The Spirits Of The Elves: Fantasy Novel

By Alfred Bekker

The Spirits Of The Elves: Fantasy Novel

The sixth volume in the saga of Daron and Sarwen.

Fantasy novel
Daron and Sarwen have never ventured to Estorien, the land of ghosts They suspect that their beloved parents live there as good spirits of the dead. But then the two Elven children receive an urgent call for help from the distant realm. The malicious Maladran are preparing to attack and conquer Estorien and turn its inhabitants into their own kind. Daron and Sarwen must summon all their magical powers to save the spirit realm.What they learn about their parents is beyond their wildest imagination ..

The continuation of the Elven trilogy by Alfred Bekker!

 

Overview Elven Children 1-7

The jewel of the elves

The sword of the elves

The magic of the elves

The flame spears of the elves

In the centaur forest of the elves

The spirits of the elves

The ice demons of the elves

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alfred Bekker
• Release date: Feb 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215417935

Alfred Bekker

Alfred Bekker wurde am 27.9.1964 in Borghorst (heute Steinfurt) geboren und wuchs in den münsterländischen Gemeinden Ladbergen und Lengerich auf. 1984 machte er Abitur, leistete danach Zivildienst auf der Pflegestation eines Altenheims und studierte an der Universität Osnabrück für das Lehramt an Grund- und Hauptschulen. Insgesamt 13 Jahre war er danach im Schuldienst tätig, bevor er sich ausschließlich der Schriftstellerei widmete. Schon als Student veröffentlichte Bekker zahlreiche Romane und Kurzgeschichten. Er war Mitautor zugkräftiger Romanserien wie Kommissar X, Jerry Cotton, Rhen Dhark, Bad Earth und Sternenfaust und schrieb eine Reihe von Kriminalromanen. Angeregt durch seine Tätigkeit als Lehrer wandte er sich schließlich auch dem Kinder- und Jugendbuch zu, wo er Buchserien wie 'Tatort Mittelalter', 'Da Vincis Fälle', 'Elbenkinder' und 'Die wilden Orks' entwickelte. Seine Fantasy-Romane um 'Das Reich der Elben', die 'DrachenErde-Saga' und die 'Gorian'-Trilogie machten ihn einem großen Publikum bekannt. Darüber hinaus schreibt er weiterhin Krimis und gemeinsam mit seiner Frau unter dem Pseudonym Conny Walden historische Romane. Einige Gruselromane für Teenager verfasste er unter dem Namen John Devlin. Für Krimis verwendete er auch das Pseudonym Neal Chadwick. Seine Romane erschienen u.a. bei Blanvalet, BVK, Goldmann, Lyx, Schneiderbuch, Arena, dtv, Ueberreuter und Bastei Lübbe und wurden in zahlreiche Sprachen übersetzt.

Book preview

Chapter 1

The realm of spirits

Rarax uttered a loud cry.

The giant bat opened its mouth as far as it could and first noisily sucked in the cold high-altitude air, which it then pressed out again. When it inhaled, it made a rasping sound, and when it exhaled, it made a sound so shrill that any elf could have been deafened by it if he had not shielded his fine hearing in time.

He just doesn't want this, Sarwen!

But let him fly where we want to go, Daron!

Daron and Sarwen, the two magically gifted grandchildren of the Elf King Keandir, sat on the back of Rarax, their tamed giant bat, who simply refused to fly on.

Daron shifted the dagger he wore on his belt to better bend forward, all the way to the fur-covered head of the dragon-sized flying monster. Why don't you follow my thoughts? he shouted in Rarax's ear.

The giant bat answered with a booming sound, which was immediately answered by a herd of giant mammoths tramping through the rampant vegetation of the Wilderland in the depths below them. A mannus - as the very rare white giant mammoths were called - led the herd, which apparently felt so disturbed by Rarax's roaring that they all raised their trunks and trumpeted loudly.

Rarax literally flinched and went into a spin, because for a moment he did not move his large leather wings parallel to each other. He sank quite a bit into the depths, straight toward the giant mammoths, whose herd in turn scattered on all sides in fright.

Now obey! demanded Daron with a very intense thought. He gathered as much magical power as he could while doing so, so that his eyes turned completely black and neither the pupils nor the whites could be seen in them. Go on, you stubborn flying beast!

You shouldn't have yelled in his ear! his twin sister Sarwen complained via thought message. The two siblings were so close that they mostly talked this way, which was especially handy when others weren't supposed to overhear what they were exchanging.

But the beast no longer responds to thought commands! the elf boy defended himself.

Just at the last moment, Daron regained mental control over the giant bat. It grazed the backs of some mammoths with its wings, and their trumpeting grew louder and angrier. Startled young mammoths took refuge between the columnar legs of their mothers. The trumpeting of the trunk of the small giant mammoths was clearly higher, so that such a polyphonic sound resulted, as Daron and Sarwen knew it otherwise only from the concert halls of Elbenhaven, where sometimes over a hundred Elven musicians blew different horns at the same time. However, they did this much more quietly, after all, elves had a rather sensitive hearing, and the audience would have fled the hall otherwise.

Up! Daron commanded the giant bat, which then regained altitude with a few powerful movements of its large leather wings. Its hoarse-sounding, croaking voice drowned out even the trumpeting of the mammoth herd.

Maybe we should try landing somehow, Sarwen suggested, clinging to the giant bat's thick back fur. Rarax shot up with such speed that the wind fluttered her dress of elven silk and completely ruffled the long hair, exposing the elven girl's pointed ears.

This is not a good idea, Sarwen.

Why not? Maybe then Rarax will come to his senses.

But there are trorks around.

I don't see any anywhere.

Neither do I, but I can hear their creeping footsteps among the stomping of the giant mammoths.

