Dawnsinger
Ravens with Names of Shraens and Raeleins
DawnSinger
Janalyn Voigt
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 actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
DawnSinger
COPYRIGHT 2012 by Janalyn Voigt
The author is represented by and this book is published in association with the literary agency of WordServe Literary Group, Ltd., www.wordserveliterary.com.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or Pelican Ventures, LLC except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
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Contact Information: [email protected]
Cover Art by
Nicola Martinez
Harbourlight Books
a division of Pelican Ventures, LLC
PO Box 1738 *Aztec, NM * 87410
Harbourlight Books sail and mast logo is a trademark of Pelican Ventures, LLC
Publishing History
First Harbourlight Edition, 2012
Print Edition ISBN 978-1-61116-200-4
Electronic Edition ISBN 978-1-61116-199-1
Published in the United States of America
Dedication
This book is lovingly dedicated to my mother, Marilyn J. Weise, who taught me to fly.
Praise for DawnSinger
Am I Imagining Things?
In Janalyn Voigt's
DawnSinger
, I stumbled upon that old sort of storytelling magic. We find swords and dungeons, betrayal and love. We encounter enemies near and far. And, as Frodo and Gollum discovered, we realize that some of our most powerful enemies are those in our own minds. Janalyn puts her characters into one particular situation in which they fight shadow-wraiths. The more the characters fight the shadows, the stronger those shadows become. The darkness becomes darker when they give it that power. Are they imagining things? Or are these enemies real?
For nearly a decade I have made money as a novelist, but the full-time, quit-the-day-job moment didn't come until six years into my career. It's tough making a living this way. It's lonely. I spend a thousand hours alone in a room to research, write, and edit each novel. I still doubt myself on a regular basis. The dark shadows call my name: "Eric...Eric..." Just as I've heard my name in that UnderOath song, I hear personal doubts mock my abilities.
Who needs them?
I, like Janalyn, tune out the negative whispers and tune into the power of story. Imagination is a wondrous thing, and Janalyn, through
DawnSinger
, gives it a voice to sing.
Eric Wilson,
NY Times
bestselling author of
Valley of Bones
and
One Step Away
Ravens with Names of Shraens and Raeleins
Whellein—Shraen Eberhardt and Raelein Aeleanor
Chaeradon—Shraen Ferran and Raelein Annora
Tallyrand—Shraen
Garreth and (raelein not named)
Glindenn—Shraen Veraedel and (raelein not named)
Morgorad—Shraen Lenhardt and (raelein not named)
Braeth—Shraen Raemwold and Raelein Reyanna (last shraen and raelein of Braeth)
Daeramor—(shraen and raelein not named)
Merboth—Shraen Aelfred and Raelein Ilse
Graelinn—Shraen Enric and Raelein Katera
**Rivenn—Lof Ralein Maeven
**High Hold
Part 1: Summons
1
The Whispan Tree
A crosswind caught Kai’s
wingabeast
as lightning flared too near. Shrilling, the winged horse tilted in flight, and Kai’s stomach lurched. A gust snatched the hood from his head and roared in his ears. He blinked to clear the stinging rain that drove into his eyes. Thunder boomed like a timpani, shaking the air. Flecht shuddered beneath him, and Kai placed a calming hand on his wingabeast’s straining neck. He did not like this long flight through the wild night any better than did Flecht.
An image rose, unbidden—
Lof Raelein
Maeven, Faeraven’s High Queen, upon her deathbed, her sea-green eyes surging with life. As a guardian of Faeraven and as a friend, he would die to appease the hope that had flared in those eyes.
Wind howled and lightning flashed close enough to blind. Kai wondered if his own death neared. He would not—could not—halt his journey, although it took him into the teeth of danger. Necessity drove him as he pushed onward, past endurance. If he survived the storm, he would deliver Maeven’s last summons.
****
Shae put up her hood and left the shelter of the stronghold to follow the graystone path. A chill wind rippled through the folds of her cloak, and she shivered. Overhead, clouds unfurled in a pearling sky. She passed into green scented shadow, where notes of damp moss and ripe humus met her.
She shouldn’t have yielded to temptation and escaped into nature unescorted. In earlier days, she had roamed the grounds in freedom with no one caring. She couldn’t get used to the strictures placed on her now that she’d grown older. When would she learn to be more like Katera? She couldn’t remember her winsome twin ever causing their mother concern.
She would go back, but first she needed fresh air to ease the tightness in her chest.
Shae wandered beneath boughs laced with new growth and came at last to her favorite place at the garden’s heart. Although the voice of a stream beckoned in the near distance, she paused beneath a stand of gnarlwoods, their ancient branches stretched wide. These trees had witnessed the construction of Whellein Hold, and they would remain when the stronghold’s mortar crumbled and its stones fell away. She emerged from the copse into a meadow dotted with early flowers and bathed in morning light. The flutter of wings beat an accompaniment to the warbling of birds, and a wingen flitted through the lesser canopy to light in a nearby whispan tree. She stilled to avoid frightening the tiny bird, which dipped and bobbed its bright head to preen scarlet feathers. With its grooming complete, the wingen lisped into sweet-sad song.
