Marayah's Return

By Merri Hiatt

Marayah’s Return (Book one of the Mangadarth Trilogy)
In a world of castles, crones and curses, Eldrick and Marayah find themselves bound to one another for life. When threats surround them, they must join forces to protect the city of Mangadarth and each other.

The first chapter of book two in the trilogy, City Reborn, is included.

The other two books in the trilogy are listed below.

City Reborn (Book two of the Mangadarth Trilogy)
Just as the castle inhabitants begin to feel safe and a sense of community is restored in Mangadarth, a menace lying dormant for hundreds of years renews its thirst for vengeance.

My Mother’s Eyes (Book three of the Mangadarth Trilogy)
Now that Mangadarth is under new rule, it is up to the townspeople to rally to bring hope back to the city and clear the skies of the stain from the blood of innocent souls.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Merri Hiatt
• Release date: Jan 15, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466190559

Merri Hiatt

Merri Hiatt grew up in a small town near Shasta Valley in Northern California. Upon moving to the Pacific Northwest in Washington state, Merri fell in love with the mountains, ocean, rain and lush greenery. Merri credits her high school creative writing teacher with giving her the nudge to pursue writing. BOOKS WRITTEN BY MERRI HIATT: PROPOSAL SERIES: Sweet Proposal, Jaded Proposal (coming soon!), Midnight Proposal (coming soon!); LOVE IN THE AIR TRILOGY: Runway Romance, Love on the Fly (Passion at 30,000 Feet coming soon); SEASONS OF LOVE SERIES: Summer Love, Autumn Love, Winter Love, Spring Love; CELEBRATING LOVE TRILOGY: 14 Love Letter Lane, 21 Romance Way, 28 Passion Boulevard; EMBRACING LOVE TRILOGY: When Love's at Work, When Love's at Home, When Love's at Play, When Love's on Vacation (Sequel one), When Love's Gone Country (Sequel two); MANGADARTH TRILOGY: Marayah's Return, City Reborn, My Mother's Eyes; Kat Burglar, a romance novella; Mama Lives in My Hair, a short story about life and death; Sarah and the Magic Beans, a short story about magic and hope; The Magical Christmas Cookies, a short story about hope; Santa Hates Seattle, a short story about hope and second chances; Puddle of Poetry (sixty-two poems from sassy to sensitive to serious); Food So Good, You'll Never Know It's Good For You, 11 Recipes and Tips; and Potato Chip Princess, a young adult short story. Visit Merri's website at http://merrihiatt.com Merri states: "I am a lover of all emotions. They swim and spin around my head with abandon. What fun to let the words these feelings bring forth play along my tongue and whisper into the still of the night. When I capture them on paper, it is a joy and one of my favorite ways to spend time."

Book preview

Marayah’s Return

Book one of the Mangadarth Trilogy

Merri Hiatt

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2011 by Merri Hiatt

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Front cover image credits:

Gordana Sermek/Shutterstock.com

Norma Cornes/Shutterstock.com

Visit Merri Hiatt’s website: http://merrihiatt.com

For Sarah,

who embodies the strength of Marayah

and the spirit of Harmony.

Prologue

The stoning had taken place in the center of town, a public act of retribution. Sivah had been shackled in chains unbreakable. Her power was not strong then, had not been cultivated and honed the way it would become.

Serena cried when they tore her from her mother’s arms. She was but four days old, fresh from the womb. Sivah screamed at them to stop as she saw the stones they carried from the mountain and knew their purpose.

One by one the villagers walked past Sivah shouting and spitting in her face.

Witch!

Heretic!

Daughter of the Devil!

And, one by one, they placed their rocks upon the piece of wood that Serena lay beneath.

Sivah thought her heart would split in two from the anguish she felt for her daughter. Serena’s cries pummeled her ears as fire tore through her veins. Then the crying stopped and a new feeling wrenched at her gut. Serena was dead. The breath had been squeezed from her body by the weight of the stones. Her tiny bones broken and her flesh pressed flat.

Witch!

That will teach you to bring evil to our town!

We will watch you burn!

Sivah closed her eyes, but not to ward off verbal blows. She pulled every ounce of pain from her body and gathered it into a spell. She used the villagers fear and anger as energy to bind it to them as the words of her curse churned from within.

