Guardian Dragons (14 page)

‘Forgive me Lord Hyfer but I am
not aware of any Primary Union and what have I got to do with your
son needing a bride?’ Minnah choked out the words.

‘No, I don’t suppose you have been
given much time to prepare yourself but that can come later.
Please, come and meet my son Heimarl, and all will be
revealed.’

Heimarl had watched Minnah’s arrival from his viewpoint
where he stood unobserved on a landing at the top of a yellow sand
stone stairway. He was aware that she would have no idea who had
been sending her the fragrant bouquets. She had no idea who had
really invited her to this sudden supper, on this moonsleep. He was
most curious to observe her reactions as her mystery unravelled.
This would reveal telltale signs of her character and maybe help
him to understand who she was and why he felt so attracted to her.
Just as
his father arrived to
greet her, he began his descent towards the reception hall. As his
father and Minnah turned around to enter the dining hall he had
timed his arrival to perfection, ready to greet Minnah before she
entered the room where others awaited.

‘Ah, there you are Heimarl,’ his
father announced. ‘Minnah and I are going to supper. Come along,
your mother’s in the dining hall. I must admit the Cachorrenas soup
is the best in these lands, I just love those clams. Minnah, let me
introduce you to my eldest son and heir, Heimarl,’ Hyfer spoke as
if this were just any normal introduction. But to Minnah and
Heimarl, this moonsleep would yield answers.

‘Minnah,’ Heimarl looked directly
in to her sea blue eyes as he gently took her fingertips into his
large hands. ‘I trust you welcomed my gifts of sweet scented
blooms? It was perhaps not fair to assume that you would appreciate
anonymous offerings but at least now you know who the culprit is.
I’ve long admired your gracefulness and merely wished to induce
your curiosity. Can you forgive such a clumsy attempt at
courting?’

Minnah blushed as she stuttered to
reply, ‘I’m privileged to warrant your attentions sir. My curiosity
was indeed roused. May I ask, have we met before as I have a vague
memory of your face?’ Minnah confidently confronted her
suitor.

‘I’ve had the pleasure of
observing you many times but, again, I apologise as you haven’t
closely encountered my presence. You may have seen me from a
distance. It is with regret that I’ve been unable to introduce
myself to you. I have political pressures upon me to choose a
suitable wife. Your birthright entitles you to marry into the mage
bloodline. This however, isn’t the right time for you to decide. I
suppose Minnah I am proposing that we join in marriage, if you’ll
have such a fool as me?’ Heimarl’s blunt attempt to explain all to
Minnah convinced him he had just opened up a pathway to disaster
and Minnah would most certainly reject his impolite and crude
offer.

‘Come young people,’ his father called from the opened
dining hall doorway that revealed an orange glow of light and the
sound of people conversing. ‘Let’s fill our empty bellies before we
proceed with this ill mannered conversation. Forgive my son’s
coarse
attempts at flattery
Minnah. He means well but is under pressure as my heir. I grow old,
very old and need my food so can we eat now?’

Minnah laughed and relaxed a
little, believing the old man was genuinely hungry and all
formalities could wait until later. She felt her tummy churn with
light butterfly movements of excitement. Heimarl was most certainly
tall and handsome. Already she knew her answer to his proposal but
would not reveal this to him, only to his father. She wished to
play her own game of courting and find the romance in Heimarl’s
heart.

Chapter 20
Voices

T
he wedding was all
that Minnah could ever have hoped for.

Her parents were summoned to attend
Beldroth city to meet with the Head Mage’s family and discuss their
daughter’s marriage. When they arrived, a ceremony was held in
their honour and the family was accepted and welcomed into the High
Mages Dynasty. Minnah’s humble parents could never change their
traditional way of life and chose to remain as travelers, content
that their daughter would successfully continue the lineage and
fuse it with that of Heimarls, this would indeed produce a powerful
grandchild.

