Power Awakens E-Book

Shaun McInerney

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Jaac wanted to live a simple life, all was going as planned until his Naming Day.  A day that would change his life and that of the world he lived in forever. The Nexii would change everything. 

Jaac starts an incredible adventure that sees him dodging assassins, pursued by demonic creatures, attacked by fanatical warriors and all the while in possession of the greatest power the world has ever seen. He is not alone in his quest, can Jaac and his friends stop chaos from reigning and save the world and all the people he loves.

Leseprobe

Shaun McInerney

Power Awakens

This book has been a pipedream for the past five or so years, an interest that never had wings until now. I dedicate this to my amazing family and friends (you know who you are), you are an inspiration to me and I love you all. I would like to acknowledge my wife whose help has made this publication possible. A great editor, confidante and pragmatist, who has to constantly remind me to use plain language and simplify an increasingly complex plot. Thank you for your support over the years. Finally thank you to all the readers who buy this book, I am truly humbled that fantasy fans want to read my work and I am looking forward to publishing more stories about the Nexii. Shaun BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

Title Page

Power Awakens

Book One of The Nexii Saga

By Shaun McInerney

Copyright

 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Copyright ©2018 by Shaun McInerney All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Visit www.shaunmcinerney.com for more about the Nexii worlds and the map of Cromus.

Author Dedication

This book has been a pipedream for the past five or so years, an interest that never had wings until now.

I dedicate this to my amazing family and friends (you know who you are), you are an inspiration to me and I love you all.

I would like to acknowledge my wife whose help has made this publication possible. A great editor, confidante and pragmatist, who has to constantly remind me to use plain language and simplify an increasingly complex plot. Thank you for your support over the years.

Finally thank you to all the readers who buy this book, I am truly humbled that fantasy fans want to read my work and I am looking forward to publishing more stories about the Nexii.

Shaun

Blurb

Jaac wanted to live a simple life, all was going as planned until his Naming Day. A day that would change his life and that of the world he lived in forever. The Nexii would change everything.

Jaac starts an incredible adventure that sees him dodging assassins, pursued by demonic creatures, attacked by fanatical warriors and all the while in possession of the greatest power the world has ever seen. He is not alone in his quest, can Jaac and his friends stop chaos from reigning and save the world and all the people he loves.

Thus starts book one of The Nexii Saga - Power Awakens.

Prologue

Prologue

Eddick checked over his shoulder, in the murky twilight he could see three more men following him, less than an hour behind him they picked their way along remnants of his trail. The Sun was casually dropping to the horizon, casting a hazy red shadow across the floor of the valley. The temperature was dropping, but Eddick didn’t feel it. Even from this distance, Eddick could see the three Warriors hunting for him, all three of them moving with a cat like grace, dark and predatory, they where obvious killers.

It had drained Eddick to kill the first of the Quad and he knew it was going to get much harder before the day was out. The leader hung back four paces from the two Morr-Praktise Warriors. He somehow managed to watch the ground and the surrounding shrub at the same time, piercing the increasing gloom with the practiced alertness of a hawk looking for his next kill. Eddick knew he didn’t have much time to get to high ground, he needed to fight the Morr-Praktise in terrain of his choosing otherwise he was finished.

As Eddick forced himself up the remaining hillock he realised he was near to exhaustion. Taking out the first Morr-Praktise had cost him more than he realised. Dusk descended, the air cooled further and the Warriors closed on Eddick’s trail. They quickly found his tracks in the dark grey sandy dust, there had been no time for Eddick to mask his trek up the hillock.

As the first two warriors advanced up the gulley, they had no need to conserve energy, which showed in their eagerness to attack their prey, this was their first mistake. The last was to assume that a quick decisive attack would rapidly overcome their target. The Morr-Praktise attacked him without any thought for their own lives, they were swift and deadly, and showed a confidence for their own abilities which bordered on arrogance. As the fight commenced Eddick slowly realised that they had not intended to kill him. They were merely there to wear him down, deplete his already low energy levels to exhaust and weaken him. These men were sacrificial lambs to be thrown away with a total disregard for human life. This callousness in his Enemies was frightening to behold, to throw away the life of two young Warriors merely to weaken an opponent was an anathema to Eddick, who always believed that life should be cherished. These thoughts flickered through his head in the instant it took to engage the first of the Warriors.

