Prologue
The door burst open with a bang. A strong woman in a purple tunic and a flowing black cloak entered swiftly. A few grey hairs stood out from her red hair.
A second woman rushed in from an adjacent room, panic in her eyes, and stopped two steps outside a rear door.
“Doobrik?” asked the panicked woman.
“Esther, where is your son?” Doobrik questioned.
“I just put him down,” Esther replied, panic in her blue eyes.
“Wake him. It is as we feared.”
“I thought we would have a few years to prepare.” Esther said.
“I had another vision: someone was
coming for him tonight. We have to leave, now!” Doobrik said, her voice filled with fear but tempered by focus.
“Are they ready for him?”
“They should be by the time we get there,” Doobrik replied, and then added, “I hope.”
Esther strode into the back room and returned a minute later wearing a warm black cloak. In her arms was a grumpy baby, swaddled in a thick grey blanket.
She quickly pulled the cloak around her as they headed for the door.
“Are you sure of what you saw?” Esther asked.
“My vision was strong and clear. There are many paths, but for your son to survive, we must reach the Forest of Pahoran within the hour.”
Esther nodded towards the door and they rushed out into the night.
The two women raced down the street, glancing back at every sound. Street lights stood sentinel overhead, the roads marked by lines that divided the glowing lanes of traffic.
“It seems like just yesterday that I would have laughed at the idea of rampant corruption in Jershon,” Esther mourned as she adjusted the bundle in her arms. The baby cooed inside.
“Corruption is a daily threat; the damage was subtle, like the waves of the ocean eroding the shore. The corrupt have been eroding our rights and principles since before the days of Akish.” Doobrik declared.
An angry shout forced Esther and Doobrik to duck behind a stack of crates.
“We’re never going to get there at this rate,” Esther complained.
“There’s a hidden Roost nearby...there should be some Kac’tri…” Doobrik began, but as she glanced around, she paused and lowered her voice.
“Someone is here,” she muttered as her head swiveled around.
“Necros Fulminos,” a dark sinister voice called out from an alley. A bolt of dark lightning streaked out of the darkness and shot straight for Esther. With blinding speed, Doobrik jumped between Esther and the unseen attacker.
“Barrios!” Doobrik shouted. A translucent shell of magical energy materialized around Doobrik, shielding her, Esther, and the baby from the lightning.
“Repulso!” Doobrik retorted, and shockwave of energy rippled out from her and shoved the unseen attacker back. A grunt and a crack echoed out from the darkness.
Angry shouts erupted from the alley behind them.
“Come on, Esther!” Doobrik urged as she practically dragged Esther out and into another alley on the opposite side of the street.
At the end of the alley stood a pair of enormous yellow birds perched on large grey boulders. Each resembled a chicken, but stood twice the height of an ostrich. Doobrik and Esther mounted the birds quickly and strapped themselves in. Esther took a quick second to wrap an arm around her son. She could feel his frightened heartbeat.
Doobrik whistled and the birds shot out of the alley, fishtailing as they took to the cobblestone street.
Three other Kac’tri appeared to the rear, black as the night and running hard. Each sported a mane of purple feathers and light metallic armor.
“Shadow Kac’tri. I thought they were a myth.” Esther commented.
“Their speed probably isn’t a myth either. Go, I’ll buy you as much time as I can,” Doobrik ordered.
“I can help you,” Esther objected.
“No! Your son is too important; get him to safety,” Doobrik said with urgent finality.
She gritted her teeth and grabbed the feathers on the back of her Kac’tri’s neck, slowing it.
“BARRIOS!” Doobrik cried, holding her hands out to the side. A large wall of magical energy stretched across the street. Two of Shadow Kac’tri collided with the wall and began to smolder before vanishing in a puff of smoke. A third slipped past the barrier, unharmed, and shot towards Doobrik.
The Shadow Kac’tri’s rider drew a sword and raised it high above his head, preparing his first strike. Doobrik drew a hidden sword from under her cloak and blocked the enemy blade in a single motion.
The rider struck again and again, and the two swords glinted as Doobrick and her opponent slashed at each other. She countered each blow until finally her blade was knocked from her hand.
She raised her hand to the rider, who swiped his sword across Doobrik’s arm before retracting his sword for the killing blow.
A beam of light tore through the air and struck the rider and his shadow Kac’tri, who tossed him as it tumbled to the ground.
