Serpent's Nest

By David Noakes

The Serpent Folk are an ancient people, predating humankind by millions of years. In the set of shadows that comprise the Human Realm, they never arose, or either died out long before humankind arose, or were wiped out during wars and conflict with humans.

In the shadows that comprise the Realm of the Serpent Folk, they thrive. Their sorcerers are powerful, their gods are ancient, and their warriors are ruthless. Their sorcerers are capable of traveling between the shadows.

In the regions where the Human Realm intersects with the Serpent Folk Realm, sorcerers lead their warriors into the human shadows in a ruthless attempt at conquest. Sometimes they purge humankind from the shadow, and add it to the Realm of the Serpent Folk. More often they lose, utterly destroyed by humankind and their helpers.

The helpers are Powers, and representatives of Powers, who protect the Human Realm from those who seek to conquer it.

Danny, Nalini and Paula, three humans from different human shadows, carry artifacts from the Powers that protect the Human Realm. This story tells of their encounter with the Serpent Folk in one of the human shadows, and their struggle to save humankind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Noakes
• Release date: Jul 16, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452358314

David Noakes

David Noakes read Law at Pembroke College, Oxford, and practised as a solicitor until called into full-time ministry in 1975. From 1985 until 1991 he served in ministry with Clifford Hill, becoming leader of the PWM ministry team and subsequently a Trustee of Prophetic Word Ministries. He was for a number of years a visiting teacher for Ellel Ministries; and he is a member of Love Never Fails, a group of ministries working together to express love and support and to uphold Biblical truth concerning the Jewish nation. David is also an Advisory Board member of the European Coalition for Israel, which works in the European Parliament to support the nation of Israel. For many years he was a member and Elder of Marlow Christian Fellowship, but David is now based in South Dorset and commits his time to an itinerant teaching ministry, which has as its chief emphases God’s purposes for the nation of Israel, together with the need for preparation of the Church for the days to come. He is a Trustee and was until recently Chairman of the Board of Hatikvah Film Trust, a ministry which produces film documentaries designed to make known Biblical truth concerning the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. David is the author of “The Biblical Basis of Intercession”; a co-author of “Blessing the Church?”, a study of the development of the Charismatic Renewal movement; and also a co-author of a book “Israel, His People, His Land, his Story” published by the Love Never Fails group of ministries which is a Biblically-based refutation of the false teachings of Replacement Theology. He has been married for 44 years to Valerie, and they have three adult married children.

Book preview

Parallel worlds exist - there is an infinite number of them, each one different from all the others. Anything you can imagine is out there somewhere, anything at all, and a lot more that is stranger than you can imagine... They are all shadows cast by the archetype, which is why we call them shadows... Anyone with sorcerous powers can cultivate the ability to travel between them... Nalini Vaidya to Danny Piekowski.

Serpent's Nest

by

David Noakes

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Published by:

David Noakes on Smashwords

Copyright 2010 by David Noakes

Revised Edition copyright 2015

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

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ISBN: 9781452358314

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Blurb:

The Serpent Folk are an ancient people, predating humankind by millions of years. In the set of shadows that comprise the Human Realm, they never arose, or either died out long before humankind arose, or were wiped out during wars and conflict with humans.

In the shadows that comprise the Realm of the Serpent Folk, they thrive. Their sorcerers are powerful, their gods are ancient, and their warriors are ruthless. Their sorcerers are capable of traveling between the shadows.

In the regions where the Human Realm intersects with the Serpent Folk Realm, sorcerers lead their warriors into the human shadows in a ruthless attempt at conquest. Sometimes they purge humankind from the shadow, and add it to the Realm of the Serpent Folk. More often they lose, utterly destroyed by humankind and their helpers.

The helpers are Powers, and representatives of Powers, who protect the Human Realm from those who seek to conquer it.

Danny, Nalini and Paula, three humans from different human shadows, carry artifacts from the Powers that protect the Human Realm. This story tells of their encounter with the Serpent Folk in one of the human shadows, and their struggle to save humankind.

