2. Chapter One

The girl’s skirt rustled gently in the evening breeze as she scanned the horizon. Darkness was quickly descending upon the mountain and she desperately needed shelter of some kind – a narrow dirt path was no safe place to spend the night. Strands of soft hair played across her face as her sharp eyes sought out caves, crevices, and openings…anywhere she could hide until dawn.

Stumbling with fatigue, the girl collapsed on a nearby boulder. I’ll only be a minute, she thought, what harm will a minute do? Knowing the answer, she forced herself up and onwards, constantly searching for some kind of shelter, some protection from…

Suddenly she saw it, a shadow on the rock face. She staggered into the cave, pausing only to let her eyes adjust and take in her surroundings.

She stood at the entrance to a long, narrow cave. At least it’s dry, the girl thought wearily. She slumped at the far end and felt the smooth stone beneath her fingers. There’s no ice, she noted gratefully – the cold didn’t affect her but it was still uncomfortable sleeping in a puddle of melted frost.

Sighing with relief, she pulled the twigs and branches she’d collected from her shoulder bag and began to calm her mind just as she’d been taught to do before using magic. She placed her hand over the amethyst stone on her necklace, tentatively preparing to dive into the never-ending flow of energy. She chose the three words she needed for the spell and held them lightly in her mind.

“Sol, Bryser, Palar,” she whispered, setting the wood on the ground. Feeble flames instantly licked the branches and shed some light on the girl sat before them.

She was a young woman of sixteen, with long, black hair cascading over her shoulders and down her back, contrasting sharply with her ivory complexion. The girl’s eyes were a deep, rich violet – the extract shade of the amethyst pendant around her neck – and sparkled with a keen intelligence. She wore a black silken dress and stained leather bracers adorned her forearms.

She was very beautiful, just like her mother, and her name was Leandra.

As she looked wearily around the cave, her eyes came to rest upon her bow and quiver. They were gifts from her mother. Tears began to well in her eyes and, blinking them away furiously, she turned her gaze back to the guttering flames. How pathetic, she thought glumly, I can’t even conjure a flame properly and the Moon is waxing! I should be at my most powerful yet a simple fire evades me!

Grim and doubtful thoughts swirled at the back of her mind but Leandra resisted them and calmed her mind; she might not be strong enough to use Elemental magic but she could certainly try to reach the Shadow Domain. Having attempted the crossing only once before under the guidance of her tutor she proceeded slowly, repeating each step to herself and concentrating deeply.

Firstly, calm your mind, lose all sense of your surroundings and relax your body. Search for the level in your mind where you meet resistance and advance against it. Leandra complied, releasing tense muscles and letting all other thought leave her mind. The silence in the cave was absolute – even the spluttering flames had died down to embers, throwing the cave into darkness. Leandra, oblivious, explored her mind, reaching out for the correct level. Suddenly she hit it. A pressure built in her head as she pushed against the barrier, determined to finally achieve some magic, even if it was only the extending of the mind.

Quite suddenly the barrier crumpled and gave way beneath her mental onslaught and Leandra tumbled into the darkness waiting to envelope her. Panic erupted in her mind and she struggled wildly to be free of the smothering blackness.

Calm! she berated herself, remember the next step!

Forcibly quelling the torrent of fear stemming from her, Leandra shook herself mentally and repeated the subsequent instruction.

Once the barrier is breached, reach forth with your mind and search for the Shadow Domain, leaving your body behind in the Elemental Realm. Once again she obeyed, extending tendrils of her mind in all directions. She had no idea what the Shadow Domain felt like as she had never gotten this far in lessons before but she was sure she’d know it when she met it.

This isn’t working, she thought in exasperation, and then she remembered the final part of the instruction. Releasing all feeling of her body, Leandra dove onwards, searching for…anything really, in the darkness.

Quite abruptly, she felt a cold mist play across her face – or rather, the mental projection of her face – and found she could go no further. Slowly, fog blossomed in front of her, bitingly cold and deeply unnerving. It was now time to proceed to the next step.

