The Rose Orphan, Book 1 in the Tale of the Dragon's Last Child

By Thom Tordella

A thousand years after the Great War that broke the world, an orphaned girl is washed upon a land embroiled in turmoil. Her rescuer is a princess escaping captivity from the Usurper of half the known lands. Gifting her with a name, Princess Isabella and her Guardsman Maerlahn take her with them on their escape to the free lands of the North. They bear with them dire news of the Usurper’s reach into the dark powers and alliance with the very evil of the Dark God Himself. But getting home is harder then it sounds, not merely for the might of the Usurper arrayed against them, but for the orphan girl’s own past that now follows far too closely. Trailing her on a bid for vengeance is a youth willing to strike any bargain to find his quarry, and the dark creature known only as the Bride will grants his dire wish. She wants the Princess merely as a sacrifice to Prophecy - but the girl, this orphan from afar more distant than any voyage across the seas, could bear the promise of all their dark intents. Or be the light that saves them all...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thom Tordella
• Release date: Feb 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311791429

Thom Tordella

Thom E Tordel, born in 1973 and living in upstate NY

Book preview

The Rose Orphan

'The Rose Orphan’

Book One

A Tale of the Dragon’s Last Child…

By

Thom Tordella

at Smashwords

https://www.smashwords.com/

Copyright 2014 Thom Tordella

Cover Art by

Misha Richet

http://thebookcoverdesigner.com/

Maps by

Thom Tordella

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Prologue

THE waters were calm there in the middle of the newborn sea.

It was gentle and shimmering, a pane that glowed and sparkled under the brilliant sun. From horizon to clear and distant horizon was not a cloud or shadow of land and in the distance the sea met the sky with barely a line of definition. It was beautiful in its simple view and calming with the soft slap of water against wooden planks.

The eyes that were witness to this sight were ageless and subtly alien, in faces that were slender and fine-boned and pale as alabaster. They were unused to the beauty of the open sea, so far from their distant forest homeland that none of their kind would see again. There was sadness with this knowledge, a shared sense of loss. Yet it was time. Time to journey across this new sea borne from so much loss to the unfound lands that were beyond known magics and mortals.

The world had grown too small for them. Changed by the hardships of the recent past and rife with the bitter memory of war, this world despite their fight to preserve it, was no longer theirs. It was peopled now by younger races with newer magic’s of Gaia and not the Rohzen’tyne. The darkness against which many had perished to defeat had been pushed once more to the edges of the mortal realm, where it had and ever would crouch in its long wait for the chance to claim all. Yet there were those who believed it would be possible to persevere against the changes and to adapt, and for a time they had held sway. None had wished to leave, but they quickly realized that the price to remain was too high for any one of their kind to pay.

The victory sought so vehemently by all, had become bitter all too quickly.

So they set forth. They voyaged across the sea in great ships of living timbre, sharp-lined prows cleaving the waves as broad sails were spread as their god’s great wings. They filled and bellowed with the wind called forth by the sorcerous dael’sen, ageless faces placid in the embrace of their power. Dozens of these living ships, full of graceful arcs and sleek curves along their long pearl-hued hulls shimmered under the sun as they coursed through the calm waves. And it was a child’s eyes that looked to the promise of this new home with anticipated wonder and fear.

She was a girl of only a few years, eyes still new to the world and still apt to clutch at her mother’s flowing robes and seek those gentle hands that always brought warmth and joy. Now they clutched a rail and felt the warm pulse of life in the gifted wood, in the magical being that it was and stared enchanted at the play of light upon the sea as wonder replaced sorrow. She missed her home as deeply as any other, but this grew less with the passing of each day. She was a child whose memories of home were too few and too whimsical and flighty to hold for long. A giggle, like the sounds of chimes in a breeze sounded as a gentle Song flowed through the wood under her hands and down through her body. It was one of joy and welcome as the great ship sensed that slight change of mood and sought to comfort.

"Inatieri, why do you laugh so?"

A slender, delicate hand touched upon her own tiny fingers and the Song coursed up through the woman now standing beside her in answer. She was fine-boned and slender, delicate as a reed and as lovely as the dawn light breaking across the sky. The sun’s welcome light made pale skin glow and white-gold hair shimmer, and her eyes of deep and glowing sapphire beheld her small daughter to marvel at this child’s simple joy.

Inatieri let go of the rail and clasped her mother’s robes with a happy cry.