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Contents

Chapter 1 - Paula Disappears

Chapter 2 - Ceremonial Sacrifice

Chapter 3 - Rescue

Chapter 4 - Nalini Arrives

Chapter 5 - The Pursuit

Chapter 6 - Jurassic Park

Chapter 7 - Separation

Chapter 8 - A Night to Remember

Chapter 9 - The Next Morning

Chapter 10 - Capture

Chapter 11 - The Devourer of Souls

Chapter 12 - The Raven Queen

Chapter 13 - The Funeral

Chapter 14 - Going Home

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Serpent's Nest

Chapter 1 - Paula Disappears

What is that girl doing? Nalini asked. She's been fifteen minutes already.

She said she had to take a crap, she has to find a suitable spot, dig a hole, do her business then fill it in afterwards. Maybe that takes her this long? I shrugged. Secretly I was worried though. This was a strange area; we didn't know what dangers might be around.

Well, we'll give her another five minutes. I hope nothing's happened to her. Her beautiful face was suffused with concern.

Nalini and I were sitting in the shade on a small flat-topped rock in a clearing by a stream. Both our packs were resting by our feet, as was Paula's. The sky was a pale lilac, the blood red sun warming. The trees around us were covered in smoky gray green leaves that made it seem the forest was wreathed in fog. There were a few bird cries now and again, lonely and haunting, punctuating the steady watery sounds of the stream.

I was idly watching a stream of small, eight legged orange creatures that scurried around like the local equivalent of ants. Nalini was snuggled up to me, but staring into the distance. The place looked peaceful and safe, even our senses told us it was safe, but we had never been here before, and appearances could be deceiving.

Nalini is my lover, soulmate and much more. We know we have been together through many lives. How we met in this one is a tale in itself, I won't repeat it here. Nalini stands about one hundred and seventy centimeters, or five foot seven for those of you like Nalini who haven't yet gone metric. She has a gymnast's body, and moves with a dancer's lithe grace. Her skin is the color of black coffee, her face shows a mixture of Chinese and Indian features, but her eyes are yellow like those of a cat. On this day her glossy black hair was braided into twin braids that fell two thirds of the way down her back. She was dressed in an emerald green T-shirt, black jeans and hiking boots. There was a single gold hoop in each ear, and about her neck was a gold torc chased with silver and red gold scrollwork. Each end of the torc cradled a single large gem, one smoky green, the other smoky red. I wear a similar torc. On a gold chain about her neck she wore a gold ring set with a single large amethyst. The ring was a gift from Finn mac Morn, a leprechaun like person we had met some time before. On her left hand was a white gold band incised with black runes. I wear its twin on my left hand. They were our gift to each other.

I stand about one hundred and eighty two centimeters or a fraction under six feet tall. I'm fairly muscular with it. My hair is brown, my skin pale, my eyes blue. I wear a diamond stud or a gold loop in my left ear, a white gold ring similar to Nalini's, and a torc that was Nalini's gift to me. I was dressed in blue denim military style fatigues and a similar denim shirt, plus hiking boots.

Our missing companion, Paula, is fairly tall and thin, being about five foot ten or about one hundred seventy seven centimeters tall, but only about one hundred twenty five pounds or fifty seven kilos. She was wearing faded blue jeans and a black T-shirt. She is a natural redhead, though at this time her hair was dyed black and cut pageboy style; her skin is milk pale and she has green eyes. She also has multiple earrings, a nose ring and a navel ring. She is a friend of ours, although we tend to introduce her as my sister to avoid awkward questions about why I'm hanging around with two females. It's amazing the number of people who suddenly see a family resemblance after we do that.

The three of us were armed and presumably dangerous. Nalini and I each had a semi-automatic pistol holstered at our right hips. Paula had two, one at each hip. However, that was about the only resemblance between her and a certain character in a series of well-known computer games - her breasts are small, and she hardly ever wears shorts. Paula also wore two long knives with which she is reasonably proficient.

Nalini and I carried what could best be described as samurai swords strapped across our backs in such a way as not to interfere with the packs. Swords and knives have their uses, and we know how to use the weapons we carry. In my pack was an ornate dagger - a present from Finn mac Morn - that has some magical properties.

Look, you stay here with the packs, I'll see what's happened to her. She set off in the direction Paula had taken, keeping in touch with me via telepathy. She took it slowly since she had to track where Paula had gone.

After about ten minutes she thought to me Danny, we have a problem. Paula has vanished.

What do you mean vanished? The thought was out before I could stop it. Telepathy can be like that.

