The Sky Kingdoms

By Elli Buchanan

The enmity between the Eagle Convocation, the Hawk Cast and the Owl Parliament has governed the sky civilizations for hundreds of years. During their lifetime, the rulers of the Convocation and the Cast had formed an uneasy alliance. To join their offspring in marriage would unite the two powerful nations and give them the strength to defeat and enslave the mighty Owl Parliament ruled by the blood-thirsty Caradas family.

Lady Hawk Salima Isolde fought against this union as did Egypt Volker, the son and now ruler of the Eagle Convocation. As children, they played as companions, yet neither would be forced into a marriage not of their choosing. On the death of her father, Salima rules the Hawk Cast with a more benevolent hand, yet the threat of war is always on the horizon. The bird shape-shifters are a species born of blood-lust. The battle, the kill and the prey is part of what they are, yet Salima fought this side of herself. The blood-letting sickened her and the ever-present threat of war and enslavement of her people was a constant distress.She knew of the folk-lore. There was a way to end the existence of the shape-shifting creatures of the sky. No more fighting, no more fear of being enslaved by another shape-shifting avifauna order. All it would take is one human—just one, to stop Parliament, the nation of shape-shifting owls from enslaving the Convocation and the Cast, condemning them to be bondsmen for as long as time should endure and for Salima to be free of the confines of remaining a hawk-woman forever.

An unlikely and initially dangerous encounter with a human in the forest opens the door for Salima to put her plans into motion. However, what she does not bargain for is the affect that Rolfe Cedric, a mere human will have on her sensibilities.

Can Salima follow through with her plan to use Rolfe to end the threat of the Cast's enslavement by the Owl Parliament and at the same time free herself from her own personal captivity, or will she spare the man who has evoked feelings in her she was unprepared for and unable to fight against?

 

Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & MythologyFiction, Fantasy, Paranormal Romance

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elli Buchanan
• Release date: Jan 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201564070

Elli Buchanan

The ideas for several stories came about when my man and I were 'floating around on a boat' in the Mediterranean for 16 months. Plenty of time for the creative juices to flow and undoubtedly the experience of a lifetime, but before any of these ideas became fully fledged books; we returned to Australia and the 'real world' of jobs and in my case, opening a small business. Nearly 5 years later, the business sold (loved, but its time had passed) and now time to write again. 

Book preview

The Sky Kingdom

Short Story Series

A Paranormal Shifter Romance

By

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Elli Buchanan

&

Sierra Mullins

THE SKY KINGDOM

A SHORT STORY SERIES

A Paranormal Shifter Romance

––––––––

Elli Buchanan

& Sierra Mullins

PUBLISHED BY:

Ventures Press2

Copyright © 2016

www.booksbyellibuchanan.com

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All rights reserved.

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Books by Elli Buchanan

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Re-Runners Series

Re-Runners – First Life

Re-Runners – Second Life

Re-Runners – Third Life

Part 1

Re-Runners – Third Life

Part 2

Click here to view Re-Runners VIDEO BOOK TRAILER

Or www.booksbyellibuchanan.com/rerunners-video.html

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The Sky Kingdom Short Story Series

(Co-authored with Sierra Mullins)

Paranormal Shifter Romance

Forbidden Mortal

Story 1

Hawk’s Desire

Story 2

Where Loyalty Lies

Story 3

Final Flight

Story 4

The Sky Kingdom Box Set

Short Story

Paranormal Romance

The Cursed Arrow

CONTENTS:

The Rise and Fall of the Shifter World

Story 1: FORBIDDEN MORTAL

Story 2: HAWK’S DESIRE

Story 3: WHERE LOYALTY LIES

Story 4: FINAL FLIGHT

List of Characters

Rolfe Cedric – son of Duke Drake Cedric

Sky Kingdoms

The Cast

(Hawk Shape-Shifters)

Evenon Isolde – ruler of the Hawk Shifters

Salima Isolde – daughter and heir

Harpa – Salima’s personal attendant

Barden – Salima’s personal guard

The Convocation

(Eagle Shape-Shifters)

