I did it!
Two book releases in one month!
Happy Hanukkah, Blessed Yule, and Merry Christmas to us all!
A
Huntsman's
Honor
The Huntsman of Adamos Book 1
Relic of Time and Shadows War Prequel
By M.M. Ward
Lord Yurieth was the firstborn
of the House of Adamos. Birthed in the Pools of Destiny changed his fate and
his magic. His only hope to gain honor would be to prove his destiny as a
huntsman would be greater than any oracle, mage, or warrior.
A destiny that would take him
from the forest his family’s holdings to the battlefields of another world. It
would cost him his innocence, his friends, his marriage, his children, and
almost his soul. Through it all, his honor will be his greatest burden.
Dedicated
to Ruthie, Mara, and Jenn
These are the stories I started with my daughters when I was learning to read, write, and speak again. I had a stroke. I should have died, but I didn’t, and every extra day with them is a blessing. I am grateful for the time I have been given.
Chapter 1
High Lord Adamos, the
fourth in fifty thousand years to bear the name of his house, carried his
beloved Yllumina as she struggled in childbirth. She was the last Oracle of the
High House of Yophriel, and possibly the only surviving priestess oracle. The
Temples of Light were falling to a stealth attack by their enemies, the
Xelusian Umbracruor. Only the warriors of Adamos and Yophriel had answered the
distress call of the temple, but the small houses and the token temple guards
were no match for the savage Berserker warriors of the Umbracruor. The battle
for the temple raged as the armies of the twin kingdoms waged a war for the
ability to see the future.
Adamos' uncle, the
Guardian Ambros of the House of Adamos, and Yllumina’s brother, the Guardian Yuriah of Yophriel had ordered him to take Yllumina and
flee through the Vault of Relics as they faced hopeless odds. The pair of
Guardians fought to give Adamos and his allies, the Mage Lord Ouray of Odini
and his nephew the Oracle Novice Odini the fifth of the House of Odini, the
precious time to carry Adamos' in-labor sealed one to safety. The Mage Ouray
had cast a spell to blow up the entrance to the escape tunnel and the Vault of
Ancients. The ceiling behind them thundered down and sealed them.
Suddenly Yllumina
screamed, “No!” Sobbing, she choked out, “Yuriah is dead... forever dead...
Berserkers and Umbracruor are taking his blood.”
Suddenly, she gritted
her teeth and growled out in an animistic sound between her panted breaths.
“They're coming... Adamos! The twins, they're coming... I have to push... I
cannot wait any longer.”
“Adamos, come in here.
There's water for her to birth in,” Called their apprentice, the young Oracle
Odini, who waved his hand, so oracle light appeared in the torch crystals.
“Quickly, put her in.”
“The Pools of Destiny?
Are you mad?” His father Ouray exclaimed, “It's blasphemy.”
“We have no choice.
The waters possess healing properties, and we cannot lose the last of the
Yophriel Oracles,” Odini shouted at his father then he bowed his head, with
tears dripping down his face. “I’m sorry, Father. I can feel... the other
oracles are all dead.”
A rumble echoed from
high above them. The cavern vibrated with the magic of war detonating on the
surface.
“They’re trying to get
in,” Ouray worried aloud, “We need to hurry.”
Adamos looked down at
Yllumina, who was panting in his arms, “My beloved?”
She unclasped his
cloak, letting it fall on the floor behind him. “My lord, I do not know what
the waters will do to our sons, but Odini speaks the truth about the
healing power. Our sons and I will live, however, the magic of the Pools of
Destiny is unpredictable. It affects each person who bathes in it differently.
What it will do... to a newborn... I can... I cannot... Say!” Her voice rose
and fell, then she screamed out the last words as another contraction racked
her body.
Without hesitation,
Adamos carried his wife into the sacred waters, which began glowing and
swirling in the colors of magic around them. Tendril wisps of white, blue,
gold, red, and green curled around them. Yllumina sagged in relief as the
birthing pain waned.
“He's coming!” she
gasped as she clung to Adamos. she bucked her feet out of his arms as her back
arched impossibly, while Adamos struggled, kicking violently to keep them
afloat after the floor of the pool dissolved from underneath his feet. He had
no choice but to tread water as he held onto his beloved.
“Help us!” Adamos
called out as the water swirled healing gold, oracle white, and brilliant
green.
“Stop!” Ouray shouted
too late to halt Odini, who rushed in to aid Adamos. “Odini! NO!”
A wave pushed the
youth away from the struggling couple and sucked him under in a whirlpool of
magical water. Lightning flashed through the water and suddenly Odini surfaced
in a different pool, choking and coughing as he clawed at the edge. “Help!
Father, I can’t get out.” The water held him like quicksand.
“Odini.” Ouray ran to
aid his son. Kneeling on the edge, Ouray reached out to Odini but drew back
when Odini looked up at his father through eyes that glowed with swirls of
magic. “What is... happening... to me?” the young Oracle gasped
raggedly.