Well, I've found the spade and what's left of the toilet paper, but there is no sign of Paula. She's obviously finished and filled in the hole. There are some tracks heading off in another direction. Can you bring everything here?

As I packed, I wondered what could have happened. Several times I heard Nalini's voice calling Paula! Paula! I shouldered my pack, and picked up the girls' packs one in each hand. They weren't exactly light, although Nalini's pack was much heavier than Paula's. I headed in the direction of Nalini's voice.

Soon enough I met up with Nalini. There was the trowel, some disturbed dirt where Paula had dug a hole and filled it in again, as well as the opened packet of toilet tissues, and the packet of baby wipes. The imprints of Paula's boots could be seen quite plainly, heading off away from us.

Hmm. I don't like the look of this. She's walked away in the wrong direction. What could have got into her?

While I studied the area, Nalini repacked the things into her pack. I'm worried Danny. Can you carry Paula's pack? One of us has to follow her footprints, but I want you with me. It does mean that if she has wandered around in a circle, we won't be there when she gets back to where we stopped.

I was worried too. Do you think that's likely? If she has suddenly decided to go wandering, she can't be thinking straight anyway. I looked at the area she had selected for her toilet, trying to see if anything looked suspicious. A plant that sprays happy gas, or perhaps a spider bite or an insect bite? Could it be something like that?

Nalini made a wry face. Anything's possible, Danny. It would go part way toward explaining her behavior, but I hope she's not lying there dying from a poisonous bite or something. She sighed. Let's go. She shouldered her pack, and we set off, following Paula's prints.

They weren't always obvious, sometimes we had to cast around seeking the imprint of her boot. At least the tread pattern was reasonably distinctive. It also helped that there were no other prints there. She seemed to be following an animal trail, and after about fifty meters we came to a clearing. There were the prints of several shod horses overlaying Paula's prints. I didn't know whether to feel relieved or even more worried.

Nalini commented She still may be dying of poison, but perhaps the locals can treat her. Or maybe they've taken her off to rape her, or sell her into slavery. We may have a long walk ahead of us.

The prints crossed the clearing, then vanished without a trace. The ground was soft enough for my tracks to be plainly visible. The horses, riders and Paula appeared to have vanished into thin air. We went back to where Paula's prints were overlaid, seeking vainly for any other prints of hers. There were none.

Nalini suddenly looked vulnerable. Oh Danny, I feel like crying. They've taken her away!

My mind was working. If the hoof prints vanish, there can be only one reasonable explanation. Whoever is riding them can shadow shift. Nalini nodded mute agreement. There's no other trace of Paula's prints, so she is with them. I continued. Surely we can focus on Paula herself and shadow shift that way to find her? Nalini has more experience than I do at this.

Nalini's face brightened at that suggestion. Of course! The thing is, they're on horseback, so they could cover an awful lot of distance. Can you link with me? It might work better if we're linked.

My mind was buzzing with questions. Other shadow shifters! Who, What, Why? Whatever had happened, I was getting a bad feeling about this. The shadow shifters would undoubtedly have other powers, and represented an unknown degree of danger. Somehow they had influenced Paula to walk towards them, and had captured her. On the other hand, they probably did not yet know about Nalini and myself. Furthermore, Paula was not a shadow shifter, while Nalini and I were.

Shadow shifters are those who can move through shadow at will. Shadow is the collective term for what Nalini and I think of as the infinite number of parallel worlds. Our mentors call them shadows. To cast a shadow you need a light, an object and a background. According to Durathror, one of our mentors, the background is the mind of God, the light is God's awareness or attention, and the objects are the dreams of God. There are an infinite number of objects or archetypes, each and every one different from all the others. Each archetype casts an infinite number of shadows. Is that infinity squared? Each shadow is a separate world, internally consistent, but like any dream, it may not make sense outside itself. The rules of physics may be different in different shadows. And we poor souls, the inhabitants of shadow, are but figments within a dream within a dream.

With an infinity of shadows, it is a truism to say you can find anything you can conceive of somewhere off in shadow, anything at all if you but cross enough shadows. Infinity is all encompassing. By the same token, it is difficult to go to a place unless you have been there before, since otherwise you are relying on misconceptions of what such a locale might be like. You will come to a similar place in a different shadow.

