Unleashed Shadows: The Guardians of Altana, #1

By Savanah James

Darkness wants her soul.

 

As the elven queen lay suffering on her deathbed, princess Ara Zypherus prayed her mother's passing would be swift. What she should have prayed for was the fate of her kingdom.

For on that faithless night, demons attack and Ara must decide if she will stand and fight or if she'll accept the king's orders to flee. The choice is stolen from her as Raethin Corvus, her father's handsome but equally irritating commander, forces her from the palace and into the labyrinthine of the Therilean Forest, barely escaping the scourge that hunts them.

But as with most decisions, choice is not without consequence, and even the forest cannot be trusted. When the Kaevari discover them, it is not Raethin and his men who intervene, but the legendary Rakevan druids and their guardian that come to Ara's aid.

As they journey to seek asylum in the mountainous kingdom of Waetherea, Ara and Raethin discover there is more to Ara than meets the eye. As truths are revealed and the battle against the Void King mounts, can Ara and her companions find a way to stop the god of chaos, or will they be too late?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Savanah James
• Release date: May 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215689349

Book preview

Unleashed Shadows

The Guardians of Altana: Book One

Savanah James

Seven Stars Press

Copyright © 2022 by Savanah James

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

This book was originally published under The Shadow Curse and has thus far been unpublished, revised, edited, and re-published under a new title and the author’s new pen name by Seven Stars Press. The original editions should be no longer available or circulating.

Cover Design by Celestial Covers.

Editing by Seven Stars Press.

Proofreading by Books with a Chance.

Print ISBN: 9798365207561

eBook ISBN: 9798215689349

ASIN: B09QQCYN1R

Imprint: Independently published

Contents

Map of Altana

Pronunciations

1. Chapter One

2. Chapter Two

3. Chapter Three

4. Chapter Four

5. Chapter Five

6. Chapter Six

7. Chapter Seven

8. Chapter Eight

9. Chapter Nine

10. Chapter Ten

11. Chapter Eleven

12. Chapter Twelve

13. Chapter Thirteen

14. Chapter Fourteen

15. Chapter Fifteen

16. Chapter Sixteen

17. Chapter Seventeen

18. Chapter Eighteen

19. Chapter Nineteen

20. Chapter Twenty

21. Chapter Twenty-One

22. Chapter Twenty-Two

23. Chapter Twenty-Three

24. Chapter Twenty-Four

25. Chapter Twenty-Five

26. Chapter Twenty-Six

27. Chapter Twenty-Seven

28. Chapter Twenty-Eight

29. Chapter Twenty-Nine

30. Chapter Thirty

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Pronunciations

Words

Rav’lah (Avatar) – rah-v-la

Luithe’la (great spirit/lower deity/guardian) – lew-eth-thee-la

Aelvan tsaza (little elf) – ah-el-vahn zzz-ah-zah

Ir Avel Rakeva (Home of Rakeva) – ear ah-vil rah-kee-va

Majat (Evil spirit/god/deity/being) – mah-yaht

Names

Ara Zypherus – ah-rah zi-fear-us

Raethin Corvus – ray-then core-vas

Raifeld – ray-fell-d

Adaena - ah-dane-uh

Maxum Tynara – max-im tie-nah-rah

Arlow – ar-low

Veron – veer-ron

Aescion Waethis – a-shee-yon way-this

Aesdrius – ace-dree-us

Rasilvanor – rah-seel-veh-nor

Cirith – seer-reth

Rakeva – rah-kee-va

Misandreas – miss-and-dre-us

Solas – soul-lass

Vilithian – veel-leth-the-un

Bieva – bee-eh-va

Kiri – kee-ree

Zira – zeer-rah

Locations

Thraes – thrayss

Altana – all-tan-ah

Therilea – theh-reel-lay-uh

Waetherea – way-theer-ray-uh

Viloth – veel-loth

Kava Sil – kah-vah seel

Sor Vil Zan – soar veel zah-n

Sarcha – sar-ka

Verisca – veer-risk-ah

Tyran – teer-ran

Vasaeran – vah-seer-ran

Zan Delva – zahn-del-vah

Zan Vira – zahn-veer-rah

Zan Kil – zahn-keel

Zan Yel – zahn-yil

Athyr (Island) – aa-theer

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Chapter One

Second Era 13899, The Royal Palace of Verisca, Therilea

Princess Ara Zypherus didn’t want her queen mother to die.

