Aerielands Christmas: The Gewellyn Chronicles

By Hans L. Erdman

Come back to the Aerielands for Christmas again!

Revised Edition available for a limited time only.

            It's Christmas time in the Aerielands, and High Princess Lona wants to invite everyone to Caer Aerie, her mother High Queen Fiona Yaleria-Brice's remote castle high in the Borderland Mountains. Her sister, Princess Abilynn wants to surprise Lona with a visit from her leprechaun friend, Fillian, but Fillian is afraid to cross the portal from Ireland to the Aerielands. Meanwhile, in the Great Forest Castle, Fiona's parents, Connor and Iolena Clark, discover a bundle of documents written in Ogham, the ancient language of Ireland, and with it, An Anotais, the Great Sword of Eyru, the very first Great High Queen of All the Elves in the Nine Worlds, that has the power to appear when it believes the High Queen and Princess are threatened. To solve the puzzle, shapeshifters Fiona, her best friend, Alistronia Skystormer, and daughter Abilynn will return to Ireland, encounter one of the greatest men in Irish history and her brother who is supposed to kill him.

            But it's Christmas, and in the Aerielands during this season of giving, love is in the air.

            "Aerielands Christmas" is a stand-alone short story from the Gewellyn Chronicles, the exciting epic fantasy series that includes "The Journeys of Connor Clark." "The Adventures of Fiona Clark," and new this year, "Mapmaker: The Amazing Travels of Tessa Chart." 

We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

• Language: English
• Publisher: White Owl Publishers
• Release date: Nov 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386913054

Book preview

Also by Hans and Ellen Erdman

The Gewellyn Chronicles:

Truthbearer: The Journeys of Connor Clark, Book 1

Trinity of the Truthbearer: The Journeys of Connor Clark, Book 2

Truthbearer’s Daughter’s: The Journeys of Connor Clark, Book 3

Song of the Truthbearer: The Journeys of Connor Clark, Book 4

Kestrel: A Fiona Clark Short Story

White Owl: The Adventures of Fiona Clark, Book 1

An Bhanrion (The High Queen): The Adventures of Fiona Clark, Book 2

Eyru’s Heirs: The Adventures of Fiona Clark, Book 3

Sword of the Great Queen: The Adventures of Fiona Clark, Book 2.5

Coming Soon:

Truthbearer’s Great Journey: The Journeys of Connor Clark, Book 5

Nine Worlds Together: The Gewellyn Chronicles Saga, Book 1

Christmas in Mill Forge

Gilberton: A Thriller

Aerielands Christmas

A Gewellyn Chronicles Novella

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© Copyright 2017, Hans L. Erdman

Isanti, MN

All rights reserved

Revised Edition, 2018

Cover Design © by Melchelle Designs

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Scripture Quote from Birth of the Chosen One

The First Nations Version (FNV) © 2013 Retold by Terry M. Wildman

Used with permission.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, other than historical figures mentioned, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Dedication:

This story is dedicated to Christmas in all of its glory. Christmas has always been my very favorite holiday, and it is my honor and privilege to share this story as a Christmas gift to those of you who follow the Gewellyn Chronicles. Santa Claus, the presents under the tree, the Christmas carols, the choirs, the children in the church Christmas pageant, the bells ringing in the storefronts, the cookies baking in the oven. Christmas trees, Christmas wreaths, Christmas stockings, Christmas memories; they all mean so much to me. The stories, Dickens’ Christmas Carol, It’s a Wonderful Life, Polar Express, and the stories I’ve written; The Rising of the White Eagle, the Coming of the Great Lion, and the story behind them all, the birth of our Savior in Bethlehem.

I know that there are those who have a hard time with Christmas. I know there are those who are having a hard time this Christmas. I know there are those who, sadly, want nothing to do with Christmas. I hope this story will give them hope because that is what Christmas is truly all about. Hope.

Faith, family, and friendship. That is what the Gewellyn Chronicles, The Journeys of Connor Clark, and The Adventures of Fiona Clark, are also all about. So, on behalf of Connor and Iolena, Alenia and Abrallan, Shannon and Lochlain, Menta Kai, Lona, and Joseph, Fiona, Berian and Abilynn, Arianna, Sean and little Connor, Talia, Taeral and Estella, Tanya Joy and Penant, Richard, Kitlaen and Alistronia, Tlannatar and Maeryn, Thallan and Lady Celantine, and all the rest of the characters who make up the wonderful worlds of the Gewellyn Chronicles, I wish you the Hope, Peace, Joy and the Wonder that is Christmas.

Nollaig Shona go léir!

Hans and Ellen Erdman

November 1, 2018

Elven and Irish Words Used in the Storyline

Adar – Father (Formal)

Adara – Mother (Formal)

Adda – Dad/Daddy (Term of endearment)

Amil – Mom/Mama (Term of endearment)

An Anotais – The Great Unifier (Sword)

An Bhanrion - The Queen (High Queen)

Aran – King

Bore Da – Good Morning/Day

Colum Cille - Saint Columba of Iona (In Irish, the letter C is always pronounced like a K.)

