Lakenshire Cronicles Read online

Lakenshire chronicles: The Sword and other matters.

  Book one.

  By: A.L. Wyatt

 

 

  Dedications:

  To those who read.

  Part: I

  Prologue

  Sleeping Hallow, South Carolina

  Andrew Ambo was watching his two bratty nephews. Now don’t get it confused; he loves his nephews, or at least as well as one should love a family member. However, after watching countless hours of the most ridiculous cartoons on television and comparing to the days of good old’ fashioned cartoons, he came to conclude that the cartoons were lacking. “Where is the action?” Andrew would fuss, “Why is there no piano being dropped on someone’s head? I would like to know that!” And following the same pattern, the day slowly progressed to a cloudy, dreary night. But night was Andrew’s favorite time for babysitting; though no part of babysitting was thoroughly enjoyable, it provided an audience for stories of the past, conveniently labeled as bedtime stories. And the boys looked forward towards this as well, as their Uncle was a muse of sorts, creating anticipation, acting out highly tense parts, and delivering the story with awe.

  Andrew looked down at his two nephews, pointed a beautiful red gem ring equipped finger; and said, “Now this story stays in our family only, is that understood? It is very important that this all remains completely confidential.”

  “Yes sir,” the two boys replied solemnly looking up from the pull out couch at their wise old uncle with respect and deep trust. Thunder rumbled in the distance.

  “Good,” replied Andrew. He got up from his chair, placed a log in the fire, and grabbed a handful of what appeared to be red color sand from a metal box. He threw it into the fire, and the boys recoiled as the flames changed color from red to the most beautiful purple the boys had ever seen. And just as the boys became used to the bright purple of the flames, they changed to an even brighter green as it began to rain! It was as if the color of the fire was connected to nature, itself.

  Andrew looked down at the two boys and said, “The powder I just threw into that fire place was sand from another realm. I figured since the story will be about the history of our ancestors, it is an appropriate time to use it, this particular story covers a quest, and a war, my grandfather and great uncle connect a lot in the middle of this story so when you hear the last name: Ambo do not be surprised.” Andrew grabbed a book from his book-shelf.

  The book was old and raggedy, looking the pages looked ready to fall out, and it had dust all over the spine. Andrew blew off the dust outside, though his house was already as dusty as a medieval castle.

  He grabbed his pipe, filled with foreign tobacco, and lit it. The smoke, too, was green, but at times changed to blue. This was very peculiar to the boys, though they figured this “tobacco” to have originated from the same mystical land he had mentioned before.

  Chapter 1

  In a realm called Lakenshire, a realm only accessible by magical transportation, a war raged between the Dryiad Council, the Dark-Prince, and his apprentice demons, the broken spirits. John and Meredith Wyath, a pregnant couple, lived in Lakenshire, and worked as head driyads, or dark spirit hunters for the Dryiad Councilwho targeted broken spirits. Meredith soon gave birth to twins named Gavin and Ella. Gavin took after his mother, a witch, and Ella took after her Vampire father.

  Sept, 1760

  John was in a bad mood he had just gotten a very unfortunate report on the broken spirits inciting war between Austria and Prussia in the world of the living. Not to mention the massive fire they started that burned most of Boston down.

  “Our job is to protect mortals from evil spirits.” Shouted John, “But the main goal is to keep the broken spirits out of the world of the living, known to its inhabitants as Earth; however, it seems some of you fail to remember that just last year no less than one hundred broken spirits got into the world of the living!”

  Meredith tried to calm her husband down, but she knew it was a hopeless gesture.

  And as she thought, he was nowhere near ready to let this argument go. He continued, “The Dryiad Councilmight as well give in to the Dark-Prince at this rate! Or better yet, join forces with him! Would you all be happy about that? Did you forget our mission to get the sword of knowledge of good and evil? Must I remind you of what your kids and grandchildren will feel in a world of complete chaos and havoc! Must I remind you all that the Lakenshire we know will someday be extinct?”

  “No matter what, we do have other problems at hand, sir.” claimed a new voice. This voice belonged to an older man that John had never seen before.

  John thought this interruption as quite rude, but the argument raised was correct; John did need to get to the point. But there was something suspicious about this man. John knew almost all of the Dryiad Council’s members, and had surely not forgotten a face.

  John eyed the man, and then said, “Before I begin I would like to see proof of your application to the council. Meredith if you would please go get the records.”

  John turned to his wife to almost expect to see her walking to get the records however with a raise of her beautiful ringed hand she tipped some red colored sand from a small glass vial from her neck onto the table. The sand formed into a rectangle then, within a blink of an eye a fully formed massive book was sitting in front of her she said, “Name sir?”

