Lich-El Chapter One

Here is a chapter one preview for my new book that I hope to have available to buy next week.



Chapter 1

“I thought I would find you here today, my lady.”

“Why have you come here, creature?”

“The same reason as you, to remember the dead, and to pay respect to friends long past turned to dust. Do not think this field and monument is your own private grieving ground. I also once stood on this field, shoulder to shoulder with gods, elves, and men. I also lost many friends that day so long ago.”

“What can a monster like you remember of friendship? I should destroy you now and let the world be rid of you.”

“My dear Lady Alixia; first of all, you’re no longer sure you could defeat me alone. Second, you remember what friendship is even if I don’t.”

“How dare-”

“But while I may be a bit… hazy… on friendship, I still remember honor. And that honor compels me to pay old debts.”

“I forgive you of all debts. Now leave and corrupt this sacred ground no longer with you presence!”

“Just as soon as I say this: Tornal has begun his experiments again.”

“And just what is he working on now?”

“He seeks to make more of us.”

“Odd. I was just thinking this world needed fewer of you.”

“He also seeks to give himself, and the others he makes, power not unlike your own, only with his own dark twist. He seeks to steal what you merely mimic. In fact he says that he has one last experiment to make and he would like an elvish subject.”
“Then he has far to travel to find one.”

“He has heard rumors there might be one to be had in human lands. It seems poachers have been spreading tales about strange happenings in Aguerius Forest.”

“Tornal shouldn’t listen to rumors.”

“That’s what I told him. He never would listen to me. If there are any elves there, I hope they watch themselves.”

“Hunting elves is very dangerous. Finding the wrong one would be the end of him.”
“Yes, but finding the right one, such as one young and inexperienced, would be easy prey for a lich lord of Tornal’s power.”

“Are you insinuating-”

“Nothing. I insinuate nothing. Just giving information I thought you might find interesting. Now I must bid you farewell. Give my regards to your husband and children, where ever they may be.”

“Farewell? A creature like you comes here to this field of sacrifice to mock and threaten me, and you bid me farewell? You think I would let an abomination such as yourself simply leave after such disrespect?”

“Here I am. Stop me!”

“Gladly.”



Cady wasn’t just dizzy. She was very dizzy. Yet she kept moving around and around, watching the trees. She was determined to make sure no pesky elves snuck up on her this time. Her brother, on the other hand, didn’t even try anymore.

“I’ve told you, Cady, you’re not going to see him arrive.”

Cady’s 12-year-old brother, Almas, just sat there, sitting with his back resting against the tree, playing his lap harp. She would never admit it to him, but he was starting to get good at it. But practicing music wasn’t going to help her catch Ulec when he arrived.

The rest of her family was just as useless. Creetan was 16 now and more interested in shooting arrows at a target; her father, Lord Gidon Aguerius, was wrestling with her 8-year-old brother, Giddy, and Mother was in her shop making who knows what. So it was up to her, a little girl of only 10 years, to keep the vigil and guard the family against young trespassing elves.

“I’m going to catch him this time. I will not let Ulec sneak up on us this time,” Cady informed her brother as she stumbled a little but caught herself before falling down.

“Good luck with that. In four years I’ve never spotted Ulec before he wanted to be seen,” Almas responded with a sigh and continued playing a quick jumpy sounding tune on his harp.

Ulec was a young elf that Almas had met while he was lost in the forest four years before. He had saved Almas from becoming lunch for a forest dragon and they had been best friends ever since. Now every once in a while Almas would announce that Ulec was coming over to visit. She wasn’t sure exactly how Almas always knew, but she was sure it had something to do with Ulec’s ability to talk to animals and plants. Cady was always amazed at how plants and animals seemed to do whatever he wanted.

Cady continued spinning, determined to catch the elf trying to sneak up on her like he always did. She was scanning the trees when she heard the tune Almas was playing abruptly change and a force, like a very strong wind, pushed her and she toppled to the ground.

“Hey! You pushed me!” she yelled at Almas.

Almas gave the most disgustingly false-innocent look she had ever seen and responded, “What? Me? I never touched you. I was just practicing. You know me better than that.”

Cady knew that Almas didn’t need to touch her. The last few years their mother and Uncle Marpel had been teaching Almas both music and how to use magic through it. As Almas got better at music he also got better at casting spells with it. It was called bard magic and she was about to retort that he used it to push her but a voice above her spoke first, “Yes, she knows you well. That’s how she knows it was you.”

He’d done it to her again. In just the moment that it took for her to fall, Ulec had just appeared out of nowhere. Looking above her she saw Ulec sitting on a branch in the tree with his back to the trunk and one leg hanging lazily, as if he’d been sitting there waiting all day! It wasn’t fair! She had been looking right at that spot when Almas pushed her.