Egypt Volker – ruler of the Eagle Shifters

Macon Volker – Egypt’s cousin and adviser

The Parliament

(Owl Shape-Shifters)

Warrick Caradas – ruler of the Owl Shifters

Aalina Caradas – wife and queen

Ngati Caradas – eldest son and heir

Hann Caradas – youngest son

Resli & Ursaly Caradas – twin daughters

Bride – lover of Hann and handmaiden to the queen

Human Captive

Vesta

The Rise and Fall of the Shifter World

Shifters had been on the planet as long as pure humans and they had evolved, just as humans had. But the pure humans – or the Unmixed, as they were referred to by their Shifter overlords, were deemed inferior and weak and were left to themselves – only being tortured for sport or killed for pleasure. To eat of Unmixed flesh was thought to be repugnant and offensive.

Many species of Shifters ruled the world in their own places of power. The wolves, bears and giant cats often fought for their perceived territories, both in their animal and human forms and many held giant fortresses. The pure humans were slaves of their Shifter rulers and knew their place in the world of mystical magic and creatures more powerful than themselves.

The mighty birds of the Sky Kingdoms often watched as their land-bound cousins fought amongst themselves. From their positions high in the mountains, they were untouchable. Their only enemies were those from within their own race.

For countless millennia, the mightiest clan – the Owl Parliament – ruled with a cruel benevolence veiled behind their claim of being the oldest and wisest of the sky Shifters and therefore, the most entitled to rule... but as the Eagles and Hawks evolved and grew into their power, the balance began to shift.

The two rulers of the lesser species: Matuse of the Eagle Convocation and Everon of the Hawk Cast, put aside their inbred lust for blood and formed a pact: That their children – yet babies – would one day wed and join the two nations. The ensuing years of waiting for Egypt and Salima to reach adulthood would give them time to continue to build their numbers and their armies – and then they would take down the rulers of the Owl Parliament – the mighty Caradas family. All the while, both leaders were planning their own deception to rule the Sky Kingdoms outright.

Matuse, believing that his son would subjugate a woman and Everon, counted on his youth. He, being almost 20 years younger than Matuse, planned to control the young Egypt after the eventual passing of his father.

As the Shifter world battled each other for supremacy – their innate natures were those of killers and the bloodlust ran in their veins – they failed to notice the rising of the Unmixed. As the centuries passed, the pure humans became more adapt at bending the world to their needs. They were using their most underutilized and powerful tool – their brain.

Soon the Shifter rulers began to make use of the ingenuity of the humans. Their human side recognized how these clever advances would make their own human world more appealing and comfortable and they enslaved and mixed with the humans more than ever.

While their egos would not – could not – ever envisage a superiority in the Unmixed, they therefore did not see the arising... the slow but progressive ascension of the human race.

The centuries moved forward and steadily the tide turned. The world had changed and where the Unmixed had once been slaves, they now ruled in more than equal measure to the Shifters.

The Shifters still held positions of power, but now they hid their truth in folklore and fairytales; for the Humans had become their match in areas they could never have imagined. They were cruel and bloodthirsty – just as the Shifters, but they had a more powerful weapon: their resourcefulness and creativity. Traits that would have been available to the human side of the Shifter species, but a side they had let languish, seeing their humanness as a weakness.

The Shifter world became a hidden world. To survive meant they had to live in a land that was populated and more often than not, controlled by the Unmixed. Their existence meant that their true natures were concealed and so it was ...  that the world changed.

The Sky Kingdoms found their own way to protect themselves from the human race, whose thirst for power outmatched their own. They used the sorcery of the Underworld faeries to create The Veil. A magical invisible shield that hid their mountain fortresses from the eyes of humans.

FORBIDDEN MORTAL

Story 1

transparent wing

Prologue

‘Come in, daughter.’

