PROLOGUE
Battles waged for the pure lust of it. Tribe against tribe. Clan against clan. Race against race.
Chaos reigned supreme over the battle-scarred lands and war-ravaged people. The drewi, the special caste among the Daoine people, wandered about the land to try and correct the imbalance the needless fighting inflicted on the innocent.
On the clearest of nights, when the drewi of all the gods and goddesses united amongst the holy circled dolmen of stones, did they receive news of their latest threat to their people and way-of-life. To prevail, they must search for the child born during the rare Blood moon.
This girl-child would have hair like wheat and eyes of smoke. Nehhain infused her battle essence into this babe so, once grown; the young woman can unite the tribes and clans of Daoine and lead them to victory of annihilation by the Siar.
All would know this child's link to The Frenzy Berserker for she will bear HER name.
Prophecy?
Or legend-in-the-making?
Chapter 1
Dew speckled the leaves silver in the misty morning light. Mighty oaks, the silent sentinels of the drewi grove, stood proud and majestic in the weak light of the sun. A black feathered form, its head bowed and hidden beneath a crimson cowl, stood solemnly within their center, bathing in the serenity the forest provided.
Another figure, this one wearing a mottled green and brown robe, emerged from the trees. Aeneas paused at the sight of his visitor, instinct telling him who it was.
"Aeneas," a feminine voice acknowledged warily. "You know why I have come."
Aeneas studied the female's posture. Her stance bespoke of confidence and strength. "Yes, Greer," humor laced his voice, "I do."
"Figured as much," Greer released a coarse snort. Age-worn fingers calloused by warfare swept the cowl off her head and shook golden-red braids free from constriction. For a woman of forty-winters, her hair still held the vibrancy of youth.
Gray-green eyes glinted. "Yeh always did have more talent in that direction than I ever did."
The male drewi chuckled and followed his brash companion's example by removing his cowl to reveal long skeins of midnight hair peppered with gray. Lines creviced the edges of his pale-blue eyes, those same eyes that softened with emotion as they touched the female's person. There was a wealth of meaning behind the look he cast her.
"You humble me, grafein [heart holder]," he bowed his head, "with such compliments."
Greer countered with a sly look. She assessed the body she knew lurked beneath those drewi robes. "Do I, Aeneas? Or do I simply speak the truth?" She ignored how her heart reacted to his endearment.
"Truth always lined your words," he responded, the smile never leaving his lips. "I see, Greer, that the years never dulled that sharp-wit of yours."
The two drewi were what Daoines called sight-seers, the perfect compliment to the others. There were few sigh-seers amongst the drewi. Greer saw what will be while he saw what had come before. Their visions worked in perfect concert. She was the other half of his soul, but the Fates decreed that they were never to be together.
His barb elicited laughter, but then she sobered. "I dreamt of the Blood Moon, last eve. We have not had a blood moon in eons, but I felt its importance." Greer shook the mini braids from her face and the action did nothing to quell the disturbing sense of precognition.
Aeneas sensed the seriousness of the situation from her fiery aura and the blatant worry in her eyes. Greer was not the type of woman to let her true feelings be known. He laid a sun-bronze hand on the nearest tree in hopes that Piest, his Woodland Goddess, would help in revealing the importance of his beloved's dream.
"And you came to me to see if I had a similar feeling?" He asked, selfishly needing to hear her verbally acknowledge the link between them.
The look she cast him was hard, but she then sighed in resignation. "Yeh know, as I do, thae we're bound together by our souls. Our powers are connected like our two goddesses decreed," the female drewi snarled.
Elation warmed his insides at her admission. His feisty grafein never lost her hot-headedness during their lengthy separation. Aeneas loved that about her nature. Even at the ripe age of forty, she reminded him of that fierce, wild beauty he fell in love with in his youth. She was the only woman to stir his body to life.
Time had not ravaged the muscular body he knew lurked beneath that feathered robe. Greer's body was a finely-honed blade, a warrior's body. She radiated an untamed wildness about her person. Aeneas closed his eyes against the regret he felt over their parting.
He had not wanted to leave her, but Piest insisted that he do so to strengthen their mystical bond. Aeneas knew that Nehhain gave the same mandate to Greer. Twenty-some years they did as instructed, so why now did their Goddesses bring them together?
Greer stood proudly erect, waiting as patiently as she could, for her companion to answer her. Guilt lashed at her consciousness. This was no time for revelation of her secrets. Finally he spoke.
"I have not dreamt such as you, but I have felt that the gods are trying to commune with their vessels." He looked her directly in the eye. What he was about to propose had only been done twice. "Piest said that we need to gather our drewi breathen together on the new moon and conduct the speaking ritual."
Drewi of separate castes rarely converged with another caste to conduct rituals. They remained staunch to their order and patron deity. His goddess's instruction on calling all the orders together for this one ritual told him of its importance. Piest already alerted him that the other gods and goddesses alerted their followers.