Finally, upon encounter of the Haze speak your Name and Purpose with honesty – none may deceive in this Realm. Looking straight ahead, voice edged with uncertainty, she declared: “I am Leandra of the House of Nimaril, citizen of the Pelara clan, and I request passage to the Shadow Domain. I wish to ascertain some knowledge of the Realm and explore its reaches.”

She stood for a second, upon the threshold of the Shadow Domain, and instinctively stepped into the mist. This time the vapour parted easily and swirled at her feet, creating an ethereal pathway for her walk down.

She progressed along the walkway for what seemed like hours, though with no way to judge time or distance she could have been walking the same stretch of mist for days. She stopped walking and stood, framed by fog, as she remembered an afterthought of her tutor: keep your destination firmly fixed in your mind or you will wander for eternity.

Too late she realised she had let her thoughts stray and quickly concentrated on the Shadow Domain. She set off down the mist-path for the second time and was so intent on her destination that she didn’t see the mist thinning or the dull grey light creeping in at the edges of her vision.

Within seconds the mist had vanished completely and Leandra was stood once more within the cave she had chosen to spend the night in. Disappointment was etched on her features – she must have slipped back into the Elemental Realm by accident.

But no, the light was different. It was a muted grey colour, as was the entrance to the cave. But that wasn’t right; it had been night when she’d last sat there. Comprehension dawned on her – she was in the Shadow Domain and true to its name, everything was in shadow.

Leandra strode from the cave and onto the mountain path outside. The monotones were disorientating and she had no way of knowing if anything was lurking in the deep shadows cast by the mountains enormous peak. Proceeding at a cautious pace, Leandra continued down the path as it followed a curve in the mountains steep rock face, taking her further away from where her body sat in the Elemental Realm.

Quite suddenly the path levelled off and widened onto a small plateau, crowded by a copse of pine trees. Leandra stood for a moment and stared intently into the thicket, but not even her sharp witch-eyes could penetrate the darkness between the trees branches.

Somehow, I imagined this would be much more interesting than it actually is, Leandra thought dryly and turned to go back to the cave. A bright, fluid movement in the corner of her eye – something completely out of place here – caught her attention and made her do a double take but when she looked towards where it had been there was only shadow. Puzzled, she advanced towards the trees, nervously glancing around. The silence here was unnerving and she had the growing suspicion that she was being watched.

As she reached the fringe of the small wood she saw a flicker of light again, from deeper within the trees this time, and padded towards it. The pine needles muffled any sound Leandra would have made, but that meant she wouldn’t hear anything approaching either.

Then she saw something that made all fears, and all thought, leave her mind.

A small stream, brimming with silvery water that swirled and eddied like the Haze, meandered its way between the trees. Curious, Leandra stumbled over and knelt beside the stream, reaching tentatively for the surface of the liquid. It was entrancing, like smoke playing across mercury, all under a silvery film of light. I wonder what it feels like, she thought absent-mindedly.

“Do not touch the Water!”

The voice reverberated through the mountain pass and sent shivers down Leandra’s spine. The words were those of Power and she found that her hand was frozen in place, half an inch from the liquid.

Looking up slowly, Leandra saw a woman emerge from the trees on the other side of the stream. She wore a simple white dress that gleamed like newly fallen snow and her long golden hair was plaited neatly over her shoulder. It was impossible to tell how old she was or where she came from but Leandra got the impression of incredible age and power. The colour of the woman’s eyes seemed to shimmer and change constantly, like oil on water.

“Return to your body Leandra,” the woman’s melodious voice commanded gently, but her face looked strained, as if she was fighting against a great force. “They cannot harm you while I am present but my power is failing already. Go now, before it is too late.” The woman gasped slightly and seemed to flicker in and out of existence for a second before beginning to fade entirely.

Leandra nodded and withdrew quickly from the stream, calling out mentally to her body and finding the connection in an instant. Then she began to run back through the trees as a sense of urgency gripped her – whoever the woman had warned her of were fast approaching.

