~Prologue~
So softly did the wind whisper, bringing tidings to the fair ear of the lady, who sat, stately as a statue, upon a throne of carved ice. Her hair like starlight, her lips red as blood. So beautiful, yet so cold...her eyes twin orbs of flinty silver that cleaved victims with a single glance.
She listened...and the wind told her everything it had heard in its travels across the lands. Her expression froze. Terrible rage was etched upon her marble features and her fingers curled into an iron fist. She rose....
~Illea~
I felt empty, hollowed out, as they led a dazed me back to my room after the funeral. All those praises they said over his grave meant nothing. No words can express the grief and emptiness I felt...
I sat at the window we looked out together so many times. The shaggy moorland ponies galloping across the blooming heather, the sapphire sea gently rocking the boats moored on its beaches. It was as if the world had continued on, ignorant of my feelings...
I remember sitting on his lap, placing my tiny pink mitts in his big warm hands, his deep voice teasing me, calling me his fuzzy kitten.
I watched an grieved as my tall, lean, energetic father fell ill to an unknown disease. I watched, helpless, as little by little, his muscular frame diminished and his energies were sapped. Still, he maintained a jovial mood and hid his pain in my presence. He fought the malady to his last second...
A single, left-out tear crawled down my cheek......father.......
Tap, tap. A faint, hesitant knock jolted me from my reverie. A tiny crack opened in the door.
"Illea?" it was soft and concerned.
"Phyll?" the broken croak from my throat was closer to a toad's voice than mine.
I tumbled into her ample embrace, glad for her warmth. Strange though she was, Phyllovia had always been the big sister I never had. I never knew where she came from and never bothered to ask, only knowing that she had been around longer than I remember.
"Here...this your father told me to give you," Phyll drew, from within the folds of her skirts a jewellery case made of the finest rosewood. Etched into the polished wood and surrounded by intricate patterns of snowflakes and vines were elegant runes that formed the word 'Aythra'. Meaningless to me, yet heavy with the tinge of power. Inlaid with mother of pearl, the runes gleamed. Sitting on a winged golden clasp the shape of crossed swan wings was a large, brilliantly cut amethyst. The jewel was exactly the same shade as my violet eyes...extraordinary....
I have a good feeling that this box itself would be more precious than any other treasure in the world except the one it contained.
With trembling fingers, I lifted the lid. Nestled inside, cushioned by the finest white silk, was a necklace unlike any other. Delicate ringlets of diamond were linked together to form a chain as thin as a spiders thread, each minuscule link gleaming brightly even in the dim light of the room. The pendant was even more breathtaking. Slender tongues of the purest amethyst and electric blue sapphire chased each other around in a hypnotic pattern, forming loops that seemed to have neither beginning nor end, twisting and looping around each other in manner so complex that the eye cannot follow one strand, but instead jumped from one to another. Most astonishing of all, it was hollow...the twisted strands of precious gems formed a cage of sorts, with a hollow within. A hollow that seemed to be filled with faint silver light...or is it just my eyes?
My shaking finger brushed the jewel. A burst of freezing energy surged from the jewel into me, scouring every vein as it passed through my body. From within my mind, a voice of power, the voice fate itself would possess, thundered:
"Pass thee through the fire that would not burn,
The ice that would not chill,
The light that would not glow,
And the darkness that would not blind,
to embrace thy destiny"
A blinding white light flashed, and a vision of a bone white fortress towering over a field of pure white revealed itself for a millisecond before disappearing in a second flash.
I hit Phyll's hands, numb and paralysed, as the alien energy left. I lifted a leaden right hand and looked at the pendant. Silver light burned briefly from within, shooting out in rays through gaps within the complicated loops. Then, it faded out again. The black world of unconsciousness enveloped me...
***************
SOMEWHERE IN ALASKA
A dim yellow lantern hung on the ceiling, its dreary light casting shadows in the bare, musty room. Sigafska Hudjorn fidgeted nervously as he faced the man in shadows across the pitted table. Sig would never admit that he had been afraid of this man, but his high squeaky voice put Sig's nerves on edge. Of all the 'clients' Sig had served in his time, this man had been the most impatient. His normally small head looked even more puny with his fur coats on.
"You will complete this assignment in a week, Sigafska, or you will have me to answer to. Mark my words, Hudjorn, seven days." he hissed in a high pitched whisper.
Biting back a sharp retort, Sig answered, "Never fear, my lord, The Shadow Hands never miss a target."
"Very well. You will find her --" He unrolled a map on the table. "--here". His bony finger jabbed the West coast of Ireland. "The Imardyll manor".
**************
~Illea~
"Illea! Illea Imardyll! Wake up!" Phyll's urgent whisper, loud and harsh, made me force open my eyelids, which weighed tonnes. My head pounded and my hair was slicked with sweat.
The swirling whorls of colours focused, and I saw Phyll's face, with it's bright, tiny eyes and oddly bulging cheeks gazing at me with concern. My leaden head swiveled slightly to the right, and caught sight of the necklace, still clutched in my fist --
"ARRGGHH!" I dropped the necklace as if burned, then bolted, scrambling to the wall, where I slid down into a sitting position. One trembling finger rose. "That...that necklace...it...it--" I was almost hysterical.
"Calm down, Illea." Phyll grabbed my shoulders, holding me. I took a deep, shudderting breath. "Now, tell me what happened."
Phyll's voice had a controlled, suppressed tone I never heard before. Beneath it...anxiety? Doubt? Fear? I do not know. Her eyes glinted with a strange light. her expression scared me.
"Illea? Tell me, Illea. What happened?"
I gulped, unblocking my throat, and told her everything, omitting no details. When my tale ended, Phyll had a thoughtful look on her pudgy features.
to be continued soon.