When Eddick reached the crest of the hillock, a few moments before the Morrs had found his trail, he breathed a huge sigh of relief. In the deepening gloom he had managed to discern the outline of an old Nedite Fort, just beyond the sight of the pursuing Morrs. The outside walls had caved in and nature had come back to reclaim the once bustling hill fort, but at least it would force the Morrs to attack him one at a time, as the collapsing walls had caused a man made gulley to be formed.

In the gulley Eddick waited in the semi-darkness, the damp seeping into his clothes. He slowed his breathing to conserve his energy and waited tensely for his pursuers. Soon enough the Morrs would track him and attempt to kill him. As he waited he once again tried to determine what a Morr Quad was doing tracking a lone Dublain Warrior across the Plains of Rajah. The Morrs were over a thousand leagues from their homeland, it just didn’t make sense.

In the gloomy quiet, Eddick slowly let his senses adjust to his surroundings. As his training had drilled into him over countless years, he reached out with his talent and projected his senses around the hill fort and further on into the twilight. As he attuned to his environment, he began to feel the dense cold of the surrounding block work, the moisture of the moss on the rocks felt as though it was brushing against his skin, in the distance he could feel the impact on the air of the thrumming wings of a local hummingbird. As Eddick immersed himself he was totally attuned to the nature around him, the air, the earth, he was One with his sword, it now felt like an extension of his arms, linked into his nervous system as completely as his other limbs. He was ready.

As the moments passed Eddick analysed his chances of survival. In his currently weakened state he thought that he could take the two Morr-Praktise, however, three may be too much even for him. He needed time to replenish his natural energy levels, before he could handle a number of simultaneous warriors. His natural talent, years of martial training and experience, would not be sufficient if the Morrs attacked him as one. His only hope lay in the narrowing of the gulley, which would force the warriors to come at him one at a time.

Time seemed to compress, moments into seconds, seconds into minutes.

The Morrs attacked without care. They seemed to understand his strategy to force them into a one on one combat but this didn’t slow them in their headlong rush through the collapsed rubble. A fleeting thought of suicide berserkers went through Eddick’s mind as he met the first frenzied sweep of a sword thrust.

Suddenly the feeling of time shifted again as Eddick unleashed himself into the first of his counter-attacks. Eddick had used his time in the gulley to full advantage, he was one with his surroundings, feeling connected to all the living things in the gulley and acutely aware of the position of every stone, rock and pebble. His attacker was forced back from the ferocity of Eddick’s counter-attacks, stumbling on a rock as he moved back and slightly left of Eddick. The minute shift in defensive stance was the opening Eddick needed. As swiftly as it began the first encounter was over. Eddick’s Sword exited the nape of the Morrs neck in a spray of blood and flesh as it moved back to the Asemi position, the classic first stance of all Sword work.

Normally Asemi was used by apprentices learning Sword for the first time, used by a Profent level Swordsman or a Sword Master, Asemi was designed to kill an opponent from the ready position with minimal movement and use of energy.

The next Morr was immediately behind his fallen comrade and rushed to his death before he had moved half a pace past the crumpled body of his comrade. Eddick sighed at the disregard for life.

Eddick, in his state of oneness with the gulley, had positioned his boot beneath a loose stone and had already started to flick the stone through the air before the Morr had stepped over the dead Warrior. He caught the Morr Warrior on the small knuckle of his left hand with a firm but small thud. This produced a slight flinch in the Morrs defensive pose and the fight was finished. Eddick pulled his sword from the right eye socket as the Morr slid to the ground.

Again Eddick waited, perhaps this was to be his lucky day, if the last of the Warriors was as clumsy as the previous three then he might just survive this day.

Seconds passed as the last Morr slowly entered the gulley. Inwardly Eddick cursed, this was a Morr-Profent, at least the same level of skill in the sword and possibly as strong as Eddick. The well-defined muscles rippled under a dark cotton shirt, toned but relaxed, the Morr moved with feline grace, well balanced and tightly sprung for the kill. In addition to this, the Morr was fresh, and had not depleted his energy levels over the last few minutes; this gave him a big advantage over Eddick.

The Morr slowly advanced, letting his senses feel the surrounding gulley. Eddick gave him grudging respect, this one had learned. Moving slowly, he looked like a stalking leopard cat readying itself for the next kill, each step carefully placed and balanced; ready to deal out death within the space of a single heartbeat. Eddick moved back half a pace, wary of this new opponent.