"He Sings to you, does he?" Tapered ears could pluck the strains of its melody out of the air now. Across the vastness of the evensense, that immaterial bind that drew the people as one, she sent the great ship her thanks that he took such care of his passengers, and her daughter most of all. She knelt, a motion made graceful despite the long white blade at her side and enfolded the child of her blood and her beloved in a loving embrace. As she did so, she looked out upon the new and vast ocean with eyes tinged with sadness despite that which she now held.

This should never have been. Time should have flowed in ways far from so much death and sorrow. Far from the horrific twists and betrayals that had destroyed their world. At times it did not seem at all real. How could it when so much life and promise searched for comfort in her own arms and looked upon all else with still innocent eyes?

Imagination could easily picture the sights hidden so far below the now placid waves… The vistas of cities lost forever, torn asunder from the onrush of the sea as the Breaking collapsed the world. Of the great human nation of Happan, friend and solace against the dark, now gone forever. Its people were drowned as the world fell beneath their feet and the great mountains crumbled and the oceans rolled across the sunken lands. Their fate had been to drown and be crushed under the weight of the as yet unnamed sea, even as other lands no less precious were swallowed by hot sands and the burning sun.

So much had been lost and so many things had changed, and the price to remain here any longer, at first disbelieving, was enfolded within her arms. She would give all to save this one little life that she held so dear. Soon this fear would hold over her no power to torment, for they drew now upon a place where the walls between the worlds thinned, and met the other where the Gods dwelled and awaited them. The Crossing would be upon them soon.

Even now the chanting of the dael’sen grew in voice and power. Soon they would need her, as they would need all of the Aelphen, to focus and strengthen the gates between the worlds. To bring the last of their people across the Void from the old... to the Other.

But there was still this moment to hold her daughter, to marvel at this small bundle of laughter and joy born at the end of so much Chaos. The child was as pale and golden-haired as her mother, as all of Anguise’s children, with large eyes of amber shining in a cherub’s tiny face.

Before the struggle against the dark, they had possessed more elders than young, those whose memories stretched even back to the last Crossing their people had made in the wake of their gods. This time was different however, as this was no flee from a dying sun across the stars, but a transition to a new plane of existence. The Gods were not leaving this world, but the children of their brother Anguise could no longer remain. They had spent countless generations as mentors and arbiters, timeless as gods themselves to the younger races born from His siblings. A single aelphen could witness the passage of hundreds of generations and the rise and fall of empires and they knew not the death of nature’s course. That was in the long ago past, upon the world that was their first home, and where that mortality was remembered only by the most ancient of their race.

When mythical death did come, it was often of choice for a soul longing for rest as much as for accident or war and a great mourning would overcome the people. And the long times of the great war against the dark was an age filled with such mourning. The births of children were rarer still, and as the war bore on, the numbers of the Aelphen dwindled to the few here now and those who had gone ahead to forge the way.

The child Inatieri was of the new generation of aelphen, the births cherished and celebrated as their future was born once more. But…

Her mother felt a pang of sorrow that little Inatieri would not grow as she had. In the warm embrace of this land and its creatures, to feel the songs of this world in her blood and soul, pulsing through her heart. But it was time, and what waited beyond held the promise of something more. The future of the Aelphen. The lives of their children. Her arms tightened around the girl with an echo of that desperation that was still so strong after the truth was realized.

The magics unleashed by the wrath of gods and people had caused more than the Breaking that shattered the earth. The balance of the powers of the world were changed. Not twisted. Not darkened. But altered irrecoverably. She could feel the fragile fiber of the world, as strong and constant as ever, still singing ever vibrantly through the evensense, but…

Her arms tightened around the girl, as if she held on tight enough, it would change the truth that was. That her immortal arms were holding an all too mortal child.

This was the true death of their people. This 'new’ world did not support the immortality of their young. Their children would grow old and die before their parent’s ageless eyes. And their grandchildren. And their great grandchildren. To a people whose fundamental truth had been the absence of death, this was unacceptable. It was the end of them, and it could not be allowed. It could not be endured…

So they were leaving. There was no more place for them in this world, under the light of its sun, the blue of its skies, upon this sea, or in the forest-lands of home.

Beyond a horizon that could not be seen, in a plane as yet unknown, there was the future.

With that promise held secure, she hugged her daughter and laughed softly as the innocent curiosity that shone in her eyes as Inatieri touched the glowing gems and crystal elairu decorating her mother’s robes. They held their own warmth and pulsed, thrumming in time to the rising chant of the dael’sen, an echoing quiver in the child’s soul as the rohzen’tyne coursed through them all.

