A Shield Maiden of Mohrungeon

By Thomas Paine

This story is about young people rying to help their parents. Isidore, Tallon, and Blancheflour are teens living on a low tech World. They each have their gifts. They have each other. Their parents are in serious trouble serous danger far away on a high tech World. Getting to them will be hard. Maybe impossible. And the teens must hurry for the Dark Magic thought gone is growing stronger.

This new tale from the Dark Magic Growing series opens up a new chapter as time has passed and the next generation is coming into their own.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Paine
• Release date: Nov 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005403010

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine (1736-1809) was an English born American activist, philosopher, and author. Before moving to America, Paine worked as a stay maker, but would often get fired for his questionable business practices. Out of a job, separated from his wife, and falling into debt, Paine decided to move to America for a fresh start. There, he not only made a fresh start for himself, but helped pave the way for others, too. Paine was credited to be a major inspiration for the American Revolution. His series of pamphlets affected American politics by voicing concerns that were not yet intellectually considered by early American society.

Book preview

Tallon pointed to a lantern and then to a shadow. The distance from the shadow to the lantern was half of what it had been when we set it. Plants from the walls kept reaching out for me from the dark. I could hear them brush close to where I worked. Gossamer spider webs hung thick in the air. I felt something touch my face and stifled a scream.

Down the hall a figure crossed. I had but a brief glimpse of long bony legs and arms. A sunken chest. A large head.

"Out! Screamed Tallon. At the door, I looked back and saw the silhouette of Blanchefleur in panther form, claws out, teeth bared, growling into the darkness.

Blancheflbour! shouted Tallon.

The panther streaked past me and with a torch Tallon ignighted one of our oil pots.

Baroom! an erruption of flames out Prom behind us as we ran; knocking me and Tallon down.

DARK MAGIC GROWING series:

A Shadow Rider of Thorn

A Sorceress of Rabdentse

A Warrior of Seakeep

A Shield Maiden of Mohrungeon

A Shield Maiden of Mohrungeon

Thomas Paine

Copyright 2022 Thomas Paine

Published by Thomas Paine at Smashwords

Edited by Do Thi Anh Minh

Cover Design by Tatiana at Vila Design

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Welcome to book 4 in the series. I want to start by thanking the people who read my books. You are my heroes. You have no idea how much I appreciate you. My books have appeared in many independent bookstores and I want to thank the people involved in this. I love the big chain stores, but growing up, my town only had an independent bookstore and I remember all of the magical nights when my parents would take me and sometimes my sister out to visit it. So independent bookstores have a special place in my heart.

For this book, I was trying for a bit of an Edger Rice Burrows, Lin Carter, Arthur Conan Doyle feel, perhaps from watching too much Tarzan Theater when I was young. To help get that feeling you’ll see allusions in the book to many old adventure and Sci-Fi classics. You might see if you can spot some of them.

Big life changes occurred while this book was being written. Like most of the world, the breakout of Covid has severely limited my travel, though there is quite a bit of Vietnam in this book. I’ve also moved. I was living and teaching English in Vietnam when I started this book. The disease closed all of the schools down. My Vietnamese wife grew tired of waiting for them to reopen and wanted to get back to America, and so I am writing from Missouri where we have family.

Larry Green, a good friend of mine is typing and proof-reading on this one. Larry is a writer as well. We met while working together in Vietnam. He usually writes travel pieces. He always pushes me to keep it clear and easy to read; but, and this will horrify Larry when he reads it; if there is a clear, easy-to-read way of saying something, I’ll probably be aware of it but I’ll probably reject it and will look for a long way to turn the sentence around and to make it less common and (to me) more interesting. I’m more concerned in this series with atmosphere and mood. I hoped to be more poetic though at this I often fail and show my limitations. If a reader gets a bit of a brain jump at something I’ve written, I know I’ve done it right.

When putting a book together, first I make a general outline. As I go through the work, I’ll make more specific chapter outlines. I’ll know how it ends before I begin it. Then I write it by hand with a pen on paper. This is more old fashioned and slower than if I were to do it electronically but I feel it draws me closer to the material.

All of my books contain very strong male and female characters so don’t be too alarmed who the lead is. This is really determined by a desire to keep the series in balance. So I’ve had two books with male leads and now two with female leads. The person I’ve chosen to narrate has also been chosen with a desire for balance.

Alice, my editor, and I’m pleased to say my friend, says that her favorite character is Rinchen, who was the lead in book 2. I have to agree. Maybe it’s because of her innocence, or her grit, or perhaps that she’s a young person who’s at that point where she had to make important decisions in her life; what kind of a person she is going to be, how she’s going to spend her life, and what she’s going to do in her life. As for supporting characters, I would choose Leonore from book 3. I think she’s an interesting person, sort of an anti-Rinchen. Trace Meadows was my first lead so he’s special to me. I see him sitting proudly, banner waving up in the wind, upon his giant t-Rex.