Doobrik glanced behind her to see Esther, the palm of her free hand pointed right at the fallen rider. Doobrik whistled sharply and her Kac’tri turned and sped away after Esther, leaving the shadow Kac’tri and its fallen rider behind.
The women flew past the city walls and into the grasslands of Jershon. Soon, the silhouette of a dense forest appeared on the horizon. A single green light waved back and forth, beckoning from the trees, and they rode towards it.
As they got closer, they saw the light was coming from the hand of a man in his forties who seemed to be waiting for them. He was tall and his broad shoulders were similar to that of a football player.
“Captain Mathoni, are we ready?” Doobrik asked.
“There has been a delay. To make matters worse, the assassin will arrive in minutes.” Mathoni replied. His muscles rippled under a layer of chain mail, his brow furrowed with worry.
“Will my child be safe?” Esther asked.
“The spell can only send him so far, unless someone is willing to die for one so young,” Mathoni commented.
“He’s my son. If it ever came to it, I would…as any good parent should,” Esther retorted.
“Let us hope it doesn’t. If all goes according to plan, it will call him back when he is ready,” Mathoni explained as he ushered Esther and Doobrik deeper into the forest.
They soon arrived at a horseshoe shaped waterfall. The thunderous sound of water plunging from the cliffs high above to the large pond thirty feet below echoed throughout the forest.
A large flat stone lay in the middle of the large pond. Four mages in purple tunics stood around the perimeter of the stone, and large orange orbs in their hands crackled with uncontained magical energy. Their orbs seemed to be feeding a larger orb in the center of the stone, which emitted a hum. The hum of the orb built into a crescendo, getting louder and louder the more energy was channeled into it.
A mage in a green tunic rushed up to Captain Mathoni, Doobrik, and Esther.
“He’s here!”
“Order of the Mages, it’s time!” Mathoni called.
“Captain, we haven’t absorbed enough manna yet!” one mage objected, then pointed at the larger orb. “The portal might destabilize.”
“How far can we send him?” Mathoni asked.
“Ten, maybe twelve parsecs, if we’re lucky,” the mage replied.
“We’ll buy you as much time as we can,” Mathoni said before he and Doobrik rushed to the front line.
“High Mage, please get your son ready to go,” the mage in the green tunic requested of Esther.
Mathoni emerged from the tree line with Doobrik. A lone figure approached in the darkness: the assassin.
“Doobrik, raise the defensive shield,” Mathoni directed.
“Deus Praesidium!” Doobrik called, raising and spreading her hands. A beam of light materialized and spread out to form a dome over the forest.
In moments, the assassin had reached the dome. He raised his hand.
“You never taught me that one, Master Doobrik,” the assassin taunted. His dark eyes seemed to burn through her from under the hood of his cloak.
“Abinidi! My old apprentice.” Doobrik said in shock.
“Not anymore!” The assassin barked, then regained his composure, “I’m not worried. Your totem was worthless, as are you,” he sneered. Drawing an object that resembled an hourglass from his cloak, he raised it to the shield. Upon contact, the shield exploded, and magical energy rained down on the forest like shards of broken glass.
Doobrik reacted quickly. “Deus Luminos Celestis!” Her fist struck air, and a beam of brilliant white light streaked out.
“Diablos Necros!” the assassin countered.
The spells collided and exploded violently, showering the two with sparks of magic. As the dust settled, Doobrik and Mathoni lay unconscious on the ground.
The assassin strode in, unchallenged.
“We’re almost there,” the mage in the green tunic declared, competing over the roar of the waterfalls and the hum from the large orb.
The hum plateaued, its volume steady.
“Go!” the mage in the green tunic shouted.
The assassin stepped out of the trees, within fifty feet of the four mages.
“Vim Vitae Nervos!” the assassin called. Two blood-red orbs shot out of the trees and hit two of the mages on the stone. The red orbs passed through them, and the mages dropped to the stone shrieking and convulsing as they turned to dust. The portal began to fluctuate, but it held open even as its creators vanished.
The assassin lowered the hood on his cloak, and Esther looked on in shock at a man in his late thirties, a charmingly sinister smile on his hairless face.
“Abinadi?” Esther asked, breathless.
“No, I am Amalakiah,” the assassin corrected. “I’m sorry, my beloved, but he stands in the way of the progress of this nation, demands his blood.” he declared, pointing at the baby in Esther’s arms.