Suddenly and as fast as a striking cobra, Eddick thrust his sword at the solar plexus of the Morr simultaneously dropping to one knee to move under the decapitating head stroke that he knew would follow. Eddick’s strike was surprisingly blocked by a furious downward cut. It felt like a blacksmiths hammer hitting his sword just above the hand guard, with the shock ripping up his arm.

Eddick’s sword was knocked from his hand and he reflexively moved into a backwards roll to throw himself out of the way of the Morrs killing sweep. Even so the Morrs sword managed to rip a shallow furrow down the right side of Eddick’s back. Pain welled in his back, elbow and wrist, which Eddick swiftly suppressed.

The Morr advanced, this time without the previous wariness, his confidence clearly showing by the almost negligible smile on his scarred face. In his heightened awareness Eddick saw the deepness of the six scars on the Morrs face as he came forward for the kill, usually a Morr warrior was given three scars on each cheek on attainment of manhood. These were usually light scars the warriors inflicted on themselves as part of the rite of passage, that this Morrs scars ran so deep was unusual, although Eddick had no explanation as to why.

The Morr-Profent obviously thought that Eddick was finished and as he advanced with a sneer on what he thought was an assured kill. Eddick dropped into a Shuto Geri stance and relaxed all his muscles whilst breathing deeply, slowing his movements and his heart, calming himself. One of the peculiarities of Eddick’s family, the Clan Vardis, was that they showed a consistent trait of developing more than one talent when they reached testing for Manhood. Eddick was a Profent Level Swordsman, itself unusual, but he was also a Profent Level Akkad, a deadly hand-to-hand martial art. To Eddick’s relief, the Morr didn’t recognise Eddick’s stance. Attacking a skilled Akkad with a sword was always approached with an increased level of caution, and a very different attack strategy was needed to counter the deadly effect of the Akkad hand strikes.

The contempt of the Morr race seemed to blind him to danger as he advanced, He swung his blade at Eddick in a classic Atuso stroke, a very powerful diagonal stroke which can cleave clean through the body of an opponent. Moving with the heightened speed of a cornered Muskrat, Eddick stepped inside the sword stroke twisting his body sharply to the right as his left hand came down to grip the wrist of the Morr. Following the direction of the stroke and using the momentum of the Morr, Eddick suddenly reversed direction in a short circle around his left hip. A sharp crisp crack echoed through the dusty damp air, as the wrist of the Morr was savagely snapped. Continuing the single movement in a flowing arc, Eddick pulled the sword from the limp wrist of the Morr and sliced the middle of the blade across the Morrs throat.

Eddick slumped exhausted to the mossy floor. As his sat there, he once again puzzled over why four Morrs had tracked him down and attempted to butcher him. He was a simple man with no enemy’s that he knew of. He owned a small construction company and was a part time captain in the Dublain Guards. But there was no current war or blood feuds that Eddick was aware of. Why then was he a target, it didn‘t make sense.

Eddick was on a journey to see his older brother Petrek and to witness the Naming Day of Petrek’s son when the Morrs had attacked. He was hoping to spend two weeks relaxing with his brother and family before the Naming Day, as he hadn’t seen them for over two years. He didn’t know why he had been attacked but one thing Eddick did know was that he needed to find out that reason. With this in mind, Eddick settled down, made himself comfortable wrapped in his cloak and promptly fell asleep.

Chapter One

Chapter 1

Jaac bent down at the side of the stream and cut another sod of earth from the bank. He looked over his shoulder and shouted to Tem to bring the last mud sod down to the highly engineered dam that Tem and he had been working on for just over two hours. The stream, only one pace wide, wound its way around old Farney’s field and was just over half a league from Tem’s house.

Jaac and Tem at sixteen were no longer children, however, on this warm summer’s day they took great pleasure in erecting the most magnificent dam that had ever been built. Having put in the last sod of earth onto their dam, Tem and Jaac sat back on the dry mossy grass to watch the water slowly build up.

Lying back on the grass Jaac turned to Tem saying “Well at least Old Farney should have plenty of water for his Oxen, this dam should be massive when its finished.”

“Yeh, you’d think he’d be happy with what we’ve done here, but he’s such a miserable old man, he’ll never appreciate it, but it is a pretty cool dam,” replied Tem.

The water was building up faster than both boys anticipated and in the space of what seemed like a few minutes, there was a rapidly expanding swathe of water behind the dam. As the water reached over ten paces across Tem turned to Jaac “Oops, it’s getting pretty big. Should we pull the plug and move one of those sods?” With a giggle Jaac replied “No, let’s see how big it gets.”