A life for a life

Is what you seek

The innocent blood

Of the mild and meek

Now you stand firm

Righteous in your cause

I call forth the darkness

To amend humankind laws

Take all my heartache

Take all my pain

Gather it up

And bring forth a change

Take what is humankind

Blend it with fear

Jagged edged teeth

In appearance they mirror

Create a new thing

That walks as they do

Travels among them

Pale as the moon

Blood it will seek

As vengeance they take

For this moment in time

Serena’s soul they forsake

The ground trembled and a flash of lightning lit the sky. The chains that bound her broke loose and Sivah ran to her daughter’s side, removing the heavy stones and then the boards.

She gently lifted her baby into her arms and held her close, not noticing the bones that had pushed through her skin or the skull that had been crushed by the heavy weight.

Sivah rocked her daughter and wailed with the cry of every mother’s sorrow.

The villagers fled, sore afraid of Sivah’s retaliation, not knowing that the curse she had unleashed would haunt them for the rest of their days and beyond.

Sivah’s pace was slow as she left the village. Her cries echoed down the main pathway. All the while, she cradled Serena’s broken body gently and despised those who had harmed her.

It took her several hours to travel through the forest to its outer edge. She knew the villagers would rally, gathering sticks of fire to light the night and hunt her down. She kept walking, all the way through the Valley of Pandor to the base of the mountain.

She would climb high up into its peak and spend the rest of her days there alone as she watched Mangadarth be devoured by the pale ones she had unleashed upon them.

Her bones were tired and her heart ached with such grief that she rested by the waterfall and drank deeply of the life-giving liquid in the pool at its base.

She washed the blood from Serena’s body carefully and kissed part of her cheek that had not had the skin stripped from it.

Her body shook and the heaves overtook her. She had never felt a pain so intense.

When she was finally able to take a breath that brought new air into her lungs, she laid the baby down and gathered the items she would need to bury her daughter. She bound many tree limbs together with strips of her skirt, making an oblong structure to lay Serena on.

She chose white roses and daisies with bright yellow centers as a covering, laying the petals on the rough pieces of tree to cover them. She then stripped lavender stems of their tiny amethyst pods and scattered them on top of the flowers.

Sivah laid Serena on top of all the items and covered her body with palm fronds in a crisscross fashion. She used the thin rope tied around her waist to secure her daughter to the raft and then carried her down river to the waterfall that lay below.

She waded out into the deeper portion of the river, raised her daughter high above her head and said, Into your hands, I commend my daughter’s spirit.

Sivah placed the raft into the water and released it. The current carried it downstream and over the waterfall’s edge into the frothy foam below.

Goodbye my daughter, my little love. You will remain in my heart forevermore. Sivah made her way to the water’s edge and headed back to the base of the mountain. She rested in the same place she had been earlier. Her strength gone and her soul weary.

A motion behind the waterfall caught her eye. As she watched the water pour down in a steady stream, she saw it again. It was the head of an adder poking through the falls. She continued to watch as it seemed to glide along behind the waterfall. An impossible feat, she knew.

Sivah rose and headed to the base of the falls. The sound was deafening to her sensitive ears, yet she went closer still. She felt the cool mist against her skin and the tumultuous bubble of water as it landed hard against itself.

She hugged the mountain close and searched for places to hold on as she crept even closer to the area she had seen the snake originally.

The falls were so close now, they began to skim her arms and back with water, yet she saw that she could move even closer still. She slid, much as the snake had done, through an area that could be no wider than eight inches until the falls no longer touched her, but were seemingly all around her.

She kept tight to the wall, the wet dirt acting as a binder to keep her steady. When she moved her hand again to slide further, she felt air and an edge unexpected. Sivah was able to pull herself over to it and then rest her foot on a ledge. She pulled the rest of her body over and found herself in a cave behind the waterfall.

She turned and a wall of water met her eyes. The force of it almost knocked her off her feet as she stepped backward. The cave was deep and the darkness enveloped her, welcomed her, seemed to understand the grief she was now living with.

Sivah ventured back further into the cave, though she could not see even a footfall in front of her. She kept her hand on the wall to her left as a guide. When the roar of the waterfall had dulled, she sat down and leaned her back against the cavern wall.

Sorrow rose high in her throat and she choked back tears until they could no longer be restrained. Her cries found their way down the valley walls and they echoed back to the water’s edge. She continued to sob until her body gave way to sleep.

When she awoke, the darkness welcomed her again and she knew she was home.