The walls of our shadow earth are very thin indeed, and all manner of beings come and go as they please. However, with an infinite number of shadows, but a finite number of shadow walkers, it can be quite rare to encounter someone outside their own shadow. We have traveled to places where other shadow shifters lived, but never before had we encountered some during our travels.

Neither of us is sure whether anyone can learn given sufficient training and patience, or whether a shadow shifter tends to attract others with that potential. Years ago a powerful shadow shifter called Korum taught Nalini something of shadow, and introduced her to Elvin sorcerers Durathror and his sister Imladril. Nalini in turn taught me, and now we have started training Paula, since she showed potential. She couldn't yet detect shadows, but she had traveled with us on a number of occasions, and was also being trained by Imladril and Durathror, our own mentors.

Nalini and I sat together, my right hand holding her left, her right holding my left, completing the circle of energies. Ever since Nalini had helped attune me with my torc, she has been a presence in my mind, just as I am in hers. Usually we leave things like that, so that telepathic communication is possible, but requires conscious effort just like talking. Now we sought to deepen that link to the point where we share each other's thoughts, bodily sensations, and we seem more like two halves of some greater whole.

There was a rush of energies through our linked hands, and with it Nalini's mental presence flowed into mine. We didn't take it too far as we wished to retain our own sense of identity, and we had to be able to walk, shadow shift, and defend ourselves. I could sense that her mind was also teeming with unanswered questions. We pushed our questions aside, and concentrated on visualizing Paula, just as early on when Nalini had been teaching me to shadowshift we had concentrated on visualizing a destination. After a few minutes that sense of direction occurred. With it came elation. We could find Paula! All we had to do was shift through shadow in that direction, until we came upon Paula. What happened then would be improvised once we knew more about the situation.

I should point out that we were not tracking Paula or the riders through shadow. Apparently there are skilled trackers who can somehow follow a trail left by an unknown shadow shifter. We were visualizing Paula, drawing a bead on her current location, and navigating toward that. If she were moving through shadow herself, it was very unlikely that we would catch up with her until she stopped in one place for a time.

Nalini and I inspected the surrounding shadows. While the simple thing to do was to select a shadow that lay in the direction we sensed Paula, there were many to choose from, and we had to ascertain that our selection was safe. We made our choice, and stepped forward. There was the familiar sensation like butterflies in my solar plexus, accompanied by the sensation of something reaching out, and then the vegetation around us rippled as one scene was overlaid with another. The new scene spread out in a circle, and within a couple of heartbeats we were walking amongst tall, lush, dark blue vegetation under a greenish sky and a considerably hotter sun. The air was humid, and I was starting to sweat. Strange animals shrieked in the distance, while something deep and foghorn like blared a counterpoint.

We continued walking while looking for the next shift. Shifting into this shadow had brought some new shadows into range, and dropped others out. Our range is limited, we cannot go directly to some distant destination, but must move in small steps. Our interest was in those shadows that lay in the direction in which we sensed Paula. We wanted to find the most direct route, but also one that was safe while we passed through.

Form an idea in your mind of the type of scenery you want from the next shift, and the shadows that present themselves will take that idea as their theme. Something is in fact filtering the adjacent shadows, and those that do not conform become hard to detect. The more open your mind, the less pre-conceived the shift, and the more shadows that will suggest themselves. The more shadows you sift, the longer it takes to select the next shift. You can include extremely dangerous shadows, or exclude them by the same process. If you select for shadows in a particular direction, then the variety is limitless.

When I was learning I did not realize this, and some of the shadows that suggested themselves were very odd to say the least, while others were potentially fatal. Imagine an alternative earth where the atmosphere vanished as it did on Mars - such shadows exist if you seek them. Imagine any danger you can, hold the idea in mind, and shadows with that danger will suggest themselves. These days I am a lot more skilled, the shadows that suggest themselves are generally safe enough. This shadow might have deadly predators, but our senses had told us there were none nearby, and so it was safe for our purposes.

Horses can move faster than we could on foot, but our speed moving through shadow does not depend on our speed through any particular shadow. What determines our speed is the number of shadows we can cross in a single shift, and how long it takes us to select the next shift. With a bit of luck we would at least keep pace with Paula and her captors, especially if they didn't expect us to be following them.