  “Noah Vladimire, good to meet you Madame,” he gave a look at Meredith with a fire of lust in his eyes or so it seemed as he said, Madame

  John didn’t like that at all, “sir, I suggest that you keep your eyes off of my wife and only view her as a Neighbor nothing more.” John put his right hand on the hilt of his eleven crafted sword he felt a need to unsheathe it and ram it into the rude man’s throat. This was a very dark thought for a man of John’s loyalty; altogether John knew that there was something about that man that he just didn’t trust.

  Meredith seemed as if her husband had gone crazy, had rolled her eyes but acted as if she just remembered he was just over protective.

  “No, Harsh intentions my fair gentleman I hope we can let that fault go.”

  “She poured a bit more sand as the grains dropped, she whispered, Ouvius: Noah Vladimire.” The book went to the last page a voice broke out from the book, “Noah Vladimire, Age: 136, Home realm: Azonra, class: Wizard, occupation: spy.”

  John looked at him with deep concern,” how do we know you’re not working for the Dark-Prince as his spy?”

  “Yes, that is quite a conclusion it is, however I must direct your question to the record book if I may do so, that record book of yours is quite a piece of art, I must grant you that, the magic is fixed to where the simple touch of the page and all of the information of a person is recorded, wonderful idea if I do say so myself. Being a wizard I do enchant several items myself, but I must say that enchanted book is a piece of art. I also must say I found that enchanted record book quite useful. Now I must ask you this has that record book ever made a mistake? Has the book lied before?”

  Meredith with very calm but secretly internally boastful voice said, “It has never made any errors, yet I am in charge of updating the charm, as you may know charms change overtime, however I have heard of a recording charm to be meddled with but I have spent years upon years using protective anti- fraud, spells and sands on it so it would be to a very big surprise if it did get magically aggravated.”

  John then knew the old man was right, he did have proof that he had no deals with the Dark-Prince. Nevertheless he went up to the old man and looked him straight in the eyes and reached out for a hand shake.

  John knew he could trust his wife’s enchantments she has always been wonderful at magic even as a teenager, of course during her
time of teenage years the thought of females being taught in the magical-arts was just ludicrous. Her father would always shout, “Girls can’t do magic they must cook, clean, and prepare for the men to come home, and fear them as one would a king.” Her father was a wicked man me, nor John never could ever seem to like him, and his ignorant ways at every family gathering he would put up a charm; that can deflect a women’s magical ring and sand system he would shout, “There will be no female using magic in my house.” The reason I tell you this is because Meredith is now the most powerful witch of the realm, though she loved her father he was still plenty wicked, However on a night that was not suppose to happen a broken spirit ate his soul along with his wife; His wife, Meredith’s mother was a wonderful woman, weak with magic because she never had a chance to harvest the skill; after this, Meredith vowed to kill the dark-prince and rid his horde of broken spirits; with God as her witness she is going to kill the Dark-prince; that alone is one of the many reasons for the Dryiad council.

  The old man grasped Johns hand with a firm grip, and said “I assume you wish me to start tomorrow morning?”

  “That would be of great assistance, but you must be showed around and we will need to get you supplies before-hand; shall we meet tomorrow afternoon?”

  Noah said “that would be fine; I do need to know what some of the task are, that I will need to complete.”

  John started in, “I need to know more about the Sword of knowledge of good and evil, I need to know the Dark-Prince plans on any upcoming attacks, and if at all possible I want you to see what side the elves are assisting.”

  John had just then realized that he had been too busy finding out about this newest member. He stepped up to his stage and said in a magnified voice, “Dryiad Council, I must inform you we now have a new member to the elder group of the Dryiad council.” The elder wizards clapped and cheered however the younger crowd was for the most part just ok with it.

  John seemed eager to point out “I would like to remind the apprentices of the council, training starts tomorrow at 7 o’ clock sharp, if you are a wizard you will be reporting to my house to be taught by none other than my wife the beautiful, most intelligent witch of Lakenshire. At this Meredith blushed a bit.

  “If you are of vampire blood then I shall ask of each one to report to the house of Morodo Ambo”, to be taught by yours truly. After John got to the conclusion of the meeting he looked down only to find that the amount of vampires was very small compared to the amount of wizards, being a vampire himself he was reminded how most of his own blood had traded on him to join the Dark-Prince.

  “This meeting is now complete; due to the time of night instead of you apprentices walking home my wife will teleport you each” John stepped off of the stage.

  Meredith went up to the Apprentices and pulled out a vial of sand and poured a bit from the vial, The white smoke turned into a cloud , then it died down and the apprentices no longer where there. A white Spirit that was made up of the sand appeared and said “each apprentice has been placed into his or her own home.”

  “Thank you Sheela, please return into the vial now.”

  “Yes Ms. Wyath, I will be getting prepared for tomorrow’s class, long day ahead of us.” Within a blink of an eye the sand ghost had returned back to the vial.