Just then, they heard the deep bark of Farney’s Oxen dogs. These dogs were highly intelligent and stood ten hands high at the shoulder, they were ferocious but loyal and reacted instantly to the command of their master. Quite rare in the northern region of Bruk, the Oxen dogs would normally be a sight to sit back and marvel at, however, this was not a normal situation, as Jaac and Tem were on Farney’s land. Reacting as one, both boys sprung to their feet like twin uncoiling Jackoboxes, adrenaline pumping through their veins as a panic like state kicked in.

“Come on, quickly, burst the dam!!” shouted Tem as Jaac ran down and kicked the top mud sod. At first nothing happened, the sod stubbornly refused to move, Jaac kicked it a second time and then slowly, ponderously, the sod graciously glided out of the dam just as the water rose to the level of the top mudded block sod and began putting pressure on the whole dam. The water, now almost one pace deep and twelve across was putting a lot of pressure on the thin wall of mud. As the first couple of mud sods slipped from the top of the dam, a subtle bulging movement from the centre sods appeared to ripple across the whole thin mud wall. All of a sudden there was a loud whooshing noise as the whole sodden mud dam burst wide open. A small tidal wave of dirty dark muddy water burst onto the almost dry stream and bubbled and gurgled slowly down the winding streambed. With a grin, both boys ran from the stream towards the safety of Tem’s house. Although they hadn’t caused any damage, well, not any real damage, they didn’t want to hang around to see if Old Farney would set his dogs on them.

As they reached the wall of Tem’s family vegetable patch they sat down to catch their breath.

“That was a close one,” said Tem.

“Yeah, do you reckon Old Farney would have set his dogs on us” Jaac chuckled also catching his breath. “If he did, I think we could have taken them?”

“What would you fight them with, your shiny forehead?” laughed Tem getting to his feet and grinning.

“No, I’d use your bushy hair,” replied Jaac as he made a grab for Tem’s ankles. Nimbly, Tem dodged out of the way, “Lets go and get Mort and Ainy, see if they can give us a better fight this time, it‘ll be our Naming Day soon and then we won‘t have any time to mess around.”

With a serious tone Jaac pondered “Wonder what I’ll be chosen for, hope its the Warrior Guild, I don’t fancy none of that Construction or Merchant business.”

“Yeh, I want the Warrior Guild too, just like me Da. I miss him, he’s not been home for a long time now” Tem continued “Come on and lets go.”

As they walked to Ainy’s house the sun began to settle into early dusk, a yellowy tint reflected off cotton white clouds, and seemed to refract off the rough cobbles that made up the main road to Bowltown. Jaac ambled along automatically placing one foot in front of the other unconsciously avoiding the many potholes that could twist an ankle, Naming Day he thought, the first day of summer fall, what was going to happen to us boys then?

The world of Cromus only had two seasons in one planetary ellipse around its huge yellow sun, a hot dry summer and a cold frigid winter. The presence of the four moons keeps the seasons pretty well balanced across the whole face of Cromus. The year divided into four sectors of ten weeks, summer rise, summer fall, winter rise and winter fall, a whole year just forty weeks in length.

Naming day always took place twice a year in Bruk on Midsummers day the first day of summer fall and Midwinters day the first day of winter fall in the child’s sixteenth year depending on their birth date. The summer days seemed to stretch on and on in a sunny haze of time spent out doors, the sun only setting for a few hours each night. On the other hand winter dragged forever, as the temperatures dropped so low that you couldn’t expose your skin to the outside air for more than a few minutes. The sun only lighting the sky for a few hours each day, winter was generally spent indoors by the light of the fire.

He hoped there would be a new Storyteller here for Naming Day, he remembered the last Storyteller he had seen at his cousins Naming Day three years ago. Jaac had been fascinated with the Storyteller and his knowledge of the world they lived in. Bowltown, the storyteller had said, was the largest town in the Kingdom of Bruk and probably the largest town on the Continent of Rodina.

According to that Storyteller there were two cities, twelve towns and hundreds of villages in the Kingdom of Bruk. Their world Cromus had two Continents, although for the life of him, Jaac could not now remember what the other continent was called. Storytelling was another one of the possible guilds that you could be allocated to. As members of the Guild of Knowledge it was said that a Storyteller could never tell a lie. The instant they lie is the instant they die, a magical connection to the Storytellers brain causes a number of blood vessels to burst, Jaac didn‘t know how this worked but he believed it.