Only two suncirlces after the
union, Heimarl’s father Hyfer departed from his life bequeathing
his leadership to Hiemarl. Minnah was quick to befriend Queen Elma
and a bond was to entwine their hearts closely. They kept each
other company whilst their loving husbands played politics. Often
their girlish pranks were considered not befitting of ladies of
nobility but King Albert’s eccentric mother always assisted them
out of any troubles that they found themselves in. Their friendship
remained deep for another twelve suncircles but motherhood was
eventually to capture them both and end their immature manners.
When the first royal baby arrived, Queen Elma adored her young son
Amos and finally began to behave as expected of a noble
lady.

It was to be another four
suncircles before Minnah gave birth to a daughter, at her passing
of twenty three suncircles. Already Queen Elma now had two sons.
Head Mage Hiemarl could have taken many wives, as was expected of
his status, to ensure inheritance. Even Hyfer, his father, had
taken five wives although

Heimarl’s mother had been the Head
Wife. His devotion to Minnah had never diminished and so far he had
refrained from partaking in this tradition. When their child
Heather finally decided to enter into the world, she was considered
a very special little bundle. As with any child of the magic
bloodline, no one can be sure exactly what type of magic they may
inherit, but the Prophet Sibarl had predicted that this child’s
gift was worth the long wait, she was born to be a Changeling. It
had been many thousands of suncircles since a child with this
endowment had come forth. The Ancient Mage had been the last
Changeling.

When he had created the Magic Wall,
the spell he cast had allowed only the Guardian Dragons and any
Changeling to pass through the barrier. This meant this girl child
would be raised to be a Protector; she was the only human capable
of passing through the barrier.

Queen Elma died tragically five
suncircles later, giving birth to her youngest son Raphael. Minnah
had refused to have anymore children as her grief for her friend
was so great. Heimarl as Head Mage was expected to have many
children, so he was forced to take more wives and produce more
offspring. Two wives later, he generated another five girls. He
loved all of his daughters but always his heart remained exclusive
for Minnah and her daughter Heather.

King Alfred had also been a devoted
husband but when Elma left him to enter the Realm of Death, his
heart had been broken. He was no longer a good father and he was no
longer a good King. The people had loved him but their patience was
wearing ever thin. It was time for his son Prince Amos to be
crowned King, then he could finally find peace with the
world.

* * *

Head Mage Heimarl awoke with a sudden jolt. His mind
felt
very receptive, almost
raw. He was the only human mage with the power to use mind
possession but he had chosen never to dabble in such dark magic.
Feeling acutely aware of a strong evil at work, he could not
identify what it was he was sensing. Something out there was
attempting mind possession somewhere but he could not track it. He
stood and looked around as if expecting to see this evil in
his
pretty garden. Shaking his
head, assuming he must have been dreaming, he began to make his way
back to the house. Perhaps he needed sustenance, his legs felt
weakened. A house servant rushed to assist him, seeing his
stumble.

‘Head Mage, are you hurt?’ the
servant was concerned for this gentle leader.

‘Something struck me down,’
Heimarl mumbled quietly to himself.

As the house servant assisted him,
his thoughts were elsewhere. He realised, he had been attacked by a
strong evil presence.

* * *

King Alfred slept restlessly.
During his slumber, he had suffered a powerful jolt through his
body. He woke up with a shocking start, shivering in a cold sweat
with a dreaded exhausted feeling that he had been running from a
dreadful evil. Something was chasing him but what had it been? He
looked around his room but could see nothing amiss. His room was
fresh and bright just as it had been when he had nodded off to
sleep. Yet his body felt clammy. What was this dreaded feeling he
was sensing? Something was going to happen; he sensed a bad
premonition. Yet all appeared well. There had been no wars for over
one hundred suncircles so what was he afraid of? His head ached.
Did he hear a whisper?

‘Who’s there?’ the King murmured
fretfully like a meek child.

