THE SHADOWLORD.

by CHARLOTTE BOYETT-COMPO.

Tina Pratt who had to wait and wait and...

Thank You: To the list members at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WindLegends/join.

I appreciate each and every one of you for sticking with me as I spin my other-worldly tales. I hope you enjoy the ShadowWind Trilogy.

PART I.

Prologue.

They gathered in the forest well beyond the scope of the keep's battlements. It would not do to have the Elders privy to their meeting. Overhead, the aureate light cast from the swollen moon lit a latticework pathway through the tops of the tall firs. Glistening mist pebbled the air and settled on the skin like a cool silk sleeve. At the entrance to the deeply shadowed forest, a sentry held her position, zealously inspecting each of the new arrivals as they made their way to the meeting place. Far to the north, a lone wolf prayed his devotions to the heavenly body sailing high above and lent an eerie blessing to those gathered.

It had never been Aradia Lykopis' intention to lead this ragtag bunch of malcontents. She would have been happy to let others lead, she to follow. She had, after all, much more to lose than any of the other women. Her mother's ire alone, should she find out what her eldest daughter was about, could be enough to cause Aradia untold misery.

Aradia knew her group was necessary. The Elders were growing harsher in their laws: making statues to prevent friendly relations with outsiders; ordering it illegal to leave the tribe and seek companionship outside the strict laws of the Sisterhood. Those who opposed the stringent new dictates had broken away and formed the group that now met in secret beyond the keen eye of the Elders. What they hoped to accomplish had yet to be decided, but each knew there had to be a calmer, easier way to live than by the austere rules that held them virtual prisoners to the Elders' way of thinking. Now there was talk of going to war again, and those agreeing with Aradia's and her group's way of thinking were set against such harsh measures. Peacemakers would be needed to soothe the Elders--if possible--and Aradia had been chosen to lead the way in procuring an end to the talk of war.

Sitting on a fallen tree trunk beside the campfire, Aradia stared moodily into the flames, seeing there a future that, to her, did not seem all that reassuring. A foreboding premonition of doom had followed her all day, and she shivered now and again as her uneasiness reminded her the premonition was still there. Idly poking at the fire with a twisted stick, she stirred the chips of glowing scarlet wood, her actions sending burning motes into the night air.

Hearing an excited murmur of voices, Aradia glanced up from her morose mind-wanderings to see her half-sister, Kydoime, heading purposely toward her. There was an arrogant jut to Ky's already-firm jaw and a steely glint in her black eyes. Her walk--actually more a strut--spoke volumes for her state of mind.

Aradia let out a long, heartfelt, and weary sigh. "What now?" she asked as she came to her feet.

There was no preamble, no softening of the blow. There never was. Kydoime Valsca took great pains to be as precise in her deliverance of bad news as her half-sister was circuitous. "The bastardly Rysalians have taken our sister Orithia captive."

Gasps of disbelief and groans of horror flitted among those gathered. The word "war" was whispered, and every eye turned hopefully, expectantly to their leader.

The news had been as bad as Aradia had expected, but she had not--could not have--anticipated the grief such tidings would cause. "Where was she that they could take her?"

"The Rysalians raided the retreat house at Cascadia. Orithia and two of her friends, Marpe and Iphito, were there on pilgrimage."

"Oh, by the Goddess, this is bad news, indeed!" someone groaned.

"War is imminent now," another said.

"Not necessarily. Where were they taken, Ky?" Aradia asked. Already her heart felt heavy with dread.

"Iphito managed to escape and get word to us. She says our sister and her friend were taken to the slave market in Asaraba." Ky spat the name as if it were a fetid taste she wished to expel from her mouth. Her lips twisted in an ugly sneer. "I am told slave girls are chained like beasts and led naked through the streets to the jeers of the crowd. They are sold to the highest bidder."

Grunts of shock and several moans came from those assembled.

Expecting no less from their enemies, Aradia nodded. "Tell me of this place."

"The slave pens in Asaraba are filled to overflowing with cages that are little more than pig sties and twice as hellish. Only the slave quarters at Abbadon are worse."

"It may not be as bad as it seems, Sisters," Phillipa Telamon said. "Once it is learned that Orithia is of royal blood, she will not be sold on the auction block. She will be kept apart from the others by the Chief Procurer and held at Bennu Keep for ransom."

"How do you know so much about this?" Ky asked, her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Think you Orithia is the first Amazeen taken captive by the Rysalians?" Phillipa questioned. "How do you think they knew about the retreat house? Do you think that was the first time they had gone scavenging there? Many of our gold sovereigns have lined Rysalian coffers through the years."

"Then why isn't the retreat house better protected?" Ky retaliated.