The palace healers had called King Raifeld and Ara to her bedside a few moments ago. She’d run from her drawing room with her attendants, abandoning her half-hearted watercolor work-in-progress. Tears already overflowed over her cheeks, though they hadn’t given the definitive say that Queen Adaena had departed from the mortal realm of Thraes for the heavens. Her heart had squeezed so painfully, familiar to the agony she’d experienced years before when she’d lost another loved one.

When Ara had reached her mother’s bedchambers, she halted at the threshold. Her chest rattled as she caught her breath.

Crossing the doorway meant facing her mother’s fate.

Someone cleared their throat from behind Ara, jolting her from the shock that had stiffened her limbs. She threw a look over her shoulder, catching the pitying gaze of her father’s royal commander.

His Highness is waiting for you inside, Princess, Raethin Corvus muttered. He was a handsome young elven man, with emerald eyes and russet hair that curled around his high cheeks. If it wasn’t for his bad temperament and his aloof personality, he’d have women flocking him everywhere.

But for once, he didn’t look at her with disdain. Ara couldn’t decide whether she preferred his pity.

Instead of responding, she took a deep breath, nodded, and entered the chambers.

A sitting area separated her mother’s private rooms. At least a dozen people stood within that space, closed out from the queen’s bedroom by two wide doors.

One of her mother’s attendants ran up to her, grasping her hands as she spoke.

Your mother is drawing her last breaths, Princess, she said. Please, come this way.

Ara allowed her to guide her to the closed doors. She squeezed the attendant’s hand, grateful for the comfort, as she opened the room. They’d drawn back the curtains around the bed, revealing the queen’s tiny figure cushioned by a mound of pillows and blankets.

Three people stood by the bed. Two were the palace’s head healers, and the other was King Raifeld.

The attendants guided Ara to her father’s side and let go of her hand. She didn’t watch them retreat and shut the door behind them.

Instead, she stared at her mother.

Ara had always thought her mother to be the most beautiful elven woman she’d ever met, but now the queen looked like a phantom of her former self.

Her dark chocolate locks, once thick and rich in color, were now thin, tangled strands. Her once rosy cheeks were sunken and pallid, and her lips cracked and thinned. The last time Ara visited her mother, the queen’s sky-blue eyes were milky and glassy, no longer holding the clarity that she’d once had.

For twenty years, the elven matriarch’s health declined as an elusive disease ran havoc through her petite body; a byproduct of a curse that spread to the kingdoms of Altana nearly six decades ago.

By far, Queen Adaena wasn’t the only one suffering such an illness. Thousands of Altanan people had succumbed to the plague. Some progressed rapidly, being blessed by a quick reprieve. But others suffered from the sickness for years.

Ara had already lost her betrothed and close friends to the disease. Now it took her mother.

Part of her was thankful that the queen’s suffering was coming to an end. The other part didn’t want her mother to slip from her grasp.

No longer could she hold the queen in her arms or have mid-afternoon tea and gossip about the gentry of their court. She couldn’t play the lyre for her and find pride within her mother’s smile at the sound. Nor could she speak her true thoughts to another so freely as she had her dear mother.

Ara squeezed her eyes shut, forcing more tears to violently spill.

We are waiting for the high priest to come and say the last rites, one healer said. Kilyen, if she remembered his name correctly. She opened her eyes to look at him, blinking rapidly to clear the wet blur of her vision.

We will leave you to say your goodbyes, the other healer said. Ara couldn’t recall his name. It didn’t matter now, anyway.

Her father nodded and together, they stood in silence as the healers left. She glanced over her shoulder to watch them close the door, and nearly jumped out of her skin when she found Raethin had entered silently behind her and now stood at the foot of the bed.

Like the king, Raethin looked upon the queen with deep sorrow set in his hooded eyes. He met Ara’s stare with a brief nod.

She turned to her father then.

King Raifeld knelt beside the bed after the doors closed behind the healers. Now that he was in private, with his only child and his closest confidant, the king no longer held his reserved demeanor.

Ara balked when she caught sight of a few escaped tears running down his cheek.

I never thought I would have to say goodbye so soon, Raifeld muttered. I’d hoped to grow old with you.

She looked away from her father. This was the first time that she’d seen him so fragile. It made her own pain grow like a fiery tumor within her chest.

Raifeld whispered a few more words to the queen, having grasped her limp, frail hand and clasped it to his chest.