Salima Isolde did as her father bade, pulling her wings in against her back, drawing courage from the safety she found in their covering. When she had neared the desk, and could avoid it no longer, Salima transitioned into human form; it was only right since Evenon Isolde had already shifted into this state. She could typically gauge the seriousness of the discussion by the form in which her father chose to conduct it. If it was to be a short conversation, he would remain a hawk. However, it looked like this was meant to take longer; he appeared to have no intention of taking flight any time soon.

‘Sit.’ Evenon invited, or more accurately, commanded. It was not as if Salima had a choice in the matter.

Salima raised her chin, preparing herself for the confrontation ahead. She swept her long black skirts aside as she took a seat, her spine rigid. Evenon moved a dagger and the stone with which he had been sharpening it, aside - with irritating leisure.

Salima had to stifle the temptation to sigh aloud. Let's just get this over with, shall we?

Once Evenon was seated she spoke. ‘I know what you're going to say, so why don't we get straight to it?’

Evenon raised his eyebrows, running a hand over his light brown beard. ‘You know what I'm going to say do you?’

‘It’s not as if the subject hasn't been lingering for ages. My one request is that we finish this conversation now and get it over with once and for all.’

Only months earlier Salima would have been too cautious to make such a statement. But enough was enough. It was time for everything to be out in the open, whether she and her father agreed or not.

The grin that accompanied Evenon's next words was not an endearing one. His face held the quality Salima recognized from when he had prey in his sights and knew there was no passage of escape for the unfortunate creature. ‘Alright my virago child, let us do just that. It won't be long before Parliament is upon us. Their sole plan for the Cast is to conquer and enslave us. Once they have succeeded in that, the Convocation will be next. Parliament and the Convocation appear to be allies right now, but it will never last. Warrick is greedy - owl-men always are - and he won't stop his conquest until Parliament has obtained complete and sovereign reign over the sky civilizations; all of them. There is only one way to keep this from taking place.’

‘Yes I know,’ Salima said, crossing her long legs. ‘Link two of the three civilizations together in a bond which can never be broken. And you just happen to have a daughter.’

‘Don't speak with such contempt, Salima,’ Evenon responded, his voice low with suppressed anger. ‘Not everything can be altered to please you.’

Not everything? How about nothing?

‘Ha,’ Salima snapped, her dark eyes sparking. ‘Don't I know.’

‘It’s time you thought of someone besides yourself,’ Evenon continued, taking up the dagger and continuing to sharpen it. If Salima hadn't known better she would be frightened that he held a knife. In fact, most hawk-men or women were afraid of their king, but she knew he would never kill her. After all, his only chance of success when it came to uniting the sky civilizations lay with her: his only daughter.

‘If I thought only of myself, believe me I'd be far from here by now.’

Salima didn't miss the tightening of her father's fist around the dagger's handle. If he were in hawk-form his talons would have sliced through anything in their way, but instead his fingernails simply ground futilely into his palm.

‘You don't appreciate at all that I have provided for you,’ Evenon gritted. ‘To disobey what is best for the Cast would only ruin you.’

‘I'm no longer a fledgling. Or a child - whichever you prefer,’ Salima said.

‘I daresay you're more human than hawk right now. Your reasoning skills are at the caliber of a mere human.’ 

Salima ignored the insult. ‘I can take care of myself, I assure you. But I know it’s your plan for me to become tied to the Volker heir.’

‘My plan?’ the hawk-man scoffed. ‘It should be yours too if you care at all for our kingdom.’

‘So I unite the Cast with the eagle-beings and then what? I do everything you say and you'll leave me alone?’

‘You ungrateful girl. You take no heed of anything I say. You never have.’

‘As long as you are alive my tercel father, there is little I can do besides heed your commands. Unless of course I desire your wrath, but none desire that. So until one of us is no longer living, I'm yours to command it would seem.’

‘I haven't forced you to do anything,’ Evenon said. ‘No one is trapping you. You're not bound to do my bidding.’

‘But the truth is Father, I am. So, what is your will?’

transparent wing

Chapter 1

The screech of a hunted hawk was strident and blood curdling, especially in the early hours when the earth was still cloaked in the remnants of night, not quite ready to surrender to daylight. The cry gave away where