"It has been many years since the last time this happened. Perhaps security has become lax. Who knows?"

"This is why talk of war has re-emerged in the Council of the Elders," Ky said. "We can not allow such injustices to continue unabated!"

"Our sister is the first taken in many years, Ky," Aradia reminded her. "We need not go to war simply to get her back."

Ky turned her full attention to her half-sister. "You are our leader, Lykopis. What course of action must we take?"

Aradia flinched. "What doyou suggest?"

"Let the Elders handle this," Ulivia Helioposis suggested. "They are accustomed to dealing with men--we are not. The payment of a ransom demand seems the wisest course of action."

"It galls me to give the Rysalians anything," Phillipa said firmly. "But what else can we do?"

"We send someone after them, of course!" Ky stated. "One woman can slip in and out as swiftly as quicksilver and be done with it. I can not stomach giving one copper rueling to those Rysalian pigs, either!"

"How many guards do you think we would have to get past in order to reach her?" Aradia asked.

Ky did not dissemble. "One hundred, maybe more."

Another groan moved through the women. Such odds seemed all but insurmountable. How could a handful of warriors, no matter how committed, overcome Tribunal Guard diligence?

"And you expect one woman to waltz in there unobserved and leave with two others?" Aradia asked.

"Aye," Ky agreed without the slightest hint of concern.

"And just who would we send?" Phillipa asked.

"Obviously, I can not go," Ky replied with stony annoyance. Her dark gaze flicked angrily over Aradia. "And we all know why!"

A faint blush of guilt passed over Aradia's tanned complexion. She lowered her head at the shame of what she had been forced to do. "I have asked your forgiveness for that, Kydoime." She glanced at Ky's twisted leg and felt again the keen shame.

"Too little, too late." Ky tore her attention from her half-sister and settled it on Phillipa. "I believe we all know who should be the one to do this. Let her lead if she is worthy to do so!"

Aradia lifted her head at the sarcastic and spiteful sting of Ky's words.

"You mean me?" Aradia stated.

"Aye!"

"Sending someone to retrieve our sisters would be better than going to war with the Rysalians," another women suggested.

"Better to lose three to a Rysalian blade than three hundred, is that it?" Aradia countered.

Ky's mouth stretched into a sneer. "Have you no courage? Are you as afraid to help our sisters as you were afraid to take a worthless man's life?" The rest of the women averted their gazes from Aradia's suddenly crimson face. Each woman knew that, by mentioning the shame of Aradia's past indiscretion, Ky had flung a mortal insult.

"For shame, Kydoime," Phillipa remonstrated. "We do not speak of such things here."

"Where better to speak of them, Telamon?" Ky asked.

"Some things are best left unsaid. When will you learn that, child?"

"Let her talk," Aradia murmured, although her cheeks still stung from the blow to her pride. "She will until she thinks I've paid the full price for having saved her ungrateful hide."

"Saving my hide?" Ky gasped. "How dare you!" Her hands balled into fists. "You pushed me into a thicket of thorns, the fall breaking my leg in two places!"

"Better I pushed you into thorns than have those tracking us get their hands on you," Aradia defended. "You know where you would have ended up had you been captured!"

"Thanks to you, I can no longer walk tried and true upon this earth nor sit astride a mount without being in brutal pain. It was notyour bones that did not heal, nor is ityour fate to be pitied by all who look upon you with distaste!"

"Better being lame than regarded as spoiled goods," Aradia returned. "I would gladly trade places with you. Had the tables been turned and the men came after me instead of you, would you have returned the favor and saved my life as I saved yours?"

"I am my own woman, Lykopis," Ky snarled, her lips skinned back from her teeth like a wolf at bay before a hunter. "I did not need you to offer up your sacrifice to our enemies!"

Aradia's face turned hard. "Do you think I enjoyed having to do it?"

"Who lived in the lap of luxury, her every whim catered to?" Angry glints lit up Ky's dark glare. "Who slept between satin sheets and had the ear of the Diabolusian prince? Who should have had her neck kissed by an Amazeen labrys for consorting with the enemy?"

Aradia stiffened, the insult going deeper than any Ky had ever aimed at her. "Be careful what you say to me," Aradia warned, her teeth flashing in the light from the crackling campfire. "I will tolerate only so much abuse from you."

"You had the Diabolusian prince in your sights! Your weapon was at the ready, the arrow nocked. It was an easy shot, yet you lowered your bow and let the bastard live. That you can not deny."

"To keepyou safe," Phillipa put in. "Aradia gave up her freedom so you would be free to stand there and insult her. You owe your sister a debt you know you can never repay. That is why you thrust insults at her every chance you get! She must bear the memories of that day, yet you pour salt into her wound. That is dishonorable."

