Covenant

By AJ Cooper

Pirosha, King of Kalamar, now married, is at the height of his life, and his kingdom at the height of its prosperity, when a visitor comes to town. Her name? Unknown. Her demand? His firstborn son. A long-made covenant has now come due.
Volume 5 of Enchanted Forest.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Realms of Varda
• Release date: Mar 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005441555

AJ Cooper

Cursed at birth with a wild imagination, AJ Cooper spent his youth dreaming of worlds more exciting than Earth. He is a native Midwesterner and loves writing fantasy, especially epic fantasy set in his own created worlds. He is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop and the author of numerous fantasy novels and novellas. His short stories have appeared in Morpheus Tales, Fear and Trembling, Residential Aliens and Mindflights, among others.

Book preview

Covenant: Enchanted Forest, Volume Five

Copyright© 2021 Andrew James Cooper

Published by Realms of Varda

www.vardabooks.com

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any print or electronic form without permission.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Episode I: Poppet

Episode II: Cat Palug

Episode III: Secret Admirer

Episode IV: A Fool’s Bargain

Episode V: Name Day

About the Author

Contact the Author

Covenant

Enchanted Forest, Volume Five

AJ Cooper

Episode I: Poppet

In the town of Bayne’s Dain, in the forest of Kalamar, a joyful air had taken hold, as news from the far corners coalesced, good news, news of beneficence—the King of Kalamar, and his wife, Queen Lolly, had been gifted a son.

Poppet they named him, or rather that was what Lolly liked to call him, and whenever emissaries came to the Lively Throne or citizens petitioned King Pirosha for this or that request, they would ask to hold little Poppet—to Lolly’s dismay.

I.

One day in spring, when meadows in the forests were crowned with wildflowers, when the sun beat down gently on the forest kingdom, and people in the town and the land as a whole were talking of a long peace—ushered in by the king and queen’s fertility—a visitor arrived in town, dressed in a cowl.

Down the streets she had walked, and it was clear by her height that she was a Big Person, not one of the norgs, not one of the children of the forest. And wherever she trod, the people turned and gawked, and spoke softly under the breath. Big People were rarely seen in the forest kingdom, and though they were not explicitly made to feel unwelcome, the Kingdom of Kalamar was not designed for them, and under doors they would have to duck, and on beds they would have to contort themselves to fit. And what’s more, to the norgs of Kalamar, they were thought warlike and rude, and the farther away they stayed, the better.

The woman in the cowl strode confidently through the streets, and at the great door of Bayne’s fortress, she stopped, and knocked three times.

~

King Pirosha, on the Lively Throne, was having a difficult time keeping his eyes open, for all night he had kept awake, tending to he and Lolly’s fussy baby, Agarin—called Poppet. At all hours of the night, Poppet would wake and begin to cry, and he wouldn’t cease unless Lolly fed him, or until Father held him.

Yet on the throne Pirosha remained, for it was where the Kings of Kalamar sat, and the hours of petitioning were not yet over, the times when all people great and small could venture to the doors of the fortress and ask for an audience.

The steward Rian was walking toward him. Your Majesty—a woman is here, a Big Person, and she demands to speak with you. It is about your son.

Not all audiences were granted, not all petitioners were heard—and Pirosha would normally not hear from anyone who was not his subject, least of all a Big Person from a foreign land.

What is it about my son? What is it about Poppet? Pirosha said.

She claims the child is sick, said Rian, and that she knows something about the child that others don’t.

There were many mad people in Kalamar, many of his subjects who were crazed or otherwise ill. He would not normally hear from those who raised such suspicions, least of all a Big Person from a foreign land.

And yet the very strangeness of it piqued Pirosha’s curiosity. Why would this woman come so far, and make such a point about visiting Poppet?

Send her in, Pirosha said, and almost immediately regretted his rash words, said in the heat of the moment.

His steward Rian disappeared through the door.

And Pirosha, though the kings’ chamber was lined on all sides with men of war, found his hand going to his sword Elvathan’s hilt. The sleepless night he had endured vanished from his memory, and he felt alert, hot-blooded, and strangely afraid, though he knew in his mind that he was in no danger, that even a Big Person posed no threat to two dozen norgish warriors, his bodyguard.

The doors opened, and there, a shadow in light, was a tall figure, garbed in a great cowl, if a Big Person the tallest of Big People, and when she moved it was with a serpentine grace. Pirosha could imagine her passing through walls.

And well before she removed her cowl to lay bare her hideous form, Pirosha knew she was no Big Person, no human but something else.

With her cowl on the floor, the hag was garbed in rags, her skin bright green, her pickle nose covered in warts and cysts. Her eyes were black and featureless, and when she smiled, many of her yellow teeth