Ara, the king said, bringing her gaze back to him.

He gestured for her to come to him, and she knelt beside him, her eyes widening when he wrapped his arm around her and tucked her into his side.

It’d been a long time since her father had hugged her. She thought it impossible for the pain to grow, but somehow it did.

Together, they broke down, whispering their goodbyes together to the queen. Being this close to her mother, Ara saw the struggling, raspy breaths that battled their way in and out of Adaena’s chest. Hesitantly, she grasped her mother’s hand, pressing her fingers to the vein running along her wrist.

The queen’s stuttering heartbeat was agonizingly slow.

Moments passed as they embraced as a family for once—not as the royal family, strapped by duty and etiquette to withhold such intimate behavior.

A knock at the door shattered that moment. Fluidly, Raifeld let go of Ara and stood, allowing her to remain knelt by the bed, grasping her mother’s hand.

Raethin bid for the visitor to come in. He’d remained standing at the foot of the bed with his arms crossed and expression reserved.

The door opened, revealing the two attendants that had guided Ara into the bedroom. They parted to reveal the high priest and his two closest acolytes.

Reluctantly, Ara stood, allowing the high priest to replace her. The acolytes held ritual items in their arms.

One held a water vase and a white linen cloth. The other grasped three vials and a bag of herbs from the smell of it.

Raifeld motioned for Ara and Raethin to give them space. Together, they sat on the lounging sofa that lined one wall of the queen’s bedroom.

Steadily, the priests stripped the queen to her undergarments. In the watering vase, they mixed the herbs and the vials and applied it to the queen’s bared skin, chanting a mantra of the departing, beseeching Athaera for a safe, calm transition from Thraes into Aev’Elona, the paradise of the heavens.

When they had finished, they laid the white cloth over her body, tucking it under her chin.

The acolytes then bowed and left, leaving the high priest to console Ara and her father.

She is at the threshold between life and death, the high priest said. Athaera will guide her home.

Thank you, Fausius, Raifeld said.

With a bow, the high priest retreated from the room, leaving Ara, her father, and Raethin in silence.

Raethin, the king said after a moment. Please dismiss those in the other room and escort the princess back to her room. I would like to be alone with my wife in her last moments.

The commander hesitated briefly before bowing to Raifeld.

Ara didn’t have the heart to disagree at the moment. She had the chance to say her goodbyes. She didn’t want to see her mother draw her last breath.

Come, Princess. Raethin held out his hand to her. Without hesitation, she grasped his hand, ignoring a sharp second of astonishment of touching him for the first time.

She didn’t not like it. But they’d always had such a distant relationship. The royal commander before Raethin had treated her like a daughter, having watched her throughout her childhood. He’d held her as a toddler, grasped her hand as a child, and hugged her many times.

But never once had Raethin done such a thing—and she’d never expected him to do so.

Now she allowed the young commander to guide her out of the room. He paused only to dismiss those that waited, then continued their journey out of the queen’s royal quarters.

One person that waited was the retired commander, Maxum Tynara—the one that was like a second father to her. He’d followed Raethin and her quietly, whispering to the young commander from his other side.

Ara had caught his inquiring glance between their held hands and her, but she’d looked away from him, unwilling to provide an explanation.

His Majesty wanted to be alone with her in her last moments, Raethin had answered Max.

The sound of his voice had shocked Ara out of her daze. Clumsily, she pulled her fingers from his grasp, averting her eyes when he looked at her.

We will have much to discuss come morning then, Max said.

He’d groomed Raethin for his position and, once retired, became an advisor to the king, which meant he still worked closely with Raethin. Ara was glad for that, given his icy demeanor. Max not only buffered the young commander, but the harshness of the court as well. Though her father couldn’t convince him to not retire, he could sway Max into remaining beside his side in other ways.

Ara tuned them out as the three walked down a spiraling staircase to the main hall of the Therilean royalty’s wing. Luckily, the stairwell to her rooms was in sight, several paces away.

But something caught her attention through the large glass windows that lined the hall. She halted by one that was cracked with fresh air and squinted her eyes.

It was well into the night and the moon was full, shedding much light onto Verisca. Along the horizon, black dots moved, growing rapidly in size.

Her sharp gasp had stopped Raethin and Max. She heard their rapid footsteps as they hurried to her side.

What is that? Max whispered.