Shae smiled. “Sing, small one.”
But a shriek ended the wingen's song. Darkness extinguished its colors. Blood dripped from the foliage of the whispan tree, pure white only an instant ago. Terror gripped Shae by the throat, choking off her scream.
The giant raptor had descended from nowhere and now flailed ragged wings as it rose, screeching in victory, its black eyes trained on Shae.
Pulse thrumming in her ears, she crept backward. Back, back she moved, her gaze never leaving the leathery beast in the air.
This made no sense. How could a
welke
have ventured so far north?
Her heel caught the hem of her cloak, and she slammed into the ground.
Fear yanked her to her knees. Shock brought her to her feet.
The whispan tree stood pristine as new snow. No blood stained the smooth bark. No movement stirred the silken plumes. No sign lingered of wingen or
welke
.
And yet she had seen...
what?
“Lof Yuel!
Does this vision warn of danger?”
Wind stirred the leaves. Branches rubbed and creaked. A stone turned in the stream bed.
Another sound whispered at the edge of hearing.
Shae paused to listen. The sound resolved into a steady flapping, and her heart picked up its pace. She ran into the meadow and scanned the pale sky.
With a toss of its silver mane, a wingabeast spiraled toward her.
The rider sagged, and the spiral went amiss, but the wingabeast recovered with quick grace. With a ripple of muscles, its neck arched, and the feathered wings lifted. Shae rushed toward the rider before the creature's diamond-shod hooves found purchase on the ground.
She reached for his arm as he slid from the saddle, but he shrugged off her help and steadied himself against the shifting beast.
She searched his face. “Kai?” Strain etched her brother’s features.
He turned and with one finger, traced forgotten moisture at the corner of her eye. “Shae?”
She shook her head to silence his question. “You’ve ridden through the night?”
He didn’t answer but pushed her away with gentle hands.
“What troubles you?”
His long silver-gray eyes glazed with tears. “Lof Raelein Maeven lies on her deathbed.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came. What could she say to ease him when the news pierced her like a blade? Tears seeped down her cheeks, silent as the grave.
Kai touched her arm. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken so. You formed a heart-bond when she visited Whellein Hold.”
“What other way is there to speak it?” The image of the wingen and
welke
returned to her. “Death is death.”
His head bent in acknowledgment, the movement slow.
She touched his arm. “I’m sorry, Kai. I know she means much to you.”
“Could but my hope and my prayers save her, she would live.” He spread his hands in a helpless gesture. “Such power is not mine.”
“Only Lof Yuel has the wisdom to command life and death. We must leave such things to him.”
He looked at her with a somber expression, but then tousled her tangled curls. “Truth from a babe!”
“One day, my brother, you may understand I am grown, or nearly so.” She raised her brows at him, but then sobered. “Does Lof Raelein Maeven…suffer?”
“Little. She does not ail. Life ebbs from her, it seems, by choice.”
Shae let out her breath. “I’m glad she feels no pain.”
He nodded; his expression strange. “You love her, as she does you.”
“How can such a thing come from one meeting?” She spoke again the puzzle that had long occupied her.
“Love has no logic. Come. I must tell Father this news.”
“Then you must wake him.” At his look, she added, “Last night’s revelry kept him late.”
“Revelry? Oh!” His eyes widened, and he gave a moan. “How could I forget the celebration of the founding of Whellein?”
She fell into step beside him as he led
Flecht
toward the stronghold. “Pay no mind. No one faulted you for not being here. You are given over to the
Lof Raelein
and must go or stay as she pleases.” Struck by a sudden thought, she grasped his arm. “Her death will release you from your promise. Will you not then serve her son when he is made Lof Shraen of Faeraven?”
Kai turned to her. “I may serve Elcon...if I do not undertake our older brother’s duties here at Whellein as Father wishes.”
She considered his words. “Is it not possible to do both? For in serving one, have you not served the other?”
“Such a thing can only be in the realm of dreams.”
“But not in wakefulness?”
He passed a hand across his eyes. “Such an ideal lies far from my reach. I can only hope Daeven will return from his adventures and relieve me from the choice.”
Their older brother had been gone for what seemed an eternity, and she missed him with each passing day. Of her many siblings, only Kai held a closer place in her heart.
She smoothed a stray lock of Kai’s hair. “You will know best when the time comes.”
He sketched a smile. “Such blessed faith I cannot deserve!”
She gave him an arch look. “Faith has no logic.”
His eyes widened, lightening from gray to silver. Laughter broke from him. “Such medicine I find in you!” He sobered. “Now tell me why I come upon you unkempt, unhappy, and alone outside Whellein Hold.”
She gave no excuse. “I woke with the dawn and made my way to the garden to listen to the heartbeat of creation.”