“How do you do that?” she asked.

Ulec slid off the branch and landed noiselessly on his bare feet and asked with a sly grin, “Do what?”

“Appear out of no where like that!”

“I didn’t come from No Where. I came from over there. I’ve never been to No Where,” Ulec answered, pointing behind him.

“But we never see or hear you come,” Cady protested.

“I apologize for not moving through the forest making noise like a huge lumbering bear.”

“Cady isn’t that loud,” Almas cut in as he stood up and stepped over to his friend.
“Actually, I was referring to you.”

“Hey!”

Ulec laughed as Almas tried to push him but missed as he easily stepped aside. “You need to move faster than that! Or maybe you should stick to the harp,” Ulec said right before they all heard a soft snap above them. They all looked up to the tree for the source of the sound and Ulec started to step to the side when a large, furry animal landed on him, knocking him to the ground. Cady gave a surprised shout as she recognized a panther standing on Ulec with its large paws on his chest.

Rather than being frightened, Ulec looked annoyed and spoke calmly to the large cat, “Seacra get off! That hurt.”

He pushed the panther off him and in an instant it transformed into a young elvish girl who laughed and said triumphantly, “That time you weren’t fast enough.”

It was Ulec’s younger sister, Seacra. She was almost 20 years younger than her brother, but even though she was a little over 100 years old, she didn’t seem any older -- or act any older for that matter -- than Cady. Ulec got up glaring at her and brushed the dirt off of himself. It was in that moment they heard Giddy yell as he ran over, “Ulec, Seacra!” Behind him their father approached at a much more leisurely pace.

“Seacra, your back!” Giddy exclaimed.

Cady was also happy to see Seacra. She was away most of the time up north in elvish lands and when she was gone, Cady missed having another girl around to play with and couldn’t help asking, “How long are you here for?”

“A couple of weeks,” Seacra replied.

“Seacra! So good to see you,” Cady’s father said as he arrived. “Is Lady Alixia staying also?”

“No, Mother is up north, on the other side of the Dividing Mountains. It’s been 125 years since the War of Destruction. She wanted some time alone to visit the monument.”

The Dividing Mountains was a mountain range that ran northeast the whole length of the continent. It divided the elvish lands and the human lands and were so tall no one could cross them. At least that’s what Cady had heard.
“I see,” Gidon said in response to Seacra.

Cady noticed a quick look of relief cross her father’s face, and apparently Seacra noticed it, too. “Are you scared of my mother?” she giggled.

Ulec answered for Lord Gidon and grumbled, “Everyone is scared of Mother, at least anyone who knows her. Even the gods feared her.”

“Can she really turn herself into a dragon?” Giddy asked excitedly.

“Yes,” Gidon answered his son. “But before you ask, no, you can’t see.”

“You don’t want to see her as a dragon, Giddy,” Seacra added. “She only turns into a dragon when going into battle and that would be very dangerous.”

“That’s enough of such talk. So what is the plan today?” Gidon said, ending the topic. Cady’s father always seemed to dodge any conversations about Lady Alixia and any war stories about her. Almas had once told Cady that he and father had met Lady Alixia four years earlier right, after Almas had first met Ulec. He had told her she was a shape shifter like Seacra but could turn into more powerful creatures than Seacra could. He said she had attacked her father. Then Ulec and Ulec’s father had to stop her from hurting him but that’s all anyone would tell her.

It was Ulec who answered Gidon’s question. “I wanted to show Almas some plants I’m growing from seeds that my mother brought from the north.”

“I want to go!” Cady chimed in. Cady liked plants, and plants from elvish lands sounded interesting.

“Sounds like fun,” Gidon said. “I need to see to some business and get Creetan’s armor. See if he’s able to brag about his archery skills shooting with some thick leather weighing him down and impairing his movements. Just don’t stay out too late or your mother will have both our hides.”

“What about me?” Giddy asked excitedly.

“Sorry, short stuff,” Gidon answered. “Maybe in a year or so. You stay here with Creetan.”

With that, Gidon walked away. As soon as he was out of earshot, Seacra remarked to Ulec, “All the stuff you can do in the forest and you’re going to go look at some blue flowers. I thought you were boys.”

Cady giggled at the comment but didn’t dare say anything that might keep her from seeing the flowers. Ulec, on the other hand, rolled his eyes and turning to Almas asked, “Want to trade sisters?”

“Don’t tempt me; I’ve had enough of silly, giggling sisters,” Almas responded.

Silly? Could she help it if Seacra made a good joke at the boys’ expense? “Why are brothers so mean?” she asked Seacra.

“They think it’s their job.”