A screech in the distance cut through the air seconds before alarms blared in the courtyard several stories below the open window.

The Kaevari, Raethin hissed with a curse. They’re here.

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Chapter Two

Second Era 13899, The Royal Palace of Verisca, Therilea

At the mention of Kaevari, fear surged in Ara like a tidal wave. Blood rushed in her ears, following the rapid beating of her heart as it attempted to claw its way up her throat.

They were demons, creatures bred from the bowels of a hell unfamiliar to the mortals of Thraes. Surfacing decades ago, they’d quickly spread throughout Altana, razing villages to the ground. In the ashes and gruesome piles of corpses left behind rose the very plague that claimed her mother this night—and somehow, a curse transformed dead mortals at random into more Kaevari.

No one knew how they’d come to Thraes. For the years following their appearance, the kingdoms struggled to banish them from the mortal realm. All they’d ever learned was that the Kaevari only came out at night, being repulsed by daylight.

This had to be the worst night of her life. Not only was her mother dying, but now, the Kaevari flew in droves to attack Verisca.

Alarms continued to blare, alerting everyone to the oncoming danger. Ara’s terror had stifled her senses, but a tremor ran through her body when someone grasped her hand.

Ara looked up, blinking rapidly at the nearness of the young commander.

The alarms had grown so much in volume that he had to yell over the sound, We’ve got to go, Princess!

Go where? She wanted to ask, but her tongue felt heavy and her lips trembled.

Max stood beside them, shouting to the groups of warriors that now flooded the hall. Several ran toward the queen’s quarters, headed by another of her father’s commanders. Others went to take their positions in the guard stations that lined this floor.

Two familiar soldiers separated from the others, heading directly for them. One was Arlow, a half-elf that served directly under Raethin. Ara didn’t know the name of the other soldier, but he and Arlow wore the same armor of Raethin’s squad of elite soldiers.

Before she could question them, Raethin tugged her along with him by the pull of her hand. Max and the two other soldiers ran after them as he dragged her along to one of the less-used staircases that led down to the main floor’s back hallways.

Ara’s head spun at how fast everything transpired.

A cacophony of shouts and alarms continued, causing a painful ringing in her ears. As they entered another main hall, she saw that soldiers, servants, and magi alike flooded every open space of the palace. Civilians and gentry huddled in groups, sobbing and holding one another.

Raethin dragged her down another stairwell, and they entered a hall that was less populated. She recognized the entrance to the botanical conservatory and then the royal library.

As the chaotic noise faded, Ara’s thoughts caught up with her. She gritted her teeth, tugging on Raethin’s hold on her hand, and ground her heels into the floor.

Stop—let go! She hissed. Where are we going? We have to go back—

We can’t, Princess, Raethin replied. He allowed her to pull from his grasp, and though she put a few feet of distance from him, their companions closed the space. Arlow and the other elite warrior stood close to her back, and Max moved to Raethin’s side as he turned to her.

Ara hadn’t noticed before, but they all had unsheathed their swords.

But my father—

His Majesty gave us direct orders to take you out of Verisca if the Kaevari ever attacked, Max said as he stepped to her. Gently, he grasped her shoulders, directing her glare away from Raethin to focus on him.

But—

Ever since Kava Sil and Viloth fell to the Kaevari army, we’ve been planning for this moment, he continued. We are to take you through a hidden exit and go to Waetherea, if the demons have yet to take them. We must escape, no matter what happens here.

But what about my father? She asked, breathless.

Before anyone could answer, a quake rumbled through the palace. Ara stumbled into Max, grasping his arms as she looked around.

Through the windows, she caught sight of the Kaevari up close. She’d seen sketches of them before, but they paled compared to their reality.

They were beautiful, like the statues of the gods in the gardens of the royal temples. Their skin was pale and ashen like marbled stone, eyes bright as shining rubies, and lips dark as though frost-bitten by winter. Draconic wings kept them in midair as they slammed into the ward that separated them from the palace by several yards. Smooth tails flickered from behind them. Strange, black armor covered their form like a second skin.

Ink-dipped talons clawed at the ward, sending a shimmering current through its watery surface. As each body slammed into the barrier, the exertion shook the entire palace.

That won’t last, Arlow insisted. We need to go.

But— Ara knew she sounded like a broken record, but her mind kept returning to her father.

Ara. Raethin moved closer to her, brushing shoulders with Max, as he continued. "This is what your father wants. He