As one, the great ships slowed to rest as their hulls rolled gently among the swells. There came a shifting of power that was felt by all of the gathered aelphen, many voices raised in a chant now that grew into a Song that called to the souls of all. Their history was in that song, a song that had never been and never would be again.

"Imadieza," called a voice from behind them, tall and proud Cenederas and beside him the luminous visage of Oulaera, the Last Lady of Cathair'na'an’Dia.

Inatieri’s mother rose, took her hand and led the way to the raised stern. The dael’sen had risen and stepped aside in a swirl of blue and white robes, pale hair swirling, parting to allow Imadieza to enter their ranks. Resting before them upon an ornate pedestal was the means without which this crossing would be impossible. The touch and power of the gods was far away now. In time their power will return to the world, as its molten heart reforged and strengthened the shattered mantle, but for now it was too fragile, and the People must make the way on their own. To that end was the Celithias to be used.

To call it 'the’ Celithias was however a contradiction. There had been five. After the darkness swept over the rohzen'tyne, with His children dying from a poison striking at their very hearts, did Anguise weep great tears. These were the tears of a God, tears of blood, and five drops fell through the vast gulf between the realms of the Pantheon and down to the beleaguered world. There they hardened and formed into crystal spheres and brought with them a last salvation to the Aelphen. The last of his children gathered to them, touched them and knew once more the wealth and beauty of the rohzen, the fullness of life cleaned of the terrible hate and evil, the Scourge Anguise’s brother Deceduir had cast over them. From them did the Aelphen rally and stand when all else were falling like leaves come to a bitter winter.

And now only this one remained.

In the absence of war, it had been used to heal the wounds that had ravaged the world. To quench the flames that burned across whole lands, to stem the flood of waters that had consumed Happan and quiet the rumblings of the mountains and seal the earth after it had opened and swallowed cities entire. And in all likelihood this would be its last use, after years of spending so much simply to heal what war had shorn apart.

Imadieza stood among them, eyes closed now and feeling the heat of the sun bathing her as its touch sank deep into her soul. She reached within and touched the rohzen’tyne settled deep there and Sang. Her voice rose and spread to find eager acceptance among the others, as it overwhelmed and consumed them, men and women and the few children who had not yet Crossed. Their voices joined as one, deep and light, binding tight as each found its place, felt the power within and gave it life. And just as the other children, Inatieri’s own tiny voice wove into the chorus, Mother’s hands resting encouragingly on her small shoulders.

From other ships came other songs, different and unique that merged and flowed as the Aelphen were as one in this moment. It grew stronger and stronger until it was almost too much to bear, yet it was unfinished as pieces were missing from the tapestry. It was left as something less than it should be. Imadieza stood with her fellow dael’sen, stout and proud Cenederas, gentle Tylieza, Onandir, Haereick and the Last of the Hall Lords, Lady Oulaera, and so many more who had lost so much and sacrificed as none should ever be asked for…

They opened themselves to the magic of the rohzen’tyne that swirled and eddied, their Song bringing order and a way. And more, they reached to the Celithias and felt its flood of power lift them beyond the realm of their physical forms, let themselves be swept up on the currents of power and to that place that all aelphen dwelled.

This was the evensense. That which had bound the People of Anguise since crossing the gulf of the stars to this world they were now departing. It made them as one despite heart and mind and was the greatest strength that had become the greatest weakness. For so long the Scourge had forbidden this joining of minds and souls that they now burst forth upon it with a joy unmatched in all their endless ages. This was the sum of them all, of love and hate, joy and pain and all that rested in between. The air grew still and calm, the lapping of the waves against living timbre quieting until only the Song drifted over the sea as it deepened to embrace all in its melodious rise and fall.

Inatieri looked back to her mother, the crystal elairu arrayed like jewels in her hair and upon her gown glowing brilliant with their own light, her eyes like vibrant pools of sapphire. Long flowing hair shifted about her slender face and lifted into a golden halo, the air about them charged as she was gilded in the full breadth of her power. An earth-bound star ready to rise to the heavens. She smelled of fresh flowers and springtime, of the dawning of life after a winter’s long slumber and the air after a spring shower. She was home.

Sensing her thoughts, Imadieza took a moment from her concentration to smile upon her daughter. Inatieri did not stop singing as she grinned. It was beyond her, commanding something deep within. Her little voice in the chorus was full of fresh and innocent emotion, love for her mother, a yearning to see her father again, a tremble of fear at what was before and sadness for the home left far behind. It could have been lost within the rise and fall of so many others, so small was it, but none was overwhelmed. Every voice could be heard, singled out from the chorus as an individual and distinct. It must be. For this was a magic woven by all. Inatieri clung to her mother’s, twined with hers, their chords of the song full of joy and expectation.