She left the copse in an explosion of pine needles and darted out across the plateau but her headlong sprint was cut short when she saw what was blocking her path.

A fierce snarl erupted from the throat of the largest wolf Leandra had ever seen, rooting her body to the spot. Leandra wondered why it didn’t attack her but a sudden surge of air on the back of her neck warned her that something large was swooping towards her back at high speed. Using every last ounce of willpower that she possessed, Leandra fought against the paralysis in her limbs, trying in vain to move her body. As the winged creature closed in upon her, she wrenched her body free and dived sideways. The talons of the beast sliced through the air exactly where her neck had been less than a second before.

Her dive carried her to the edge of the plateau and Leandra scrambled for a purchase on the loose stones beneath her. The ground dropped away with a sickening lurch and she began to slide out of control down the steep slope, towards the hard mountain shelf thirty feet below.

She hit the ground with a terrible thud that would have shattered bones and ruptured organs in the Elemental Realm. Leaping to her feet, Leandra dashed towards where the cave was and started bounding up the fifty-five degree slope that she had just free-fallen down. A cry that pierced her mind like a thousand cold knives pervaded the air as the winged creature soared overhead.

Risking a quick glance upwards, Leandra saw that the creature was a giant black eagle. Then she stumbled and returned her gaze back to the treacherous ground beneath her feet. Her heart was pounding faster than it ever had before and her mind was numb with fear.

She was able to run much quicker in the Shadow Domain but the eagle was faster. Ten feet from the cave and getting closer by the second, Leandra began to gabble the spell that would reconnect her with her body but as she neared the last few words and reached the mouth of the cave the eagle dived at her, raking its enormous talons down her left arm, leaving deep gouges from elbow to wrist. Pain erupted all the way up her forearm, stabbing viciously into the rest of her body but was cut short as the last word of the spell left her mouth and a gale-force wind hit her like an explosion.

Back in the Elemental Realm, Leandra opened her eyes and took a deep intake of breath, stifling a scream of pain; her arm seared like it was on fire. The darkness in the cave was impenetrable and the silence so complete that for a moment Leandra thought she was back in the Shadow Domain. Then a bone-chilling howl broke through the night and a scratching noise could be heard near the entrance to the cave.

Heart hammering, she desperately tried to cast a spell to make herself unnoticed but she couldn’t think of the correct words. Suddenly something at the back of her mind seemed to slip, like a dam giving way beneath the pressure of too much water only to be quelled the next second. Abruptly, the scratching noises stopped and Leandra heard the creature loping away.

A deep sigh shuddered through her slight frame and if she hadn’t already been sitting down she would have collapsed. Fear gave way to anger, how could I have left my body unprotected! Anything could have attacked me while I was absent, in fact, something nearly did! Then exhaustion took over and she curled up beside the ashes of the long-dead fire and slept fitfully, her dreams full of wolves and eagles and mysterious women warning her of the Water.

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Shaking herself slightly, Leandra stood slowly and let her eyes readjust to the grey dawn light filtering through the cave entrance. She hadn’t slept very well and was still deeply tired but she knew she couldn’t stay in the cave anymore. Her arm throbbed painfully where the eagle had slashed her in the Shadow Domain but she hadn’t examined it yet – she was afraid of what she might find beneath the bracer.

There shouldn’t be a mark; it was my mental self that was attacked but surely it wouldn’t hurt this much if that was the case. Maybe the eagle – or whatever the eagle represented – used some kind of Black Magic to harm my physical form?

It was useless speculating. She would have no idea of the damage done until she checked herself over, but first of all she had to get away from that place.

Gathering her belongings together, she steeled herself for another days hard travelling and glanced at the sky, gauging the distance between herself and the black storm clouds on the horizon. They were less than two days away, though if the wind continued to blow strongly to the north then she would reach them by nightfall.

Sighing deeply, Leandra moved onto the narrow path outside the cave entrance and set off in a south-easterly direction. She still had many miles to go before she neared her destination. The Vrodinian Strip – a narrow belt of land connecting the Northern and Southern continents – was her only chance of escaping the lands of the Witchfolk. After that she hoped to journey into Caladía, and from there...well, she’d cross that bridge when she came to it.