Cill Dara –  Kildare

H.A.G.S. – Heroes are Actually Girl Soldiers, Fiona, Menta Kai and Talia’s Warrior Sorority (for lack of a better term) identified by their forehead to heart Celtic scrollwork tattoos.

Melda – beloved

Melin er – dear one

Mellon - close friend

Mera – Great Elf Horses

Nin Mel – my love

Tar (name) – Queen (name)

Téigh le Dia – Go with God

Chapter 1

Invitations Sent

The bedroom door started to open, Lona, no!

What? We need to ask them, they heard Lona reply.

You know the rules, we never go into Mum and Da’s bedroom without knocking on the door and being told to come in. The door slammed shut.

Berian looked across their bed at Fiona with a raised eyebrow. I think the girls want to talk to us, he grinned. Fiona rolled her eyes and smiled, and then reached over, took her dressing robe and put it on. There was a knock on the door.

Come in girls, their mother told them. The door opened again, and High Princess Lona Yaleria-Brice, and her older sister, Princess Abilynn, came into the room. The irrepressible Lona jumped up on her mother’s bed, while Abilynn stood at the foot. Her father, Berian, patted his side of the bed and indicated that Abby could sit there. The two sisters were a unique combination, both of whom were adopted into their family. Lona had three mothers who shared in the raising of the High Princess; Fiona, the High Queen of the Aerielands, Fiona’s sister, Menta Kai, the Great High Queen of All the Elves in the Nine Worlds, and Lona’s birthmother, Gwynlyn Brice, who was also Berian’s mother. In addition to being Menta Kai’s daughter, Lona was also her heir and ward. Abilynn Enya Yaleria-Brice, on the other hand, was the daughter that Fiona and Berian had adopted from Ireland the year before. The two girls were virtually inseparable, and although Lona was thirty-one years old, as an Aerielands elf she was approximately the maturity, physically and emotionally, of an twelve-year-old human. Abilynn was seventeen years old as reckoned in Ireland on First Earth, where she was born.

Mama? Lona started. Abby and I want to do Christmas here this year. Can we do that, Amil? Fiona looked at Abilynn for confirmation that she had actually talked about Christmas with her little sister.

Mum, Abilynn nodded, last year we went down to Aerielands Castle for Christmas, and the year before Lona says that you went to Eldaria, to Tia Ali’s home and had Christmas with Lord Richard and Lady Kitlaen.

We did, Fiona replied, but part of that was because Nana and Papa, Kailee and Uncle Joe were all in Drohana at the time. Nana and Papa were Fiona and Menta Kai’s parents, Iolena and Connor Clark, and Uncle Joe was Connor’s best friend, Joseph Spotted Eagle, who was also originally from First Earth. And the same thing with last year, because Amil Kailee needed to be at Aerielands, so we all went there. She looked over at Berian. What do you think, Nin Mel? Should we invite everyone here to Caer Aerie?

It will require some work because right now we’re basically set up for about six guests and only rooms for three married couples other than us. You are talking about your older sisters, your nieces, my parents, my sisters, Penant, the rest of the HAGS, and their spouses, significant others, and children, as well as Ali’s family, Joseph, Lord Thallan, Uncle Tanner and his new female friend, he paused. I think if we’re inviting Glynis and Anyon, as well as Alenia and Abrallan, we need to invite the other rangers, Kevyn, Keturah, and Talindra, too. We’re talking about thirty people or more. And don’t forget, Talia and Taeral are going to be traveling with an infant. Fiona’s niece and her husband had had a baby girl, Estella, in the past year.

If we’re inviting Talindra, we should invite her parents as well. Doctor Wicker can bring a large number of people with him in the airship, as opposed to everyone flying in here on Great Eagles in the middle of winter. Fiona sat up and gathered her robe around her.

There was a light knock at the open door, and Fiona looked up to see her best friend, Alistronia Skystormer, standing in the doorway. Did you mind-speak that you wanted me up here?

I did, Fiona replied. We’re discussing Christmas, and you’re part of this household. We want to know what you want to do, too.

We’re going to have Christmas here, Tia Ali, Lona exclaimed. We want to invite everybody from the Aerielands and Gewellyn and Drohana to have Christmas with us.

Everyone, Fireball? Alistronia grinned at her niece. In addition to being Fiona’s best forever friend, Ali was the Lordess of Drohana and the Drohanan ambassador to the Aerielands. She also served as the trainer in combat and fighting skills for both Lona and Abby. There are a lot of people in all three of those places.

Lona gave Ali a baleful look. "I mean family and HAGS, Auntie. I know we can’t fit everyone from three worlds in