Alice handles the computer work and believe me, getting a book out and advertised in this day and age requires a lot of computer work. For a cover, we go to Tatiana at Vila Design. She’s done all of the covers for this series and I think she does beautiful work. I was lucky to find her.

The scene in the snow-covered village in Chapter 8 was inspired by the movie Ink Heart with Brandon Frazier. It was from a book by Cornelia Funke. I haven’t read the book yet, but it is on my list and I hope to someday. I was going to write to Frazier but I admit I’m too shy. If any of you can get this to him I would much appreciate it.

Chapter 13 is really about Natalie Far. When I was in university for a time I shared an old house with some friends. One of them was half owner of a music club. Natalie used to perform at the club all the time. I think she is a brilliant singer/songwriter. But she has never seemed to get the attention she deserves. I hope this encourages you to check her work out.

Are there deeper messages in the books? Some. Whatever you choose to see in them. They’re mine but they’re also yours, within reason, to play with in your mind, to take them where you will, and to find in them what you wish. I hope they are positive and wholesome for you, and that everyone has fun reading them.

In closing, I want to dedicate this book to all of my friends, wherever in the world they are.

Thomas Paine

Missouri, 2022

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Children Of Mohrungen

Chapter 2: A Vision from Afar

Chapter 3: The City of Fallen Dreams and Shadows

Chapter 4: A Light in the Forest

Chapter 5: Beyond a Crooked Limb

Chapter 6: The Fallen Towers/ The Bridge to Nowhere

Chapter 7: 99 Hills and Mountains

Chapter 8: A Shadow Out of Time

Chapter 9: The Hidden Kingdom

Chapter 10: Beast Hunters

Chapter 11: The House in the Lake

Chapter 12: All of Space Above You

Chapter 13: A Very Very Fine Line

Chapter 14: The Creature in the Pond

Chapter 15: The Red and Blue Fighting Men of Neptune

Chapter 16: Survive the Night

Chapter 17: The City of Heavenly Light

Bonus 1: The White Horse and the Crown of Gold

Bonus 2: The Cat and the Non-ticking Clock

CHAPTER 1

CHILDREN OF MOHRUNGEN

I feel that my mission is to tell our little story so that if we are never seen again people, our world will remember that once we were.

My mother was a lady of Seakeep. She was from a prominent family related to many on the Hold Council and even distantly to the Steward. She was said to be the prettiest woman in the keep. I don’t remember much about her. She died when I was very young. Sometimes, when I close my eyes, I can see a picture of her in my mind. When she met my father he was but a young mercenary, new to the hold, and yet to prove himself or make a name for himself. She was thought to be above his station and when they became an open couple, it created a scandal in the keep; even more when I was born. Many think depression over public outcry did much to weaken my mother – so that when disease came, it found her easy prey. My mother’s name was Ermina, of the House of Darri.

My name is Isidore. I am but a little one on this world. Reckoned by many to be hardly worth a second glance. After my mother passed away, I went to live with one of my father’s brothers’ family. But, they were good and gentle folks and they were nice to me. As such, at least the fates favored me.

My father’s name is Gyrth. He was originally from Mohrungen Hold. I didn’t see much of him. At first, I think it was from sadness. Later, his duties kept him busy as he rose quickly through the ranks becoming, with time, Captain of the Steward’s Guard. When I did see my father, it was for him to instruct me; in riding, fighting, and the survival arts. For he said that he wanted me to always be prepared for whatever might come my way. He was a good teacher and I a good student so that quickly I learned skills that would later be of use to me.

Fueled by long-held human faults of greed and desire for power war broke out between our people and keep strove with keep. Magic was used and in no small measure; awakening old powers for Dark and Light upon the planet; who in their turn wished to use humans as tools in the renewal of their own ancient conflict.

Then something incredible happened. Our kin among the stars found us again, though some wanted to use us for their own enrichment or purpose. Rinchen, a young but extremely powerful sorceress in the West, did what none would have believed possible, and moved their space fleet to a different place so that they would learn to respect us – and thereafter our planet was quarantined, and those allowed to come here were severely limited.

Rinchen journeyed to the East and there put a stop to our war amongst ourselves. But the Dark was not to be so easily thwarted and a mighty host of forest things and dinosaurs joined with wermen and beetles from the West, assaulting our forces.

The battle was long and hard-fought. My father was the general of our army and here won even more acclaim. We were joined by forces of the Light. By Mer and other allies unlooked for. The battle was only won when Rinchen moved the earth to cover and bury most of the remaining Dark Army.

During the war, my father met Herleve, a young woman originally from Thorn. She was raised in the land of Fairee, and was to become important in my life. Soon after the Dark Army was defeated, Gyrth, Herleve and two heroes from the West, Jetson and Tarcoua, who went through a gate of Leonore’s fashioning. Leonore was a mighty sorceress who was sometimes a Champion of the Dark and sometimes a Champion of the Light. There they found themselves part of a mighty battle.