There was the question of what the riders had been doing there in the first place. It may have been totally fortuitous - they had entered the clearing at the same time as Paula, and simply kidnapped her. A more likely possibility was that they had been aware of her, and had come to her to pick her up. Why else would she have wandered away? But that suggested they could influence people's minds, and suggested they might be aware of us, even though we could not sense them. I couldn't see any way to tell if they could sense us, other than obvious things like doubling back to attack us or seeming to take evasive action.

We were prepared for a long hike. We carried a few liters of water each, as well as several days of emergency rations. Nalini doesn't believe in leaving too much to chance, but then she has more experience at shadow shifting than I do.

In a way it was a shame to be traveling through these shadows under such circumstances. The theme seemed to be European Spring. There were wooded dells with masses of wild flowers, burbling brooks, pasture areas where cattle grazed, fields of grain, orchards in flower. The weather was mild, the sky lilac, with fluffy white clouds. I'm not sure how many different shadows we passed through; for all I know they were all sections of the same shadow. I suspect it was more than one, for the cattle weren't always cows, and at least once they looked like zebras. Were these shadows all variations of our own earth, or were we really somehow passing through different planets in different parts of our own universe? I don't know how we could tell the difference, though my intuition tells me each shadow is a parallel earth.

Several times we saw peasants doing the sorts of things that peasants do, but they ignored us. Nowhere was there any evidence of modern technology - carts drawn by animals (they weren't always horse like) seemed to be as advanced as these shadows went. Knowing we had guns was comforting, although Nalini had warned of shadows where guns would not fire.

We walked for about an hour, crossing about forty shadows, whereupon we came to a river about twenty meters across. We were on the track leading to the bridge. The bridge was a sturdy stone construction with several arches to span the river. On the other side, the track wound its way up a hill for perhaps a kilometer to a castle perched on top. There was nothing fancy about the castle - it had thick walls of stone, crenellations around the top of the wall, and towers at several corners. The walls themselves were of different heights, since their bases followed the terrain. We could see men at arms patrolling the top.

Nalini said to me I've a feeling that Paula is in there, she doesn't feel distant now. I still had trouble with gauging distances when traveling though shadow, and I wasn't sure, so I deferred to Nalini's greater experience.

We crossed the bridge, and shifted to another shadow with very similar terrain, minus the castle and the bridge. On this hilltop was a broken wall of stone, with vegetation growing over it. The grass here was waist high, making progress difficult.

Let's see if we can find an easier passage. Nalini suggested.

The next shadow in Paula's direction was always the same one with the castle, which suggested very strongly that she was held within the castle. We avoided that shadow, there was no point antagonizing the men at arms by appearing and disappearing, especially if the castle did indeed hold Paula. Instead we shifted to a stony hillside, of slightly different conformation from that which held the castle. We kept our shadow vision of the castle, and climbed the stony hillside, staying in the same shadow.

We came at last to the area that was congruent with the castle itself, and proceeded to wander slowly around. Our own hilltop was littered with fallen stones from what appeared to be a ruined castle. We speculated briefly about who had built it and what had destroyed it. The blocks were huge - four or five meters a side and probably weighing fifty or sixty tons each. The walls had been toppled like children's blocks, not one stone stood upon another. Many were split asunder. The destruction seemed to be too thorough to be the work of nature.

It can't be earthquake, it has to be war. But how could humans move blocks this huge?

Nalini smiled. Perhaps Titans built it, and the gods destroyed it. It doesn't have to be humans, this isn't shadow earth. Mind you, I seem to recall the ancient Egyptians managed to move huge blocks of stone.

We left it at that. The world is full of mysteries.

From our position we could perceive the adjacent shadows, along with the courtyard of the castle, and whatever was at the ground level. There were living quarters, as well as guardrooms, and a long central hall. We traversed our shadow, keeping to the position of the central hall in the other shadow. We came to some steps that led down in the other shadow, and that gave us a problem, as the ground level in this shadow did not go that way.

Oh for an invisibility spell. Nalini remarked. We might just have to shift in so we can go down those stairs. There should be some shadow nearby, so I'll try to shift us out again immediately.

We checked that there were no guards around, then shifted into the castle and proceeded down the stairs. They were dank stone, well worn, and just a bit slippery. The stairwell was lit fitfully by whatever light seeped in from ground level, plus a few torches below.

My heart was beating faster. We stopped partway down the stairs and inspected the adjacent shadows, looking for one that followed the passage in this shadow. There were several shadows that suggested themselves.