their neighbours. Worse yet, she had to be concerned that there was the possibility that the Disciples’ torture might have made her incapable of bearing them at all.
‘I think a child will only form when it is ready, but there is nothing wrong with enjoying each other before a third party arrives. It felt like Dare and I waited to be with each other for so long that we wish to wait for nothing. We have only one lifetime to share together and so we must fill every moment of it as soon as possible. It feels right for us that a child should come sooner rather than later.’
Arianne smiled to herself, remembering the searing night of passion that followed after she had told him about the baby. ‘Do not worry about children just yet,’ she said to Keira, trying to put the woman’s mind at ease. ‘Let it happen as it will. If I were you, I’d enjoy the time when it is just the two of you because once the children come, the whole world changes. I know it has already for Dare and I.’
‘That's true,’ Celene agreed, giving Keira a look of sympathy realising what Arianne was about. ‘Still, I think all men feel that they have failed in some fashion if they do not produce a strapping son to follow them. I came from a house of five brothers. When the time comes for me, I want a girl.’
‘You would say that,’ Arianne retorted. ‘You just want someone to teach the sword.’
‘I know I could teach a boy too, but it won’t be nearly as interesting.’ Celene winked at her two friends.
‘Honestly, Celene,’ Keira declared. ‘I don’t know if I would have had the courage to do what you did—fighting at Astaroth and then leading your father’s army into battle.’
‘Nonsense,’ Celene dismissed such talk immediately. ‘You saved Dare from the Disciples. We all know what you went through to do that and I cannot say if I would have prevailed in the face of the Blinding Curse. I can fight against things I can raise a sword to. What you endured, that was different.’
‘Strength does not require a person to be a great swordsman,’ Arianne said, squeezing Keira’s shoulder. ‘Sometimes it’s just having the will to endure.’
‘Thank you,’ Keira said gratefully. ‘Poor Tully seems to think I’m so fragile and I want to show him I’m not.’
‘He’s a man,’ Celene snorted. ‘They never know anything until you hit them on the head with it. I never had to prove myself in Angarad, it was only after I left that I was treated differently. Men always seem to think you need special consideration.’
‘Tully loves you, Keira,’ Arianna said kindly. ‘I think that he has been so worried about you healing that he has forgotten to do it himself.’
‘I suppose.’ The lady of the Green sighed before deciding that a return to a happier subject was in order. ‘So I suppose this means that if we have daughters, they too will be headstrong, determined and thoroughly capable of getting into trouble?’
‘I prefer the word self-sufficient as opposed to headstrong,’ Celene quipped.
‘Self-sufficient—I do believe I like the sound of that,’ Arianne nodded with agreement before the three women exchanged glances and burst out into another round of laughter.
Suddenly, a beam of moonlight slipped past the clouds and struck the pond in the centre of the garden. The reflection of the moon shimmered across the surface and its light caught Arianne in the eye. For a moment, she felt her mind empty and the voices of Keira and Celene seemed like distant echoes. Without warning, she heard her mother’s soft voice speak inside her mind.
Come Arianne, it is time to begin.
*****
The summons by Lylea had left Arianne with such a feeling of anxiety that both Celene and Keira insisting on following her to her audience with her mother. None of them spoke as they approached Lylea because they could feel the weight of something terrible awaiting revelation in Arianne’s eyes. There was a sense of ominous foreboding in the air when they found themselves standing next to Lylea at another part of the palace grounds. This space was more isolated, with a tall hedge that allowed no one to see them as they stood in its boundaries waiting for Lylea to speak.
Oddly enough, Lylea did not object to either Keira or her being present. Celene noticed this and wondered why. The elves were not known for their ability to take other races into their confidence, and while Arianne was different from most, Celene did not expect her mother the Queen to be similarly disposed.
‘Thank you for accompanying my daughter,’ Lylea said to Celene and Keira upon receiving them. ‘She will need your strength.’
Celene suddenly felt terribly afraid for Arianne.