The magic of the Song grew, and as it grew the world around them faded gently into mist and light. The sky was seen to distort as though a great hand had pinched it and drew it back, the fabric of the sky stretching away even as the sea did the same to leave the living ships adrift and away from the mortal realm. They were in between, sparkling lights playing a merry dance around them as the world was left behind, the golden swathes and eddies of the evensense becoming all there was.

It began as a whisper lost beyond the Song. But it grew and Inatieri thought it was their own voices coming back upon them, it was so similar. But it was subtlety different and she grew confused until Mother’s hands tightened comfortably upon her shoulders and she knew. This was not their Song. It was another, of those who had gone before. Those who waited for the last to finish the Crossing, and who reached back across to bridge the gap between. They would lead them to their new home.

They called and led the way as the Songs merged, became more than what they had been, and to become truly One. A grand symphony rose and filled their souls and Imadieza drew her daughter forward to meet that song. They searched within it, across the thousands of myriad voices that called and beckoned, searching for the one that would make them complete.

And when they found it...

They came together in a glory of light, her father’s voice strong and vibrant and welcome. It enfolded them, his daughter and beloved with a warmth and light to rival the now distant sun. The last of the Aelphen’sar raced forward to finished the Crossing -

And a toll, as the single sounding of a great and hollow bell rang through the brilliance to shiver on the air. The dancing sparkles stopped, then raced away as fast as any light like stars fleeing the sky. The Song trembled and Imadieza gripped her daughter’s shoulders tightly in dismay. Around them, the brilliant mists dimmed like storm clouds mounting to enfold them all in a dark embrace.

The Song surged once, then faltered as the blackness tightened. Imadieza stared about with wide eyes filled with shock as that darkness closed. She knew this taint, this malice, but how could it be here? Now? It had been defeated, sent back to the Abyss to dwell in its Master’s hell! Her mounting dismay was echoed by her beloved and Inatieri's uncomprehending fear was so sharp and clear to her attuned senses. The poisonous taint tightened and resounded through the void, piercing their once joyous hearts with venom as it struck in jealous rage.

The great ship canted sharply, throwing Imadieza and the others off their feet. Her grip tightened painfully on her child as she tried to keep her close against the sway. The Song died on her lips, faltered and withered as others succumbed to their surprise and shock. It was impossible. The war was over. They had sacrificed their world to ensure his defeat!

But this was happening. Somehow, he was striking at them in this place forever locked away from the mad god and his disciple.

"No!" shouted a voice, distant and ragged with terror, and the great ship beside them crumpled as withered parchment. Screams were raised in anguish before it vanished into a haze of darkness that was the Abyss.

Terror gripped Imadieza’s pounding heart, fear for her daughter and her beloved answered, his own cry sounding across the fraying weave of magic with a bellow of desperation. Around them the Song was unraveling, its magic dying. They would be lost here, forever trapped in between by the Dark One. To die just as the other’s had died, and be lost forever.

"Stop this Imazedier!" Imadieza cried in a voice harsh and trembling.

Thunder rolled and lighting cracked and the great living ships shuddered and groaned. Winds howled and snapped the sails and masts shattered above them in resounding cracks. Cries and shouts were torn away by the storming wind and all Imadieza could do was to hold Inatieri close against the demon storm.

Then a voice spoke within the howl of the wind, a sound that Imadieza despaired at ever hearing again. Sister mine, you have parted from me, from my Master. The promise once offered is no more. A new pledge is given to you, as death shall come to you and yours.

She shook her head sharply. No. You are the betrayer, Imazedier. You forsook us all. You abandoned Anguise. You belong in your Master’s Hell!

"I perished in Hell, Imadieza, but I am reborn. I shall be eternal in my Master’s shadow, His legacy upon the ruptured world. You think you have beaten Him, but time means nothing to a God. Prisons weaken, wardens fail, guardians forget and locks shatter. The world you have abandoned shall once again feel the flames of my Master’s fire. And it will perish…"

Imadieza shook her head sharply. His words inspired visions of death and fire upon the broken world now left behind, and dread entered her heart. Should we have left? Was the world not safe? Would it ever be?

