The Anointment , livre ebook

Xlibris US - Peter Charles Miller Sr.

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

163 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

There's no available information at this time. Author will provide once information is available.

Sujets

Fiction

Informations

Publié par	Xlibris US
Date de parution	15 juillet 2009
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781669843450
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

The Anointment
Peter Charles Miller, Sr.

Copyright © 2009 by Peter Charles Miller, Sr.

Library of Congress Control Number:
2009904938
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-4415-3905-2

Softcover
978-1-4415-3904-5

eBook
978-1-6698-4345-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 08/16/2022

Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
547059
Contents
Part One
Chapter 1 Storm and Stress
Chapter 2 Leaving Home
Chapter 3 “The Imperial City”
Chapter 4 “The Elder”
Chapter 5 “On Our Way”
Chapter 6 “That Foul Smell”
Chapter 7 “Who are You?”
Chapter 8 “Up Above and Through”
Chapter 9 “Night Fires and Early Calls”
Chapter 10 “Alone and in Trouble”
Chapter 11 “A New Friend”
Chapter 12 “Mesnar”
Chapter 13 “The Acceptance”
Part Two: The Guardian
Chapter 14 “Assessing the Situation”
Chapter 15 “Following the Enemy”
Chapter 16 “Quick, quick, away . . .”
Chapter 17 “The Imperial City”
Chapter 18 “The Gathering”
Chapter 19 “At the North Gate”
Chapter 20 “The Holy City”
Chapter 21 “Battle of the Fire Würm”
Chapter 22 “Burying the Dead”
Part One
Chapter 1
Storm and Stress
T he tempest had passed. The rumbles of thunder were fading, and the flashes of lightning were moving away as Yvayn, son of Myllyof, son of Myrmydon, sat on the rocky edge of an ancient water-worn shoreline. He looked up to see the sun glowing in a rich amber hue as it set under the towering clouds. He had been watching the tide in its relentless march up the shore toward his perch as it has moved for thousands of years. The white foam climbed ever closer toward him, hardly stopping before another wave crashed again. More rumbling came and went as the winds brought a cool breeze off the water.
His thoughts were heavy. He had reached the age of eighteen when every Menian man must make the ceremonial Anointment journey.
Yvayn had heard rumors that he was to go to Semia, in the North, to see its capital city, Rylltòl. He was to meet the Semian emperor, Parnuhl. He was also to visit the colossal tomb of Thaliese, the warrior king who ruled over both Menia and Semia: a feat no one else has dared to try again. However, Yvayn was in no hurry to leave home.
He has heard his father tell of his Anointment journey many times. Myllyof delighted in telling the story, especially the part about almost being lost at sea during a huge storm. He admitted to his son that he thought they were all going to die when the winds blew them near the sharp rocks off the coast southwest of Careath. One time in the telling he also admitted that he did not want to go at first but went because his father made him. He would conclude that no real journey was ever done without some danger and told Yvayn that the fear of death was what kept them working hard to pull the ship to safety. From that time on Myllyof always preferred the land to the sea when it came to travel, even if a ship was faster.
Yvayn took after his father in looks with his dark skin, dark hair, and dark blue eyes. He was well built and stood about two and a half cubits high, not quite as tall as his father. The young prince was clean-shaven, unlike his father, and he preferred his hair short, also unlike Myllyof. Yvayn had prominent facial features including a large broad nose and high cheeks.
Because Yvayn was an only child and the heir to the Menian throne, he led a secluded life. There was an older sister, Sauph, but she died in childhood before he was even born. The young prince lived in a vast bluish gray castle, the only home he knew. To occupy his time, he often wandered the long castle halls or walked along the coast on which the castle was built. His grandfather, Myrmydon “The Tall” (as he was known), built the castle many years ago as a fortress to protect the lands between Careath, the Imperial City and Ver Nooy, the Holy City.
Careath and Ver Nooy were the two largest cities within the midlands of the Menian Empire. The plain between them was vulnerable to sea attacks; thus, the castle was a necessary part of the landscape. It was not built for looks but for strength. It was built on the ruins of an older fortress of the clan Tared. When Myrmydon died, the castle was named in honor of him, as was the region of Ethor, now known as Myrmydar.
The castle building itself was rather drab. Its high walls were thick at their bass. The bluish gray granite stones used to build the castle were quarried from the Leptonis Mountains and hauled to the site by oxcart. The stones were said to be the hardest available for castle building, however Yvayn thought they looked gray and boring. Attached to the outside stones were huge, think sheets of bronze to defend the castle against catapult attacks.
Yvayn was raised under the watchful eyes of Mia, his mother, as his father was often gone on long journeys or living in Careath conducting business of the empire. Mia raised Yvayn and Termâs and educated the young prince and his guardian in affairs of state and taught them to read and write. She made one room of the castle into a library and worked hard filling it with books for the boys to read and study. She brought in books from all ends of the empire and even had some Semian and Narcothian books added to the collection.
The young men also learned how to survive in the wild from Mia. Yvayn never gave it much thought though, as his princely life provided all his needs. But he still learned how to find wild honey, nuts, berries, roots, and fresh water. He was also taught some of the Narcoth language and some Semian. Often Mia spent time making them speak three languages at once with different questions in all three to be answered in yet another language.

Up to this point Yvayn was leading a very secluded life in the castle. His friends and family were all he knew and that was fine with him. He was reluctant to leave the safety of the castle and journey anywhere, let alone to the far off northern woods of Semia. He heard stories about Semia, and they were none too pleasing to such an impressionable mind as his. He heard about wild bears and other creatures that lurked in the woods. As he sat on the rocky shore his brown tunic became wet, he began to feel alone and depressed.
“I will miss the sea,” he thought to himself. “There is no sea up in the North.” That was what he thought from his limited perspective. “What could life be like without the sea?” He stood up and stretched. The breeze was blowing his hair around and making him shiver. A mist rose out of the sea forming a gray fog in the fields. He liked the way the fog hovered above the grass as it slowly moved inland. He liked being out near the water. He often could see dolphins swimming just off shore playing in the waves and watching him as he ran up and down the shoreline following them.
“Yvayn!” A clear voice came from far above. “You need to come inside before you catch a death of cold.” It was Mia calling from the gate. He turned and waved to her and began to climb up the rocks to the grassy field that led to the castle. He stopped a few times to look into the tide pools to see what was in them. He stepped and leapt over the rocks until he reached the grass that blanketed the ground in a green sheen up to the castle. When he reached the grass, he turned one more time to look at the sea. He ran his hands over the sweet scented grass that grew along the path. The grass bent gently over trying to cover lower shrubs with tall spikes that were full of seeds. The grass waved in gentle motion as the wind blew over it. The breeze blew back his hair sending another shiver over his body.
“It will be here when you get back,” she called to him. “Now get inside before your father hears about this.”
It was said that behind every great man there was an even greater woman, and that was certainly true in this family. Yvayn’s mother, Mia, was not a Menian; she came from the land of Mesnar (on the coast northeast of Menia). Mia was a beautiful, tall, dark-haired Narcoth: the people indigenous to the northeastern coast. Not all Narcoth women are so tall and this was one of the things Myllyof found so attractive about her. He also found her dark eyes and long hair attractive and mysterious. She and the Emperor met when he went to Mesnar to end a feud between two families in the small town of Shyr. The fighting was over the throne of Mesnar. The solution was that all of Mesnar would be a gift to Mia. This made Mesnar a royal protectorate; therefore, a king was not needed. Mia was taken aback, for she had a strong personality and did not appreciate being treated as property. Myllyof worked hard to win her heart and in the end she fell in love with him because of his kind heart.