On our world, dark magic was still growing and a shadow assaulted our keeps, and when it could break through their magic defenses, it spread horror and death. It was the darkness of long eons. To touch the shadow was to die or to be driven insane.

Gyrth and Herleve went to another place far away and yet close, and strove there. Their efforts drove back the Dark and so, for awhile, we had a measure of peace.

My tale takes a different turn now. My father and Herleve marry. And so I have a new mother.

Mohrungen Keep and its subkeeps were among those destroyed by evil. Most of those in Mohrungen Hold perished, but with humans, there are always survivors. And groups gathered together at secret camps in the forest. The call went out for the children of Mohrungen to return home. And the call was answered by warriors, camp followers, merchants, and others who had been absent when disaster hit their birth land.

Gyrth took us to the North to help with the resurection of Mohrungen. At first, our home was little more than a hut in the woods shared with Aunt Blanche of Gyrth and another of his brothers and their household. There, my brother Tallon was born and the next year my sister, Blanchefleur. The old keep was now a haunted place where none dared to even spend the night, for the rocks themselves had absorbed evil and at night ghosts and worse things walked the streets. A decision was made to make a new keep, also close to the river, but on good, clean ground. Herleve was a good mother after a fashion, but there was much to do by everyone; and so I was pushed into a role that was perhaps too young for me. Tallon and Blanchefleur and I were largely let to our own devices; forming a closeness and bond I had never experienced before and that would hold and shape all our experiences.

The Dark was pushed back but it was not gone and Gyrth and Herleve led bands of experienced warriors to seek out and destroy any nest of evil that could be found and any that showed signs of growing again; and patrols along our borders made sure that none tried to take advantage of our weakness till we could rebuild our strength.

Most of our beast were gone and those we had left had to be carefully used and hoarded till more could be bread or acquired from other holds.

There was a man named Fulk among the people – a haughty, arrogant man, though what achievements he had to be proud of, none could say. He was related by blood to the last Steward of Mohrungen. Fulk claimed to be the new steward. The people never said yea but to avoid strife, they also never said nay. And so, in a fashion they quietly acquiesced. He looked on Gyrth jealously and saw in him as s competitor, a challenger to his power and what he would have. And to Gyrth, the people did look. He was considered a hero, a champion amongst all of our holds and keeps – the great general who had led our armies to victory over rivals and the forces of Darkness.

Things came to a head four years later at the next festival at Kam Kura, where the people chose Gyrth to represent them and to stand by the stone marker at the closing ceremony allocated for the Steward of Mohrungen. Mohrungen was the first keep our people established on this world and so the place where top representatives were shown great honor and respect, set before that of any of the other stewards.

Fulk watched from the sidelines and hatred grew in him.

Afterwards, Gyrth and Fulk exchanged heated words at one of the holy temples that would have resulted in blood being spilled were it not for the intervention of the monks there.

My father and Herleve both have a measure of the power. My father always said that if they didn’t they never would have been allowed into the land of Fairre; and if they ever met, she would have been a young girl; for time in the land of Fairre moves differently.

I don’t know when I first discovered that I had inherited some of my father’s gift, or curse. For it can be either. I think others discovered it before me. It manifested in two ways. One, I have a measure of control over plants. I can quicken their growth and strength and move them to my will. I was soon much in demand in gardens and the fields. Second, I have a way, beyond others, with the beast. Not just the genetically altered and conditioned ones that we use in the holds but also the wild ones in the woods.

So, too, do Tallon and Blanchefleur have the use of the power. Perhaps, stronger than mine; as both of their parents possess these abilities. I think they have always been aware of this part of themselves. They first showed me what they were capable of one time when we were alone in the woods. To my amazement, they transformed into animals: Tallon into a massive, dark-furred bear and Blanchefleur into a large, sleek black panther with hypnotic yellow eyes.

Tallon has another ability. Sometimes he can see things in his mind that are happening far away or that are yet to occur.

Children on our world are taught field craft and how to hunt from an early age. When we were considered old enough, we were allowed out on the patrols. Gyrth instructed us well and we benefited from having perhaps, the best swordsman on our world as our instructor. And with time, all of us, even Blanchefleur became warriors not to be despised. Our mother also instructed us, for not only was she a skilled warrior and veteran traveler, but she possessed knowledge she had acquired in the land of Fairre, that few, if any humans anywhere, knew. No one in our hold was as skilled with plant lore or woods craft. I think if she wanted to disappear in the woods, or to observe without being seen, there was no one in our hold who had the skills to spot or find her. We never told our parents about our extra abilities. I always had the feeling that it wasn’t necessary. That somehow they already knew.

On one of these patrols, we had our first encounter with the forces of Darkness. We really had not