But she already knew the answer. Shock had stilled her thoughts, but long years of war had taught her how to overcome that simple hesitation. There was only one way Imazedier could strike in this place long forbidden to him and his followers. They must have another celithias. One thought destroyed but had been hidden all too well.

She feared what this may mean for the world left behind, but it was too late to turn back, death would surely capture them all. They had to go on to save those who were left, and trust that those mortals left behind could stand against the Dark God when, and if, he should arise again. I must save all I can now. There is nothing left to do.

Or was there more..?

With heart and resolve, Imadieza began to Sing, to get Inatieri to Sing.

Fear gripped the little girl’s pounding heart, but courage was born looking into her mother’s glowing eyes, hearing her voice rising. Her own trembled and shook but grew with Mother’s encouragement and strength born of her enfolding arms. But this song was as nothing to the screams made by no living thing, which rode the scouring winds and dragged them down and away towards the yawning Abyss below. More ships crumpled under the abyssal weight or were shorn to pieces as aelphen were dragged from others and tossed wailing into the dark.

As they sang, Imadieza crawled across the canting deck with Inatieri close beside, reaching for the Celithias. They had one chance only and she trusted and hoped with all her being that they were not too far lost from the Way. Still locked together in the evensense, she felt her beloved’s acceptance and knew those beyond prepared to do what they must to save them. We must have time, my love. We must have your strength. It is all that will save us!

"My heart is as ever yours," was his distant promise.

Lady Oulaera was once more reaching the Celithias with Cenederas close beside. It need not be explained to them what needed to be done. Anguish shone in the Lady’s eyes, but there was no hesitation. Together all three placed hands over the crystal.

A deeper power rose within them, the force of the rohzen’tyne set free in chorus consent. Somewhere in the mortal world another celithias survived, turned to the dark purpose of striking into the evensense with their crystal as its target. They could not attack it physically, they could not even defend their own from that which the Celithias would find inherently part of itself.

Beside them and caught in the nexus of their power, little Inatieri also touched the crystal and added her own meager strength, a high pitch note that threaded through them all. They were a small pocket in the maelstrom, alone as the last battle raged. But salvation came. For a new song, desperate and defiant reached from the enclosing dark as those who had gone before sought to defend those now lost. Awareness and powers shifted, Imadieza finding that which was the Daemon, the disciple of the Dark God Deceduir, and whom had once been Imazedier of House Ilmadaeran. That which had once been her brother thought dead.

Light and dark met in a battle no less fierce than that which had once consumed the world and into this did Imadieza strike. The Celithias shuddered under their hands, its power roiling as its purpose was turned once more to war. But it was weak. Since the war’s end its power had been used to mend the wounds of the earth, a mighty task that time more than anything must heal, but they had done what they could. It left the Celithias sadly depleted, with enough power left for this last crossing. And now that too must be used.

That and more, as Imadieza and Cenederas, Lady Oulaera and many others now added their strengths, coiling their power and sending it back along the tenuous link that bound them. In a dark place buried deep in the mortal realm, a scream of rage echoed through the eternity. The Celithias shuddered under their hands, cracks racing through its smooth surface and deep into its heart, as they did all they could do to destroy the power source from which Imazedier attacked so far after forsaken kin.

The Celithias exploded in light and shards that pierced and cut, the blast hurling all five away from the wrecked pedestal. Imadieza fetched up against the stump of a mast, shaking her head to clear it, to think clearly and quickly. Was it enough? Was his reach into the evensense severed?

It was. Barely. Perhaps not enough. The darkness was thick all around, tangible and cold. The small flotilla of ships were spread wide and weary and the fight had carried them deeper into the Abyss, where the powers of the mad god could reach them still. She despaired. They had failed in the last, the Song threaded and weak, their powers all but spent, her elairu dark and empty. But still, Imadieza gripped the hilt of her shimmering white blade, Dun'Rhiosa, ready to fight in the only way left now no matter how futile, when she heard the single note.

She would know it anywhere, had heard it first when the Singer was still in the womb. Her daughter was standing where all others had been thrown down, Singing where all others were silent. And she was answered. Her father and the aelphen gone before were still fighting. Taking heart in all that was left, Imadieza’s voice rose in answer, followed now by others, faltering and despairing and so very desperate, but it was there once more.

A wordless howl shrieked in answer but the Song from the others beyond was strong.

Too strong.

Tears of grief streaked Imadieza’s face, for she felt the deaths.

They were too close to the edge of the Abyss and too far from the Way. Lost in the dark as they were without the Celithias, a beacon was needed to guide them, to draw them forth and that beacon, shining like a sun, was burning