I am coming for you Alfred
a voice echoed in his mind. Stumbling off his bed, he fell
onto the slippery tiled floor.

Unable to balance his quivering body, he crawled to the
closed door.
Sssooon Alfred.
Sssooon your soul will be mine.

‘Go Away!’ the King yelled
fearfully.

His door swung open as his personal
manservant dashed into the room to answer the call of his
master.

‘Sire, what is it?’ the servant
asked in a panicked rush. ‘Who do you speak to my King?’

‘What, what’s that you say?’ the King looked at his servant
with hazed eyes.
‘What do you
want?’ the King shouted to the ceiling. Lowering his gaze, he
focused on his servant. ‘Oh it’s you. I must have had a bad dream.
Call my son Amos. I will have his advice. Call him
now.’

Pleasant company, yes that was what
he needed. He would seek solace from Amos. If only his sweet wife
was here by his side. If only she still lived, then all would be
well.

His manservant dashed from the
rooms to find the palace healer. His King was unwell. He must
hurry, the King had gone insanely mad.

Chapter 21 Monshaad
Wraiths

S
tretched out across
the ice caps of Nilfe, on the Dark Side of Aarabassa, thousands of
bleak lonely miles fill the landscape with black frozen ice blocks
that boldly tower over the chilly silver seas of the Archaroneon
Oceans. A vile evil threatens to violate the protective Magic Wall
of the Light Side and consume the innocent souls of every living
creature.

Incarcerated in the Dark Side, by
the Magic Barrier, the monshaad Lords reign using their dark magic
skills of mind possession. Their greed of devouring living souls
feeds them the strength to remain the ruling race. Seen as only a
shadowy grey-yellow blur, they leave a foul lingering stench in
their path; a dark murky spectral of pure evil.

With the capacity to bewitch any
meek susceptible mind, through telepathy, of any land or sea
creature on either the Dark or Light Lands, their reach is long.
Mercilessly, the possessed will follow every command of the voices
echoing in their minds. Some of their innocent victims have no
recollection of what they do and simply obey whenever called upon,
unknowingly, only remembering their actions as if in a dark distant
dream. Some serve their Masters willingly. When the time is right,
the possessed crazed creatures will be the pawns within a great
battle of the Dark Side against the Light Side. They will turn
against their loved ones, their neighbours, their fellow
citizens.

Those who serve their Dark Masters
willingly will gladly kill for the monshaads to enable their
Masters to claim the dead body’s living soul, through the minion’s
possessed mind. If the poor murdered soul is lucky, it will become
compelled to the misery of the Dark mid-mountains of Madzren to
roam around as a lost soul until the monshaad Lords should have
need of them. If unlucky, it will be absorbed into the will of the
monshaad, never to be released to find peace in the Realm of the
Dead. That is unless the Dark Lord that controls it ceases to
exist, then all he possesses is released but according to legend, a
monshaad exists for ever.

Only another with equal power of
mind control, such as the human High Mage, can cause a monshaad any
pain. Heimarl would never wish to enter the dark pits of a
monshaad’s mind.

The monshaads do not work alone.
Upon their dark frozen lands there also dwells the mir, frost
giants. These piteous fiends are the spawn of the dark entities.
Concocted of the deepest blackest of ice and pure dark magic that
compels them to motion, they vacantly perform at the command of the
monshaad Lords. With the mighty strength of a giant, the mir have
raised complex edifices of impenetrable ice that stand as isolated,
menacing, windowless towers containing dense networks of
constricted corridors leading to smaller cavities and vaults. These
chambers stand empty of any furnishings or cosy warm fires. They
are the cold damp haunts of the monshaad Lords. Deep within the
ominous abode, the damnable floating dark shadows remain the grim
Masters of the Dark Side of all of Aarabassa.

A frozen damp chill hovered in the
biting thin air of the vault room where the monshaad Emperor
presently lingered.