Ouray could do nothing
to help him beyond holding the shoulder of his tunic. “Your magic is changing,
don't fight it. Just let it happen. Breathe, son.”
Suddenly, Odini was
pulled under again and Ouray leaped into the water only to find that it had
solidified into an invisible layer like ice between him and his son. The sacred
waters swirled the white of the Oracles, but also the brilliant blue of
Warriors and the molten red of Mages. As the father knelt on the top of the barrier,
the son thrashed beneath.
Yllumina's scream
echoed through the cavern then she curled to pull her firstborn son from her
heaving birth canal. A baby cried in answer. Tearing his eyes from his son,
Ouray saw a baby floating on a swirl of green and white glowing water. The baby
boy seemed content to let the water cradle him and cooed as he kicked his
legs.
Beyond the child,
Adamos and Yllumina struggled through the birth of their second son. A burst of
blueish magical water lifted the baby into his mother's arms, and she cried in
relief as she stood up in waist-deep golden and white water. “Sons... we have
sons, Adamos... Adamos?”
Suddenly, Adamos was
gone and the water boiled with the white magic of the oracles, blue of the
warriors, and blazed with molten red streaks of mage magic. Yllumina staggered
to the edge. She laid her second son on the stone edging before wading to where
her firstborn floated in the glowing green and white waters. The child cried
when she lifted him from the water, only quieting when she laid him with his
brother.
Turning back to the
pools, she looked desperately for her husband. The water swirled around her and
a single oracle stone floated to the surface in front of her. A finger of water
flicked it out of the pool and onto her firstborn's chest over his heart.
“Thank the Light!” She
cried in relief that her eldest son's destiny had not been taken from
him.
“Yllumina, help us!”
Ouray begged, drawing her attention from her newborns as she wrapped them in
Adamos’ cloak.
She glowed more
brilliantly than Ouray had ever seen any oracle glow. “Release them!” The power
of her demand caused the pools to rush up and overflow. Adamos surfaced next to
his wife and sons.
Ouray felt the strange
surface crack like ice on a lake then he fell into the water with his son. He
grabbed Odini, shocked to see his youngest child’s hair had changed from the
family's auburn color to raven black. Odini’s eyes still glowed like he was
having a vision.
Pulling him from the
water, Ouray demanded, “Odini, what is it? What did you see?”
Odini shook his head
as he inhaled and coughed. “He... they... Everyone dies. Everyone everywhere...
We have to stop it!” The one-hundred-eighty-year-old curled into a ball against
his father’s chest and sobbed inconsolably.
Another concussion
shook the chamber as rocks began falling into the pools. Several of the
feathered serpents who lived in the caverns with the Sacred Pools, dropped into
the waters from their burrows and began swimming as the waters drained away.
Yllumina quickly wrapped the infants in Adamos’ abandoned cloak.
“We must go now!”
Adamos shouted, lifting his wife and both his sons into his arms as Yllumina
clutched the newborns to her chest.
He felt stronger than
he ever had. His magic had been changed, he was no longer just an oracle. He
could feel the strength and speed of Warrior's magic flowing through his veins
and the power of the Mages burning in his bones. He was the third born and
could have been born a Guardian if his Uncle Ambros had not still lived,
instead he had been born an oracle, but now he was neither and both and
something else. He strode through the tunnels with new confidence and purpose.
The pools had shown
him a vision. In a century more than a thousand years, his youngest son would be
born to be the greatest guardian of many generations, a Guardian of Guardians,
and a Light Bringer like his mother. At the end of the age, when the War Oracle
with his grandson, the King of the Sacred Blue Flame, led the Remnant against
all the powers of the Darkness, his youngest son would lead the Warriors of the
Celestial Veil in the battle against the Devourer and all that was profane. But
for now, Adamos needed to make sure his newborn sons survived long enough to
aid their younger brother to be born after this war ended.
Yllumina looked up at
him, Her golden-amber eyes reminded him of every beautiful dawn, as she studied
him. “You saw?”
“For how long have you
carried the burden of our family legacy?”
She looked at her
sons. “Since my first vision at eighty-two, I have known our houses would be
the last to stand against the Devourer with the grandsons of the Odini.”
“For almost two
thousand years... You did not have to carry the burden alone,” Whispering, he
pressed a kiss into her temple.
“It was not your
vision or your burden to bear.”
“We will not fail
them. We will give them all they need to correct our ancestors' mistakes,”
Adamos vowed.
Still carrying her, he
walked out of the tunnel and into the forest of the Northlands. They were only
a few fields from the territory of his family’s holdings and their escape ship.
Adamos and his Uncle Ambros had already decided that they needed to hide for a
time, the attack was the perfect excuse to disappear with their children. They
worried the King would allow this attack as punishment for not turning over the
ancient relics of the First People and they were right.
A Huntsman's Honor
No comments:
Post a Comment