A Mind Without Disease: A Yarn from the Moonweaver Memoirs

By A.L. Neff

What ever happened to the child from Pine Tree Wind?
Where did Arthur Hackney go after Crow Scare?
Where did the Moonweavers go after Mabon & the Swan?
In this novella all of these answers are given. Amidst the closure to some of these unfinished adventures spawns a new evil, and some enemies just won't stay away. Hecate & Bachus seek revenge on the Moonweavers and with the aid of a most foul artifact may just finally have it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 5, 2002
• ISBN: 9781462085750

A.L. Neff

Adam currently lives in upstate New York with his wife and two children. He is a musician, the founder of Cheiron Karate, a poet, a surgical technologist, adventurer of the mind and spirit, & holds a Masters degree in Psychology.

Book preview

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Also by Adam Lee D’Amato-Neff:

Za’Varuk’s Stone: Pleides Series: Book I

Pine Tree Wind: Pleides Series: Book II

Reality & Shadows, with Tracy R. McElligott

Cheiron Karate: The official training manual

Mabon & the Swan: A yarn from the Moonweaver memoirs

The Divine Plan

Pleidian Tales: Volume I

The Pleidian Tarot: Fundamentals of divination

The Fantasy of Eight System: Primary Rulebook

The Final Journey, with Tracy R. McElligott

Creative Learning

Book of Clouds

The Muse’s Lap

Crow Scare

A MIND WITHOUT

DISEASE

A Yarn from the Moonweaver Memoirs

A.L. Neff

Writers Club Press

New York Lincoln Shanghai

A Mind without Disease

A Yarn from the Moonweaver Memoirs

All Rights Reserved © 2002 by Adam Lee D’Amato-Neff

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

Writers Club Press

an imprint of iUniverse, Inc.

For information address:

iUniverse, Inc.

2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100

Lincoln, NE 68512

www.iuniverse.com

In Goddess we Trust

ISBN: 0-595-26090-X (pbk)

ISBN: 0-595-65523-8 (cloth)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-8575-0(eBook)

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Chronology

Introduction

PRELUDE

C H A P T E R 1

C H A P T E R 2

C H A P T E R 3

C H A P T E R 4

C H A P T E R 5

C H A P T E R 6

C H A P T E R 7

EPILOGUE

CONCLUSIONS

About the Author

A P P E N D I X

Notes

Glossary

This book is dedicated to all of the individuals in the world who suffer from mental illness. While the piece itself doesn’t necessarily describe the true events of those diseases, it does reflect in some ways the misunderstanding and stigma surrounding them.

When a man dies to this world there is sadness, when a woman does, there is true sorrow.

—The Dragon, Eleanor

Preface

This piece is a little strange in that it sets forth to tie together many different stories and to finalize certain threads that you the reader may have been wondering about if you have read all of my works. We have the set up for the Moonweaver mysteries with Mabon & the Swan continued here. We have an insert and expansion of the short story The Making of a Slave. As well, we have the origin of a strange child and segue from the fantasy books The Pleides Series.

Acknowledgements

I would once again like to commend the wonderful artistry of Alan F. Beck for supplying the cover art for this novella. You can find more of his works at his website: www.alanfbeck.com

Chronology

This piece takes place directly following Mabon and the Swan and near the end of Pine Tree Wind.

Introduction

Like all of the Pleidian books, this one takes place on many wonderful worlds. Mundane Earth, Magical Alcyone, Futuristic Atlas, and many planets in-between. There are strange races of Elves, Dwarves, Savoli, Shaithen, Crowe, and of course humans. Motives are sometimes not understood, and the Pleidian Council, while in rule for millions of years, go not forever unchallenged. And then who are the creators? The gods’ gods? This is what we wonder through tales of horror, fantasy, & science fiction. This is the Pleides.

PRELUDE

{Excerpt from Pine Tree Wind: Pleides Series: Book II}

The lovely Lady Amethyst and her motley crew of weary companions were continually harried by the ASP assassins ever eastward on their long and arduous journey. Only twice were they made to actually engage the persistent enemy, and both times it was only a small assortment of attackers and they were easily disposed of. They had not time to congratulate themselves on their fighting prowess however, or to rest from the tiring trek, and had to continue deep into the evening of the next day.

The group did count themselves lucky to land a few horses from their pursuers and had the chance to let the women and Dr. Arthur Hackney ride for a bit to rest their sore legs.

I sense we are near, Amethyst said looking forward over a large rise where there was present a large hill and a jutting outcropping of volcanic rock. There were many shards of glass-like rocks, black as night, and the psychologist Arthur named them as obsidian.

Then they heard another war horn sounding on two sides, flanking them. They had no escape but to head forward, driven between the oncoming hordes of goblin and orc mercenaries toward their destination. They ran and dodged incoming missiles, and the ranger Twilight repeatedly sent several of the creatures tumbling away with a shaft of one of his arrows protruding form its chest or neck. Then the flanking rows of beasts closed in and the party could not but help think that their existence on this plane would shortly be at its end.

A quick count tallied at least thirty of the monsters, well armed and armoured; a veritable small army squeezing them up the incline toward the flat top of a hill where the Lady Amethyst proclaimed to be their goal.

Sergeant Ho looked about through squinted eyes, hefting his battle-axe stiffly in two hands diagonally across his chest. The warrior from the futuristic planet of Atlas had discarded his broken rifle shortly after arriving to the planet and quickly adapted to the hand to hand combat of Alcyone.

I feel something too, the artist Anisette proclaimed looking all about them for some answer to the tingling feeling she could sense reverberating throughout her bones and nerves. There is something here I tell you; awesome and powerful.

In response to the revelation reared the body of a massive scaled creature. Its wings were outstretched and caught the moonlight, casting orange and red hued contours to its sleek frame.

A dragon! Twilight exclaimed.

Arthur was from Earth and had only heard of such things from myths as a child and of course his perusing of fantasy novels, but he never in his wildest imagination could have placed the time when he thought that he would actually see one for real. It was ever so much more magnificent than anything he had seen, the mere presence of

the creature sent waves of awe tumbling through his being and made his legs weak though he still sat atop the confiscated horse.

The dragon swept into a wide arc around the hill and issued forth a gigantic wave of immolating fire from its mouth. Instantly many of the orcs and goblins were razed like so much dry grass, screaming and churning in their death throes. The creature spun about for a second pass, and the remaining monsters scrambled before it. One orc had its head bitten off to the shoulders; one was split in two by a lashing tail; several smaller goblins were sent flying away by the buffeting wings, and a final blast of magickal fire permanently ended the threat to the traveling companions.

It had all only lasted a dozen or so