“See what you did, Ulec,” Almas said. “Now they’re mad at us and we’ll have to listen to them whine all day.”

“If that’s the way you feel, we will just go play by ourselves. We don’t need you. Come on, Cady. We can go see those plants on our own if you want. And better ones along with them,” Seacra said as she got up and started leaving.

“And good riddance,” Cady added as she left to follow Seacra. It would be a lot better without any annoying brothers around acting like jerks.



What Cady and Seacra failed to notice as they walked away was Almas smiling and whispering to Ulec, “Works every time.” Then both the boys were off.

In the four years that Almas had known Ulec he had learned to move through the forest pretty quickly. Yet he still often had a hard time keeping up with his friend. Ulec moved through the forest like they were one entity, as if the forest sped him on his travels.

“So how many are there?” Almas asked as he tried to keep up.
“Only three of them,” Ulec responded.

Every so often poachers would enter Aguerius Forest. Mostly these were inexperienced poachers testing to see if the rumors about poaching being impossible in the forest were true or not. Ulec always made sure they went home empty handed. In cases where the poachers were near enough, Ulec would let Almas watch the show from a safe place.
“This is the spot here. You should be able to watch everything from that branch,” Ulec said, pointing to a tree near the edge of a small clearing.

Almas climbed up to the spot Ulec indicated; the branches concealed him from view although he could see the entire field. Ulec meanwhile went out into the clearing and disappeared into some tall grass. After a short time, three men appeared at the far side of the field.

As they drew near Almas could hear them speak.

“This grass sticks like nothing else. It’s almost like it’s grabbing at us.”

“I told you to keep silent. You’ll scare our prey away.”

“What prey?” asked the third man. “We haven’t seen a single living creature in this forest. I’m beginning to think there is something to the rumors here.”

“I said keep quiet. Look at those trees up ahead. The branches are moving,” the man who appeared to be the leader said.

“That’s just the wind,” replied the first man.

“What wind? There is no wind.”

All around the clearing branches on trees swayed as if there was a heavy wind, except the lower branches where Almas was perched swayed a lot less. The three poachers only had a moment to watch when all around the clearing multiple wolf howls rose up from the trees.

Almas almost felt sorry for the poachers, watching the fear and confusion on their faces. Yet that was the price of trying to poach game in Aguerius Forest. Ulec had the power to speak to both plant and animal and ask them favors. Mostly he just did little tricks here and there, but at times like these Almas got to see just how much influence Ulec could have over the forest.

The three poachers loaded arrows into their bows at the sound of wolves moving through the tall grass. As one caught a glimpse of a wolf he aimed his bow to shoot, but a small rock flew from the grass hitting his hand that held his bow, knocking off his aim and making him drop his bow. Two more rocks flew from the grass and two more bows hit the ground.

Holding his hurt hand the leader said to the others as he glanced around, “I’ve seen enough, let’s get out of here.”

Pulling out their swords and keeping their backs together, they cautiously made their way back through the meadow. As they left they didn’t even notice the grass had stopped clinging to their legs and had even made a little path for them to leave by.



Cady was using some of the flowers she had picked to show Giddy how to decorate hats. He was a good student, and she wondered how long it would be before he decided such things were too girlie for him like her other two brothers.

Glancing at the forest Cady wondered what was keeping Almas and Ulec. She hadn’t seen them anywhere near the flowers, which didn’t say much for Ulec as he was only seen when he wanted to be.

She had asked Seacra if she knew where they had gone off to, and the elvish girl had told her to wait at home and she’d go find them. Cady didn’t think it would take this long.

“Hey, Uncle Jerad is here,” Giddy stated, pulling Cady from her thoughts.

Looking in the direction Giddy was pointing, she saw her father’s best friend walking purposely toward her father at a brisk pace. He had a concerned look on his face. He walked up to her father, who greeted him, but his face turned somber almost instantly as Jerad started to converse with him. Cady couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she saw him turn to Creetan and say something then started walking over toward her and Giddy.

“Cady, do you know exactly where the boys went?” her father asked as he approached.
“We didn’t see them near the flowers Seacra showed me. She said she was going to go look for them. Is something wrong?”

“Nothing to worry about, I think. A couple of my scouts failed to report in. Probably just running late. But to be on the safe side, Jerad is taking you and Giddy back to the house and Cree and I are going to go retrieve Almas.”

“What about Ulec and Seacra?” Giddy asked.

“I’ll make sure they are also fine, but I think Ulec and Seacra can take care of themselves. Right now you two get going. I’ll be home shortly,” her father said with a grin.