Even knowing they only told the truth, Jaac found it hard to believe some of what he had heard, Jaac had been sitting on the wall of a well outside the Three Hawks Inn, the Storyteller had been teaching some of the younger children about the geography of Cromus. He had told them that Bowltown with its population of twenty thousand was still only a fifth the size of Mank the second largest city, and this was less than half the size of the Capital City of the Kingdom of Bruk, Breem. Jaac had done some traveling with his Da, but he just couldn’t believe that there could be anything bigger than Bowltown. Jaac and his friends lived on the outskirts of Bowltown in a suburb called Westden, this was just under one hour away by horse to the centre but Westden was high on the rim of the huge bowl like hollow that Bowltown sat in, it was easy to understand the name of the town when you looked down on it from Westden, Jaac often thought that whoever named Bowltown just had no imagination, none whatsoever.

Storytellers were the keepers of knowledge and they often had other occupations that required them to learn, store and recall a great deal of lore. The main role of a Storyteller was to distribute this knowledge to the populace and to record new knowledge for future generations. Jaac remembered the Storyteller describing other worlds and continents, where populations of cities stretched into the millions.

This was hard to imagine, as Jaac had never been to another town or village as large as Bowltown, let alone a city. Most of the villages and towns were much smaller and some seemed quite backwards towards Bowltown. Jaac vaguely recalled the Storyteller saying that one-day on Cromus was normally twice as long as a day on these other planets, although to Jaac twenty hours was too short a day to fit in all he wanted to do with his friends. The storyteller had regaled them with stories of other worlds, facts like that a Human on Cromus weighed less on the other Nexii Worlds, Jaac often mused about this one, it just couldn’t be true could it, how could you be lighter on one planet than you were on another?

As they walked down the dirty cobbled road Jaac suddenly felt a very faint tingle in his head, an insubstantial itch, but right at the back of his head, a very slight high-pitched vibration, almost unnoticeable, but it was there all the same. He had felt this type of thing before, but he usually ignored it, often thinking that he had imagined it. This time however, it became more insistent. He let himself become more aware of it by relaxing his mind, something he had learned by trial and error when it had happened in the past. He relaxed and focused on the tingling, as he did this he realised that behind the tingle was a vague sensation of pictures, ideas, places, people and feelings, and … something else. Jaac slowly deliberated all this as he automatically put one foot in front of the other one, following Tem up the road as it turned up a hill towards Ainy’s house. As the sensations began to fade Jaac decided yet again that it was a daydream.

However, Jaac did dwell on one of the thoughts rolling through his mind, what would happen if any Guild Masters didn’t pick him, what would become of him then. He was still wondering about this when Tem nudged him in the ribs and said, “Hey, daydreamer, we’re here. Go on it’s your turn to knock on for Ainy, I’ll wait here” Tem slipped behind a tree as Jaac went to Ainy’s front door.

Jaac knocked once hoping that it was Ainy’s Mother and not his Father who answered. Ainy’s Mother always seemed to like him; she always gave him sweets and biscuits, which he didn’t get back at home. She sometimes seemed to treat him better than she treated Ainy. It was a good feeling to be fussed over. The door opened and Ainy answered, “Hi Jaac, what’s up?”

“Me and Tem were gonna go over to the Study Buildings and have another Necro Fight with you and Mort. Do you fancy it?” Jaac said grinning.

Ainy grinned back “Yea, I’ll just tell my Mam.” Jaac walked back to Tem and they both waited for Ainy to come out.

Ainy came out dressed all in black “Hello Tem, lets go, this time we’re gonna batter you. I’ll go get Mort, an we‘ll meet you in the yard at the Study Building, me and Mort versus you two Necro Belly Dancers”

“I’ll give you Necro Belly Dancers you short arse” replied Tem, “Me an Jaac are the fastest strongest Necro Warriors on the Whole of Rodina”

“We’ll see,” shouted Ainy as he ran to get Mort.

“Come on Tem, I’ll go and get changed into my black Necro Warrior Gi, I’ll see you at the yard”.

Tem and Jaac arrived at the yard a couple of minutes before Ainy and Mort, just as the sun dropped below the horizon. Dressed all in black they where difficult to see, with a Dai Katana each they looked for the best place to attack and then settled in to wait. The Dai Katana they held, were in fact just wooden sticks, however the boys treated them as if they were real swords, all the boys in the Kingdom of Bruk over twelve turns had some formal Martial training, so they knew how to handle them.