‘My daughter.’ Lylea turned to Arianne and spoke softly, reaching forward to brush her hand over her daughter’s hair like she had done for most of Arianne’s life. ‘There is something you must see, something I must show you.’
‘What is it, mother?’ Arianne asked, more than a little afraid. All her life she had seen Lylea’s prescience at work and though she did not have her mother’s talent, she believed in its power. Her mother was standing in front of a smaller pond, holding an urn she knew her mother used when there was a vision she wanted to share with someone who did not have the Sight.
‘I think you know,’ Lylea replied and poured the contents of the urn into the pool. The water trickled forth lightly, creating gurgles against the broken surface that sent ripples outward
‘I don't know,’ Celene blurted out, feeling the same fear and reacting in the only manner in which she knew against such anxiety. ‘Tell me.’
‘All in good time,’ Lylea said smoothly, accustomed to such impatience from humans.
Arianne swallowed thickly, looking to Celene and Keira before turning to Lylea once more, her innards twisting with growing anxiety. Her mother’s Sight showed many things—the past, the present and the future. It was a window into infinite possibilities, and yet as Lylea asked her to look she felt uncommonly afraid, more than was usual for her. She was not a woman who cowered in fear at the first sign of danger. She had faced evil before and prevailed. But this thing that Lylea would have her do frightened her in a way she could not explain and yet could not refuse either.
Arianne decided finally that the fear would only have more power over her mind if she continued to delay, and so she neared the edge and cast her gaze into the pool, seeing what it was Lylea needed her to witness. As Celene and Keira took a step closer she wondered whether they would see the same things as had.
At first she saw nothing except water becoming stilled after its earlier turbulence. The ripples disappeared into a smooth reflective surface once more. Arianne could see the stars twinkling from the sky in the reflection and drew comfort from that. However, it was short-lived.
The twinkles of lights coalesced on the surface of the dark water into a raging inferno that turned the pool amber with flame. Arianne's breath caught and she wanted to recoil but the images forming before her were mesmerizing. They ensnared her mind in their trap so she was unable to look away.
And it showed Arianne her son.
She knew he could be no one else, because he had the look of his father except perhaps his hair was darker and his chin more set.
He wore the armour of the King about to ride into battle, and though she did not know him, she loved him immediately for he was as beautiful as she always imagined a child of her and Dare’s would be. She saw him riding into the night, with Carleon’s banner held high and his armies behind him. But there was something strange about the soldiers—they did not appear as they should. For a brief instant Arianne tried hard to discern what was so strange about them, when the glow of the flames illuminated one of their faces and she understood why.
They were Berserkers!
Her son was the leader of an army of Berserkers! How was this possible? There was little time to question this as the image changed again, and this time it was not of a handsome king leading his troops into battle. It was the image of a madman waging war and presiding over the slaughter of innocents in a ruined city. She knew without doubt was Gislaine. Its tall spires were ablaze like candles burning in the night. She could not hear the screams, but she could feel them in faces of the people fleeing and by the Orean River that ran through Gislaine filled with bloated bodies.
And in the centre of all this carnage was her son!
She knew without seeing the scope of it all that he was bringing war to the cities of Carleon as if he was claiming his lordship over them by violence. Her child—the one slumbering even now in her womb as she watched this nightmare unfold—was going to be monster! Her and Dare’s child would be an evil more terrifying than even Balfure! The horror of it was beyond her comprehension. She could not believe that the Gods would allow an act of love between two parents to culminate in the birth of such a creature!
‘WHAT IS THIS OBSCENITY?’ Arianne demanded screaming, stepping back from the pool too horrified to think.
‘Arianne!’ Keira immediately came to her friend's side as Arianne sank to her knees shaking in disgust and horror at what she had witnessed.
‘What has she seen?’ the Lady of Gislaine demanded vehemently of Lylea. She and Keira had not seen what Arianne had, but the horror on her face told Celene it was terrible indeed.
‘She has seen what could be,’ Lylea revealed, her face showing the pain of forcing her child to see the dark future that lay before her and all of Avalyne. However, she stood here not as the mother of Arianne but as the Queen of elvendom.