Cady watched a moment as her father and brother walked into the forest, then said to Giddy, “Guess we’ll have to finish the hat in the house.” Giddy helped her gather some of the flowers then walked over to where Jerad was waiting for them.
“You two having fun today?” Jerad asked as they came within speaking distance to him.
“We were making a flower hat,” Giddy told him excitedly.

“Do you know why the scouts didn’t report in?” Cady asked.

“That’s what we are looking into, and that’s a nice looking hat. Let’s get it to the house so you can show your mother.”



“That was priceless,” Almas exclaimed as he dropped down from the low branch to the ground.

Ulec sat down and rested with his back to the tree. “Yeah, the look on their faces were great.”

One of the wolves happily came over to Almas, who rubbed the side of his head. “Hi Crusty!”

Crusty was the pet wolf that Ulec had given him four years previous when they had first met. He had raised him from a cub and now the wolf was full grown and spent as much time in the forest with the other wolves as it did at the Aguerius Estate.
Almas glanced at Ulec and noticed he was half asleep and looked paler than normal. With some concern he asked, “Are you okay? You don’t look so well.”

“I’m fine, just a little tired,” Ulec responded.

Almas was about to respond when a voice above them spoke first. “You’ll be more than tired if Mother or Father find out you were using Vithal magic.”

Looking above them they found Seacra sitting on the branch that Almas had just dropped down from.

“Dang it, Seacra! It’s bad enough when Ulec scares me doing that. Don’t you start now,” Almas complained.

“I thought you were showing the flowers to Cady,” Ulec said in an annoyed tone.
“I showed her all the flowers and realized you weren’t anywhere near the place you said you would be. So afterward I took her back home and came looking for you to see what you were really up to. You mean you didn’t notice?”

Ulec turned red. He normally kept good tabs on everything happening in the forest. Almas had never seen anyone sneak up on him before.

“I was distracted,” he responded.

“I know. It’s rare I ever get the drop on you, let alone twice in one day.”
Ulec sighed, “There just seems to be a lot more poachers in the forest than normal lately. I just thought I’d give this group a good show and maybe discourage others from coming.”

Seacra slid off the branch and dropped lightly to the ground next to Almas. Meanwhile Ulec opened up his shoulder bag and let Metal out, which began rolling and oozing towards Seacra.

“Ulec! Keep that thing away from me. That thing is gross.”

Ulec smiled lightly and responded, “Mention any of this to Mother or Father and you just might find him sleeping next to you one morning. He likes you.”

“Okay, just get it away from me.”

“Good,” Ulec said as he closed his eyes and leaned his head against the tree. “Now just let me rest a moment here.”

As Ulec closed his eyes and relaxed, Metal oozed over to some rocks, settled over the top of them, and soon the smell of acid on rock filled the air. Almas shook his head and laughed, “Those rocks must have a little iron ore in them. Some day that thing is going to be metal plated.”

“That thing is just plain creepy,” Seacra muttered.

“That thing saved my life once,” Almas responded back. “It attacked a forest dragon to protect Ulec and me.”

Seacra shrugged and after a few moments of silence, Almas spoke again, “What did you mean earlier when you said something about Ulec using Vithal magic?”

Seacra answered with a question, “You know the difference between elvish magic and human magic, right?”

Almas thought back to conversations he had had with his parents and with Ulec. “Humans have to make their magic by some sort of action, like when I play my harp, and Ulec once told me elves use energy given off by living things, which is why you live in the forest. Lots of life means lots of magic for you.”

“That’s right; there were three races of elves during the War of Destruction: Elder elves, Shadow elves, and Desert elves. Elder and Shadow elves use Natela magic, Desert elves use Vithal magic, and humans use Trabar magic. Elder and Shadow elves have a large source of magic, but we all use the same source and can feel when someone is using it and how much they are using.”

“So you and Ulec can’t use magic without your parents knowing it?” Almas asked.

Seacra answered, “Normally no, but our mother is only half Elder elf. Her mother was an Elder elf and her father was a Desert elf.”

“And that makes her different?”

“It makes her, Ulec and myself a little different. Desert elves were a race of elves that lived in the great northern desert that were wiped out during the War of Destruction. Since there is very little Natela magic in the desert, they learned to tap their own life force as a source of magic. So when one of us uses Vithal magic we draw the magic from ourselves so no one else can sense it,” Seacra explained.
“That sounds like it would hurt.”

“More like exhaust you,” Seacra corrected, nodding toward Ulec who was now sleeping. “but you need to be careful not to use too much. If you do, then it can shorten your life. That is why our mother would be very angry if she caught Ulec doing it.”
Almas took a moment to digest everything Seacra said. He wasn’t sure what to say after that. After a while Almas spoke up, “Well, it’s starting to get late; I should be heading home. Tell Ulec I said goodbye when he wakes up.”

“Okay.”