“I won’t let you murder our son!” Esther cried. She raised her son, still swaddled in his grey blanket, to the sky and shouted, “Minun Deus Semita!”
A beam of light reached out from the large orb, enveloped the child, and drew him in.
“Vim Vitae nervos!” Amalakiah called, and two blood-red orbs shot out again from his hands, hurtling toward the Son of Esther.
“Sceptum Luminous!” one of the surviving mages shouted, and the orbs struck a barrier of light, disintegrating. As the orbs faded out of existence, the child was swept away in the light of the larger orb, which vanished, taking the hum with it.
Weakened, Esther dropped to the ground. She glanced at the remaining mage, the look in her eyes holding a clear signal to retreat. The glance turned to Amalakiah.
“You have lost. My son will return one day. Then your failure will be complete,” Esther gasped with her last breath. At last, her strength gave out and she collapsed to the ground, dead.
Rain poured down from the sky as an off-white pickup truck sped down a long, remote road. In the front sat a couple in their forties.
“Tim, Rebecca. If I have to tell you one more time, we’re turning around!” the man called, careful to keep his eyes on the road.
“Jeff, they’re just being kids,” his wife consoled.
“Kathy, you know I don’t like kids playing the back seat when I’m driving in the rain. It’s distracting,” Jeff retorted.
Two children, a girl and a boy, both under five years old, sat in the back of the truck. Rebecca stuck her tongue out at Tim.
Suddenly, a bright flash filled the cab, and Jeff slammed his foot on the brake. The truck fishtailed, imprinting black streaks of rubber on the pavement before finally sliding to a stop.
“What was that?” Kathy asked.
“A lightning strike?” Jeff suggested.
“I didn’t see any lightning.”
“What about the bright flash?” Jeff asked.
“You know what I mean; it didn’t look like lightning.”
“I’ll check it out.”
Jeff grabbed a flashlight and an umbrella, climbed out of the truck, and cautiously walked toward where he had seen the bright light. As he drew near, the sound of a baby crying stood out from the rain.
Jeff pinpointed the source soon found a baby, who seemed to be around ten months old, bawling. He was clearly scared and alone. Jeff scooped the baby up and glanced around. He saw no signs of recent traffic, no clue as to where the infant had come from, so he trekked back to the truck. He pulled the door open and passed the baby to Kathy.
“What’s this?” Kathy asked, scowling at the baby. “I hope you don’t think we’re keeping this.”
“I don’t know who could have left him or why,” Jeff said, dumbfounded.
“Let’s just take him to the hospital. Maybe we can find him a home…just not our home,” Kathy said, trying to sound authoritative.
“What’s wrong, honey?” Jeff asked.
“I just don’t like him. There’s something about him…he’s just so…odd,” Kathy explained hesitantly, almost unsure if she believed the words she was saying.
“Odd?” Jeff asked dubiously as he started the engine.
-One Week Later-
Jeff and Kathy sat in an adoption agency office. The young boy sat in Jeff’s lap, alien to the environment. He glanced at Kathy and reached for her, but Kathy resisted. The agent adjusted a tie that screamed ‘white elephant gift’ and then shuffled through some papers as Jeff and Kathy discussed adopting the boy.
“No, absolutely not,” Kathy vehemently objected.
“It’s odd that there are no birth records. No family coming forward,” Jeff began.
“That we know of,” Kathy objected.
“Honey, he has nobody. He deserves to grow up in a loving home,” Jeff argued.
“So, is that a yes?” the agent asked.
“My wife says no, but I disagree,” Jeff confessed, hoping the adoption agent would say something to sway Kathy.
“Well, our facility isn’t designed to support someone of his age. In this case, I can justify placing him with you with only one parent’s approval,” the agent explained, looking at the boy with discomfort.
Jeff could tell the adoption agent was just trying to get rid of the infant boy, but he was satisfied with the answer.
“Then yes, I’ll take him,” Jeff offered.
Kathy groaned. “He’s all yours,” she said, washing her hands of the new addition to the family.
Jeff signed the papers the agent presented, then his eyes lingered on his new son.
“Why does nobody want this young boy?” Jeff asked, more to himself than to anyone else.
“Are you ready to come home, Gabe?” Jeff asked the little boy, testing out his new name, but Gabe didn’t realize someone was talking to him. The child’s focus was on Kathy, and her focus was on the door behind her.