At that moment, several trorks fled from the dense giant ferns among which they had been hiding. These fur-covered, shaggy creatures, which looked like hybrids of orcs and trolls, were larger than any elf or human, but in comparison to the giant mammoths, of course, they were tiny.

So they had to flee as quickly as possible. Even the big clubs they waved around could do little against angry giant mammoths.

To hunt them, Trorks also usually took a very different approach, first scaring the animals together with fire and then rushing them into pitfalls.

But it was too late for the trorks among the giant ferns to light torches. One of them still hurled a spear, but in his panic missed even the giant animal at which he had aimed.

The Trorks had apparently followed the mammoths. Probably they had only wanted to separate a few animals from the herd. To mess with them all was not to be recommended even to the extremely strong Trorks. So they fled in all directions, but especially where there was denser vegetation. There were hardly any trees in the Wilderland, but giant ferns, enormous bushes and carnivorous mosses. Plants that for the most part no longer existed in other parts of the intermediate land, but which for some reason had survived here through the ages.

The Trorks shouted something loudly to each other that neither Daron nor Sarwen could even guess what it could mean.

The angry giant mammoths quickly gave up the chase. This was because they had no desire to tear their fur between the numerous thorn bushes.

Rarax also calmed down a bit. He flew a wide arc to the west.

We'd better not have taken the detour through the Wilderland, Daron opined. We just can't go any further east because Rarax refuses to go for some reason.

Who could have known! retorted Daron.

Daron and Sarwen had flown to the castle of Norgua on behalf of their grandfather, the Elven king Keandir. There, Duke Mirgamir ruled the most distant duchy in the realm of the elves on behalf of the king.

Daron and Sarwen had been sent to deliver an important message to Mirgamir. And on the way back, they had made a small detour over the wild land, where the two elf children had been once before, when they had just tamed Rarax. The giant bat had simply run away from them at that time and had dropped Daron and Sarwen over the Wilderland and left them there. It had been anything but a piece of cake to catch the giant bat again and get back to the court of Elbenhaven.

At least the giant bat obeyed the two elf children to some extent, even if it happened from time to time that it wanted to assert its own head.

So apparently also now.

Sarwen had suggested that they make a detour to the east, where Estorien lay, that mysterious land which was also called the land of the spirits.

But apparently Rarax was like many other creatures: he shied away from this land. The same was true of the giant mammoths and the trorks, who also avoided this area. Thus, none of the giant mammoths had fled to the east and crossed the invisible border that separated Estorien from the rest of the intermediate land.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that time moved slower in Estorien than elsewhere in the interlands? Or did all these beings not want to come too close to the Eldran, those translucent spirits of the dead of the elves who inhabited this land together with the subjects of Lord Bolandor?

One more try!, Sarwen turned to Daron with an urgent thought. "You know that I have long wished for nothing more than to visit this land one day."

And looking for our dead parents?

Don't you want to? Aren't you also interested in whether they really went to the Eldran? And our grandmother Ruwen! Don't you think grandfather would be pleased if we could report to him that she is doing well as an Eldran?

We've talked about all these things so many times, and I don't need to repeat it all now, Sarwen. Because the arguments are always the same!

One more try, Daron! Please!

As if Rarax had read her thoughts, the giant bat growled loudly, apparently to make it clear that it simply did not want to cross the border into Estorien.

One more try, Daron finally relented. But you have to make that one.

He left her in control of Rarax's mind.

The giant bat seemed to know what this meant, for it roared in protest before Sarwen could even give it a thought command. But then she succeeded in forcing the flying monster to fly in the direction of the east.

It accelerated reluctantly at first. But shortly before it would have crossed the border, it suddenly turned away, speeding westward in a tight arc. From then on, Rarax was unstoppable.

He became faster and faster and no longer obeyed a single thought command that Sarwen gave him.

Even when Daron tried, the half-tamed flying monster did not react. Instead, it rose higher and higher. The giant mammoths became small dots on the ground, and finally Rarax flew over a snow-white cloud cover.

Let's join forces, Daron! Maybe then he will obey!

He's so full of fear, I don't think any force could stop him from just flying away, the elf boy replied with a skeptical thought.

Are we supposed to just let him do it? You can't be serious!

Daron shrugged his shoulders and looked briefly into the depths. They had climbed so high in the meantime that the air was quite thin, so that no human could have existed for a longer time. The elf children, however, did not mind, just as little as the cold that prevailed here.

At least he's flying in the right direction this time, Daron pointed out. The last time he went through, that wasn't the case.

Chapter 2

At the table of the Elf King

Daron could not remember that Rarax had ever flown such a long distance in such a short time. Tirelessly, the flying monster had let his leather wings rise and fall and made sure that the speed became greater and greater. Actually, it would have been enough to just glide through the air, but that was obviously not enough for Rarax.

It must be some terrible fear that drives Rarax like that, Sarwen thought. I just wonder what that might be?

Maybe he just doesn't want to have anything to do with dead people or senses that time is moving slower in Estorien, and that scared him. You've seen it: No giant mammoth strays into Estorien, and no trork has crossed the border there either.

But no one need be afraid of the Eldran! said Sarwen. "They are the good spirits of the dead, after all. During the Great War against the Dark Lord Xaror, they were summoned and helped defend the Elven Kingdom!"

Don't forget that Rarax is actually a creature of darkness, Daron pointed out.

Do you think it's related?

Could be.

They flew over the mountains of High Elbiana and saw the blue sea on the horizon. On the coast lay Elbenhaven, the capital of Elbiana, which surrounded the castle of the Elven king and in whose harbor ships from all over the world docked.

Only now did Rarax slow down a bit and sink a little lower. He emitted a sound that was less