Prologue
to The Spell Keeper
Three miserable children huddled under the eaves of a cowshed, watching rain douse the flames that had engulfed their home. Salhon the Farmer stood over his grandchildren, staring at the carcasses of his livestock that were strewn in miserable piles throughout the barnyard. The soldiers had killed any animal that they did not take for themselves. Then they had trampled Salhon’s gardens, pillaged his fields, and burned his cottage, leaving him with no way to feed or shelter the children.
His nerves tensed when he spied a group of people on horseback coming around the curve in the narrow road that led up to his small farm. He stepped out from the shed and gestured to the children with an arthritic hand. “Hide yourselves.”
“No, baba.” Niah, his oldest grandchild, slipped her hand in his. “I will come with you.”
With the brave girl holding one hand, Salhon gripped his walking stick tighter with the other and slowly made his way towards the road. As the five riders approached, he was relieved to see that they were not soldiers. A purple-hued Drae woman led the group, and the tyrant did not allow mixed-blood Tevians in his army.
With a wave to the old man, the Drae woman spurred her companions to quicken their pace. At the yard’s edge, the men hung back on their horses as the woman dismounted and approached Salhon.
“Good farmer, you have fallen upon trouble.” Her plum-colored eyes surveyed the desolate farm. “It looks like soldiers from Burken have paid you a visit.”
“Yes, a violent one too.” Salhon angrily gestured around him. “They took everything.”
“Was there no one who could protect you and the children?”
“My son joined the army when we could no longer afford the taxes and planting fees. Now that same army comes to take our livestock and burn our homes. When my daughter-in-law went to seek the aid of our estate lord, he turned her in for being a Dagian. They beat her in front of the children, then took her away…” Salhon’s voice faded to a whisper as his face sank into grief and impotent rage. “I fear that she faces the gallows.”
“You are fellow Dagians?” Glancing back at her companions, the Drae woman leaned forward with interest.
“We were, but our god has forsaken us,” Salhon muttered. “We have only ourselves now.”
“That is where you are mistaken,” a new voice said from behind Salhon. The farmer turned to see someone standing in the cowshed with his two other grandchildren, holding their hands.
It was his daughter-in-law.
Overjoyed, he took Niah’s hand and hobbled back to the shed with the Drae woman on his heels. As Salhon approached, his joy was replaced with bewildered panic when his daughter-in-law changed shape before his eyes. Suddenly, Salhon was looking at a pale shade – a ghost of both ageless youth and ancient wisdom with strikingly feline features and strange, immutable eyes that were golden like the greater sun. Glowing with the knowledge of countless years, the spirit’s eyes held the farmer’s for a moment. In this gaze, there was peace and affection that was tangible and familiar. Salhon knew to his core that he was in the presence of divinity, and a growing sense of wonder overcame his fear. Awestruck, he turned to the Drae, who smiled reassuringly.
“My men can take you somewhere safe,” she offered, gesturing the company that was still mounted-up on the road. “I will go into Burken and do what I can to find your daughter-in-law.”
“Thank you,” Salhon murmured. Then he turned back towards the whimsical spirit that was now making his grandchildren giggle with funny faces.
“You possess divine powers beyond mortal knowledge,” he said to his deity. “Why do you not end this?”
The spirit blinked innocently then reached to touch the old farmer on the chin with an airy, gossamer hand. “Because it is not time yet; we are still waiting.”
“Waiting for what?”
“An army gathers in the memory of our King, for the cause of the Spell Keeper.” The spirit cocked his ethereal head and said merrily, “We wait for a group that travels with a rogue, a healer – and a boy with a book.”
The Spell Keeper is available in print and as an e-book. multiple platforms including Kindle and Nook!