As she rounded the bend that she had traversed in the Shadow Domain, Leandra increased her pace, eager to be as far away from the plateau as possible.

Once she had descended into the valley she risked a quick look back at what had been her home for the past sixteen years. The Whispering Mountains stared back bleakly, casting huge shadows across the frozen landscape. Leandra could no longer see the twin peaks or the glacier between them where she had grown up; all she had were the memories.

Turning her back on the mountains, she took a deep breath and gathered up her courage. The land to the east did not belong to her clan and if she was discovered there than she would probably be killed. Checking the sky for signs of movement and finding none, she moved on to the foothills of the Whispering Mountains, where the harsh grey rock met the dark, frost-coated pine needles of the White Forest. Many predators hunted among the snow-covered trees, including wildcats and wolves, so Leandra kept on her guard, moving silently and swiftly, keeping to the shadows.

For many hours she walked, watching the slow ascension of the sun, which hung like a pale disk, low in the sky; this far north, the sun never rose fully and twilight dominated the land. At the back of her mind was a niggling feeling that something was following her, though when she looked around, nothing could be seen.

Unexpectedly losing her footing among the slippery loose stones, Leandra staggered and fell down the steep hill she had been descending, landing heavily at the bottom. Pain lanced up her arm and she reflexively jolted up, applying pressure to her forearm to numb the sting. She quickly looked up and saw a black shape dart out of view. So something was following me, she realized, scrambling to her feet, something I really don’t want to meet.

Whatever it was, it had slunk away for the moment but it would be back soon and with her left arm out of action, Leandra wouldn’t be able to use her bow to defend herself. A gust of cold wind swept through the ditch where she’d fallen, sending the wet needles soaring into the air. The rustling increased in pitch and urgency, merging with the whistling wind until the whispering of a thousand voices filled the forest.

“Run! He is here! He is here!” The words reverberated around the trees until they reached a crescendo. “RUN!”

A fear that was partly her own and partly that of the woodland spirits calling to her filled Leandra, pumping through her veins, propelling her back into the forest. She weaved through the trees at breakneck speed but the incessant whispering surrounded her once again. “Faster!” The word echoed on as she increased her pace, moving so quickly that she seemed a blur to any watching.

Leandra was so focused on dodging obstacles that she didn’t notice the trees thinning out until they had all but disappeared around her. She skidded to a halt barely a foot from the point where the earth fell away in a sheer drop. Fifty feet below was a partially frozen river, its ice beginning to break with deafening cracks. The exposed water surged and roared through the openings in the ice, dashing against the vertical rock face.

Jumping into that would be suicide, Leandra decided hastily and turned back to the woods but what she saw blocking her path was terrifying enough to make her take a half-step back, bringing her to the very edge of the abyss.

The wolf from the Shadow Domain had returned.

Its fur was of blackest midnight, and its mouth was curved into a gruesome snarl, exposing dagger-like teeth. A deep-throated coughing bark came from its mouth and Leandra realised it was laughing at the poor girl trapped between its monstrous self and a long drop ending in a raging river.

“Well played young witchling,” it’s deep voice rasped, “but now you have nowhere to go, unless you think you can Master the river.” It, or rather, he, laughed again. “I think not.”

Each word cut like a razor into Leandra’s heart. One of a witch’s highest powers was the manipulation of water and yet she had never been able to direct the passage of even the tiniest raindrop. How could she possibly hope to survive the intense power of an uncontrolled river?

Sensing her uncertainty, the wolf laughed for a third time, the sound like a knife scraping across stone, and began to advance upon the young woman. His sneer turned into a snarl as he growled, “You do not believe in the powers my mistress gifted to our people and so you have lost all right to live.”

He attacked suddenly, leaping forward, teeth bared, blocking all escape routes but one.

Leandra whirled to face the chasm at her feet and prayed harder than she ever had done before. “Protect me,” she whispered and dived towards the violent river below.