"I could have protected myself!" Ky shouted.

"You were this far"--Phillipa held her thumb and forefinger half an inch apart--"from being raped many times, then having your throat slit. If Aradia had not drawn the attention of the Diabolusian leader away from you, your ashes would be scattered over Amazeen!"

Ky glared. "I could have taken him in hand-to-hand combat. My death was not a foregone conclusion!" She turned her angry stare to Aradia. "At least not to me, it wasn't!"

"Your leg was broken, the thigh bone sticking through your flesh," Phillipa reminded the young woman. "How can you boast that you could have fought? By the Goddess, Ky, you could not even stand!"

"And what would you have fought him with?" Aradia asked. "You had no weapon and were surrounded by four men. Had I not called out, they would have stumbled upon your hiding place and ended your life before I could have drawn another arrow."

"It was a hard choice Ardy made that night," Euryleia Brae, Aradia's best friend, said. "She did the only thing she could do. She is our leader and we should never question her decisions."

"Some leader," Ky scoffed, sneering. "How hard was it to throw herself into the arms of the Diabolusian and allow him to use her as he did?"

"I did not throw myself into his arms," Aradia said, jaw clenched. "He ran me down."

"You weren't running very fast, were you?" Ky questioned.

"How dare you make such an accusation?" Phillipa flung at her. "She gave up much for you, you ungrateful pup! It took bravery to--"

Ky threw back her head and laughed; an ugly sound. "It took a slavering male and a sniveling coward who knew her womanhood could save her hide from a Diabolusian stake if she let her captor thrust deep enough and hard enough inside her! Lykopis is no leader. She is a whore!"

A concerted intake of breath among the other listeners drew all sound from the clearing. Women stepped back, away from Ky and her half-sister, expecting trouble.

Aradia stood still, infinitely aware of the charged atmosphere. She felt the women's eyes on her, heard the nervous sounds as their breaths returned to them in anticipation of her reprisal. She looked into Ky's hostile face, saw gloating in the stare that fused with her own, and understood--as she never had before--just how much Ky resented the sacrifice she had made for her three years before. For the first time, she saw the guilt in her half-sister's face and knew Ky was as ashamed of the outcome of that fateful night as she, herself, was.

"You are right," Aradia said, surprising Ky. "I am not nearly the woman you are. Perhaps you should relieve me of the responsibility of these warriors and take it for yourself. It takes a woman who has known the fire of the cauldron and survived it to lead. You have given up much, so you should be the one to whom the rest of us come for help."

Phillipa sat back on her haunches and stared with pride at Aradia. There could have been no better way to diffuse the situation than the one she had used. Ky spoke a good fight--often started one--but it was always Aradia to whom she ran for protection, Aradia to whom Ky went when she needed advice and help. And despite her repeated vocal condemnations of Aradia and all she had been forced to do and endure for the sake of their family, Ky could not deny who was the better woman.

"You accepted the mantle of our leadership!" Ky snapped as though it were an accusation.

"Aye, but I am not worthy of the honor," Aradia replied. "Have you not as much as said so? My only use was through my body." A wry look passed over her face. "Thank the gods I knew how to use it to our advantage, eh?"

Ky drew herself up, straightening her shoulders beneath her heavy leather vest. A muscle jumped in her jaw, but when she spoke, no condemnation laced her voice. "I did not say we did not trust you as our leader," Ky answered in a begrudging tone, as if knowing she'd gone too far. Her worry over Orithia's plight had likely pushed her beyond the bounds of sanity. "We've no need for another."

Aradia bowed her head at what, for Ky, passed as an apology. "If that is what each of you want..."

A chorus of "ayes" came from the women.

"Then I shall remain as your leader for as long as I am needed and useful."

"And Orithia?" Ky pressed, loath to relinquish her anger.

Expectant glances shifted to Aradia, who smiled for the first time that evening. "I'll go after her. Perhaps an influential Rysalian will find me as appealing as the Diabolusian did and I can use him to help me retrieve our sisters."

Ky's face turned a darker crimson, and her white teeth flashed in anger.

"We can not allow her to go alone to that heathen land," Okyale Kreousa said.

"Nor will we," Phillipa agreed. "We will accompany Aradia."

Aradia shook her head. "I can not ask it of you, Sisters. It is my place to go after Orithia. I--"

"The matter is settled," Phillipa proclaimed. "We will go with you as far as the outskirts of the city. We will be your eyes and ears. If you need help, we will be there." "I, too, will go," Ky said. When the others turned to stare at her, she raised her chin. "If nothing more, I can hold the horses."

"When you can't even ride?" Okyale murmured.

Ky's eyes turned flint hard. "I will do what I have to do. Don't worry about me, Kreousa!"