‘What could be?’ Arianne cried out, looking up at her mother with tears running down her face. ‘You turn this happy day into a nightmare and speak in riddles? My son cannot be this creature that I have seen! I will not believe it!‘
Lylea finally went to her daughter and lowered herself unto the grass next to Arianne, taking the hand that Keira had been holding and spoke gently. ‘You must believe it, little one,’ Lylea said, using that childhood nickname. ‘You must believe it, because it will come to pass unless you stop it.’
‘Me?’ Arianne stammered, her mind reeling still from the images. ‘I do not understand!’
‘There is an evil afoot—an ancient one that we have not seen hiding because we were preoccupied with the threat of Balfure and his war,’ Lylea explained. ‘For many years this Enemy has been watching and waiting for one thing—the conception of your child.’
‘What is this Enemy?’ Celene demanded, furious that there was still evil that could bring darkness to Avalyne after their hard won battles against Balfure. Have there not been enough brave men dying to prevent such a thing? How many more needed die? How much more was needed before they could be truly free? ‘What is this new evil?’
‘It is not new,’ Lylea continued and turned her attention back to Arianne. ‘My sweet Arianne, trust me when I say to you that all is not lost. What you have seen is indeed your son in the flesh but his soul was vanquished before he was born and replaced by another.’
‘Replaced?’ Keira exclaimed in shock.
Arianne was growing confused and stared at her mother. ‘Who then has possession of his life?’
‘Mael.’ Lylea’s voice was barely a whisper.
Neither Celene or Keira recognised the name immediately, but Arianne certainly did.
‘That’s impossible!’ she declared. ‘He was destroyed! The Gods threw him into the Aether! He was vanquished!’
‘Mael, as he was known in the latter days, is one of the Celestial Gods,’ Lylea replied. ‘He was made by the Creator and is equal to any one of them. He may have been bound to Avalyne when he chose to come here but like the Gods, he does not die. He is disembodied but his spirit lives. The Enemy has decided that now that Balfure is gone, it is time for the return of his former master, Mael. However, Mael cannot be resurrected without a vessel, and so the Enemy has chosen your child for that purpose.’
‘No!’ Arianne's cry was almost on the verge of hysteria. ‘I will not allow this! There must be a way to stop this abomination!’
‘There is,’ Lylea nodded. ‘The Enemy cannot perform the ritual to resurrect Mael until your babe is strong enough to accept such a spirit. It is too young and too fragile inside you to make such an attempt now. You must stop it before two full moons have passed. Arianne only you can do this because as much as the Enemy hates us all, it cannot allow any harm to come to you. You are the mother of its future master, and while it may kill all others around you, you are beyond its reach.’
‘Dare cannot know then,’ Arianne declared, meeting the eyes of the other women in the garden. ‘If he learns of this danger he will insist on fighting it and the Enemy will destroy him.’
‘Yes,’ her mother nodded gravely. ‘This is your quest, Arianne. The fate of your child lies is in your hands alone.’
‘No,’ Celene stated, not understanding all of it, but enough to know that her friend was not going on a terrible quest alone. ‘I will go with you Arianne. I will pledge my sword as the Lady of Gislaine and as a Princess of Angarad to the service of my friend and my Queen.’
‘And I’ll come too…’ Keira started to say when Arianne cut her off.
‘I can’t ask you both to do that,’ Arianne spoke, her voice very small in her ears. ‘This is my doom.’
‘All the more reason for you to have help,’ Celene retorted, her tone indicating that she would tolerate no argument on the matter.
Arianne closed her eyes, feeling tears of anguish rising up within her. She wanted to scream and shout at the unfairness of this but she could not waste time with such displays. Inside her body, her son needed her to be strong for him, stronger than she had ever been in her whole life. She could not falter now not when his soul was at stake. She would accept their help because she was not foolish enough to think that she could do this without her friends at her side.
‘Tell me then, mother,’ Arianne said finally. ‘What must I do?’