Sivah found the entrance to her cave easier and easier to traverse the more she traveled it, even being able to carry large items with her.

She saw no one, save the birds and small animals, never venturing into the village again. She spent her time thinking of Serena and honing the craft of the witches.

Chapter One

Marayah Winther dared to look back. Lord Abingdon’s men, along with a small group of the pale ones, were at the opposite edge of the clearing. She would not be able to outrun them. Their steeds were already making haste across the unprotected grassland. Her only protection now was the woodlands.

The redwood trees ahead were sturdy with heavy limbs. Scanning the forest quickly for low branches within her reach, she never slowed her pace. Finding none, she raced further into the dense woods.

The trees seemed to close in around her. Her foot caught on an exposed root and Marayah fell hard against a heavy stone.

Fresh pain seared through her right calf and her hand screamed as it slammed against a stump. The impact took her breath away for a moment. She inhaled deeply. The smell of her own blood, along with the damp night air, filled her lungs. She would find no safe harbor among the trees now. There was no hiding place the pale ones could not find once the scent of blood permeated their senses.

Her eyes searched the area, finding only low bushes and limbs too high for her to reach.

Marayah pressed hard on her wound with both hands. Scarlet life force pulsed out greedily, spilling onto the forest floor. She rose and retraced her steps; stopping every few feet to expel more blood from her wound, creating a trail until she was nearing the forest edge again. She hoped the ruse would confuse her assailants and they would travel in circles looking for her.

She tore the sleeves from her white cotton shirt and tied them tightly around her calf and hand.

She had no choice now. She began climbing the redwood tree. Bark embedded itself in her hands as she tried to grab hold of anything that would give her leverage. Just when she thought she had a firm grip, a piece of bark came loose and she slid down the trunk, forcing more pain to stab at her hands and legs.

Marayah jumped down from the tree and tore at a layer of her skirt, ripping it into strips, tying the ends together.

The horse’s thundering hooves were making the ground shake. She could not see them through the trees, but knew they would be upon her soon. She must hurry.

When all the lengths of fabric were tied together, Marayah threw one end as high as she could. It almost reached the lowest limb, but fell to the earth beside her. She tried again with the same result.

Beads of sweat were rolling down her face, tears filling her eyes. They would consume her while she was still alive; the same fate many of Mangadarth’s inhabitants had endured, including her mother and father.

She would rather take her own life than have her innocent blood stain the sky over Mangadarth. Marayah looked around for anything she might use to end her life as a hand encircled her waist and another covered her mouth.

She was lifted high upon a horse painted black; its powerful muscles churning beneath her legs. Her captor led the horse deep into the forest, following an unseen trail he alone knew.

Marayah turned her body slightly so she could see the face of the man who saved her from Lord Abingdon’s men. He was cloaked in a heavy layering of cloth. All she could see were his lips against a light, stern jawbone.

They traveled through the woodlands in silence for what seemed like hours before Marayah began to recognize her surroundings. The trees had changed from redwood to pine and ferns became prevalent. They were on the outskirts of Mangadarth, near Banion Castle. The thought sent a shiver down her spine.

Thank you for coming to my aid, my lord, Marayah said, breaking the stillness. I fear what would have happened if you had not arrived when you did.

Lord Abingdon can do you no harm here, my lady.

Thank you for your kindness. I can find my way home from here.

It is not safe. I will provide you with a meal and then escort you back to your home. What is your name?

Marayah Winther. I am sorry to say… well, I do not know who you are, my lord. May I inquire as to what your name is?

Lord Eldrick Banion.

She had heard many stories as a child about the family that lived in Castle Banion; none of them good. Her father told her of the great war between the Abingdon’s and the Banion’s. It led to a new rule twelve thousand years prior. Yet, Lord Banion had saved her life and for that she owed him her allegiance.

You are quiet. I am surmising that you have heard of me or the castle before?

Yes, my lord, both you and the castle. But, I must say, after meeting you and after you saved my life, I believe the rumors to be falsehoods spread by gossipmongers who would wish to discredit you and your family.

Please, call me Eldrick.

Thank you, my lo…, Eldrick.

As they approached the castle gate, Marayah felt a dark presence reaching toward her. She leaned back to ward it off, only to find herself pressed against Lord Banion’s firm muscles. She quickly leaned forward. Pardon me, my lord.