"Prologue from "Rites Of Passage"

She hid in a corner of the dark rata cellar, holding her two-year-old son and three-month-old daughter. Witless with terror, her mind repeated what she had witnessed only moments before.

 

It had happened so quickly they had little chance. The Modu imperial army swept through the forested land to the valley they lived in, burning and plundering everything. She was inside preparing the evening meal. The baby slept in her crib, and her son was outside helping their father in the fields. The boy tumbled into the kitchen covered in dirt. The baby woke up and started crying.

 

The mother swung around to scold her son. "How many times have I told you to be quiet when your sister is asleep?"

 

"Coli sorry, Mama," the little boy apologized.

 

 

She sighed. "And I had just got Lashani down to sleep. Oh well . . . " she trailed off. She picked up the pot of steaming ca stew and carried it to the table. After setting it down, she went to the porch door to call her husband in. She smiled to herself, thinking how his face would light up when he saw she prepared his favorite meal. Opening the door, she stuck her head out to call him. Her smile immediately froze on her beautiful features when she saw the horror unfolding outside.
 

Fifteen Modu soldiers raided the farm while another fought with her husband. They were stuffing corn and other vegetables into huge ca hide bags, and what they didn't steal, they burned. Other soldiers were chasing cas and horses out of the barns. They herded some into groups and slaughtered others. The entire yard was in fiery chaos.

 

Her husband fought valiantly, but he was no match for the soldier's swordsmanship and magic. He fought with a dagger and his bare hands. He had bloody gashes all over his body where his clothes once hung. The husband dodged to one side to avoid the sword blade singing by his shoulder, missing him by scant inches. But he wasn't prepared for the next move.

 

The mage-soldier raised his hands and chanted. A faint glow began to show around him. The glow narrowed into a powerful, focused beam that struck the husband with a paralyzing force. He was knocked to the ground, not able to move a limb. The look of fear and death plagued his features. The mage-soldier towered above the immobile figure. A malevolent, crazy smile drifted across his ugly face. Then he took his ebony handled sword and slashed the husband's throat from side to side before plunging the blade deep into his exposed chest. A bloody, agonized gurgle escaped his throat just before he passed on to Inlasani's world.

 

The woman standing in the doorway gave a silent scream of terror and grief. It was a few moments before she was able to bring herself to move her rooted feet. Her children, she must protect her children. There was only one chance. The rata cellar was their best, their only, hope for survival. Snatching her uncomprehending son from his spot on the floor and her daughter from her cradle, she threw open the trap door to the cellar and leaped in. She headed toward the darkest corner and hid herself and the children behind the wine racks. Because Modu soldiers hated wine, there was a small chance they wouldn't enter the cellar when they plundered the house. There was no food in the cellar; they hadn't harvested the autumn crops yet.

 

She sat cowering in the corner holding her two children. It seemed like eternity before she heard the sound of a door being kicked in. the noise scared the baby, and she began to cry. The mother quickly stifled it by covering her mouth. She heard somebody messing with the trap door to the cellar. A shaft of light sliced through the darkness, illuminating the space next to her. She held her breath, praying to her god they wouldn't find her.

 

One of the soldiers caught the scent of the woman and her children and was closing in for the kill. Death . . . a heartbeat . . . away. She saw him coming and thrust the children behind her.

 

The soldier pushed the woman aside into the wine rack. The entire shelf fell backwards with her on top of it. She was knocked unconscious momentarily. When she woke up again, she felt blood all over her body, cut by the broken glass. She achingly lifted her head up and saw her little boy laying on the floor and her little daughter nowhere in sight. The woman sobbed and leapt to her little boy's side. The boy stared vacantly back at his mother. The spirit had already fled his little body.

 

As she viewed her son's mutilated body, all emotion bled out of her heart. She sat there for an indefinable amount of time. Seeing nothing. Hearing nothing. Feeling nothing. Much later awareness slowly came back to her. A deadly cold slowly suffused her heart. She took one last look at her son before getting up. As she did, she made a vow. Even should it take to the end of time, she would find her daughter and make the Modu pay for the deaths of her husband and son.

 

She got out of the cellar and went outside. The whole farm except for the house was in charred ruins. A lone Modu soldier was posted on the far side of the house to guard what was left of the farm. She got the overwhelming urge to start taking her vengeance now. The mother grabbed a small dagger kept hidden near the doorway of the house. She kept quiet as the nadri bird as she crept along the side of the house. Like a panther the woman slinked closer and closer to her prey. Her wounds pained her, especially the gash on her forehead. But she paid little heed.

 

The soldier didn't notice when she was upon him. She quietly raised her blade in the air. The dagger swung down in a wide, silvery arc and found it's home deep in the right shoulder of its victim. The soldier howled like a wounded ca. He turned around to his attacker and bellowed, "Stupid Zhinbetan bitch! I should have slit your throat back in the cellar. I'll rectify that error."

 

He unsheathed his sword and prepared to fight. This one, the woman quickly noted, is no mage-soldier and I wounded his fighting arm. We are evenly matched. Aloud she taunted, "Marauder! Child butcher! You are no better than the odorous ca shit you so love to wallow in. Do your worst Modu cathrasinkeesha! I am ready!"

 

The soldier howled in rage at her scathing insult. He lunged at her with his sword. She brought her fists down on his shoulders as he stumbled past her. His wounded fighting arm and blinding anger were his weaknesses, and they would be his downfall. He fell with a grunt, and she seized the opportunity to grab his sword. She tossed it into her right hand and took a fighting stance as he got back up. "You thing you're so mighty, but without your weaponry you are less than nothing."

 

The soldier threw back, "You will pay dearly for your insults, little bitch."

 

He lunged forward again, intent on strangling her. She held out the sword and thrust forward. The sword rammed through his torso, and the bloody tip pierced through the other side. He fell to the floor with a grunt and died.

 

The woman breathed heavily, trying to catch her breath. She heard a voice behind her. "True we aren't much without our weapons, but you are no match for our magic."

 

She whirled around to find herself face to face with her husband's killer. "You!" she blurted out. Inlasani help her, it was him!

 

She saw he was chanting for the spell used to disable her husband. Like before a faint glow surrounded the mage soldier. The power emanated from his hands and shot towards her. She screamed and turned to flee. The beam struck her and knocked her to the ground. She tried to move away, but her limbs were already beginning to freeze. Her body slowly stiffened from her legs up. With what little movement she could muster, she raised her hand in a plea to Inlasani for help.

 

The mage-soldier readied for the final blow. He raised his sword and drove the blade home. Just before sword hit flesh, there was a blinding, white flash. The woman found herself falling, falling. She tumbled into a black-blue void. She tried to scream, but the darkness swallowed her cries. A gale wind howled deafeningly in her ears, and she saw herself surrounded by light. Then a strange sense of calmness overcame her. She saw herself depart from her body, her spirit spiraling upward in a pale blue mist. The pale blue mist journeyed through the heavens above and became one with her fellow souls and with the elements of time.