  Noah, who couldn’t believe his eyes, asked a rather skinny man with blonde hair, this man looked as if his head belonged to a child rather than a man all the same thought Noah and asked this man beside him “so is this a school, or..?”

  “oh, no well in a way for the apprentices they have to learn how to become driyads, some of them as you might have noticed that’s not all of the wizard and vampire youth, a lot choose not to become driyads, as you may be able to see it is quite a dangerous profession. The youth spend four years of training, then they take the driyads final exam which of course it based on combat performance and in some years have ended up being a quest and then they are certified driyads.”

  “What do you wizards use for a weapon? “

  “Well as you have noticed most of us use sand, I can see you use a wand.” The man glanced at Noah’s wand fitted under his rope belt, “you can have that taken to a sand store and they can give you capsules to fit into your wand, if that is the weapon you feel comfortable with the only difference is that instead of a beam, a few grains of sand come out, however I find it much easier just to use vials. I also see that you do not have a gemstone ring, this is a very important piece for a sorcerer to have, The gem is made from your body sand which is the sand all wizards are born with, Lakenshirians or not all wizards are born with it, so no excuses of not getting a gem stone, the gem on the ring allows the magic sand to work. Without this ring you are just carrying a few small vials of plain pointless blank beach colored sand.”

  “Well that brings me to my next question, what kind of magic do the vampires use? I have never even met a real vampire before, today was the first time ever.”

  “Well, if you have a weak stomach feel free to at any moment stop me and I will stop explaining, It is blood of course, It is almost the same system, as the wizards with a few more twist and more complexity, my brother is a vampire they use the blood in their swords and the swords are connected to the heart and when they slay a creature with blood it adds power to their sword or dagger most females use daggers, but males use sword blades, Their blade power is connected to the titanium and iron inside their heart which pumps the blood and controls the different types for each bit of magic needed for instance if they use venom the green blood rushes to their teeth, if they need to teleport white blood comes from their body and moves their body to that location in a matter of seconds, their blade is like our gem ring without it none of their powers would exist the hard part is sorting the blood from the different types such as the teleporting blood , conjuring items blood and the venom, the venom is one of their most important weapon they can either inject it into their own blood and have a deadly poison bite or watch their opponent slowly die at the poison end of their blade. Yes they already have it in their body but when they run out, unlike us we never run out of sand. They must gain more through killing creatures with blood. Often they use vials for the less important magic such as the teleporting and conjuring.”

  “I almost forgot to mention my name is Claymore Jewel, pleased to meet you.”

  “Glad to meet you as well, but you know of my name because I was publicly introduced”

  John assured his wife that he would be at home, just in time for their mid-night cup of coffee before bed, it was a time set aside for them, and the purpose was to unwind and to communicate at the end of a hard day at work.

  Meredith let out a few drops from her white sand vial and a dust erupted when the sand cleared she was as home safely with the kids.

  “John got back on the stage and said, “now I didn’t want to worry the apprentices but the Dark-Prince is using our kind, and it is starting with the vampires he wants as many as he can get because he himself is a wizard and his Black sand which is the sand of death mixed with our venom blood creates broken spirits, if you refer to what I said earlier one hundred broken spirits got into the world of the living. Next will be one-thousand or two thousand who knows we need to find this sword as soon as possible and destroy it, it’s not even safe back in its original home of Eden, now destroying this sword may cause everyone to lose powers or their powers could slowly weaken, however if it stops and puts an end to these broken spirits our magic can gradually grow over time and if it does wipe out all of Lakenshire it can be rebuilt over time, along with our powers or we might be perfectly fine and nothing ever happen.”

  A Wizard stood up and said, yes but John we can’t enter into the underworld territory it is laced with protection charms, and the Dark-prince isn’t just some push over.”

  John looked down upon the wizards and the small few of vampires in the crowd and said, “Yes Mr. Fare, I see your point but I am proposing we not go to him we get h
im to come to us. Charlie surely you pay attention through the meetings rather than dosing off, getting the Dark-Prince to come to us that is where our newest member comes in.

  Everyone turned and looked at Noah, who stood up and said sir; it would be my pleasure, although I can’t promise anything before a month or two and even then I am not one hundred percent positive.”

  John declared the meeting to a end due to the time plus he had covered almost all that needed to be covered in this meeting, Feeling half accomplished John took out a vial uncapped it to let a few drops of blood hit the ground, it sizzled and a few bubbles started to come up, he then recapped the vial and placed it back into his cloak , the white colored blood drop rose up within a matter of seconds the blood had come up to the height of him and he was surrounded by a mass of blood, a tornado of white erupted swarming to the east side of Lakenshire.

  John entered his house and said “my dear is the coffee ready,”

  “yes it is please sit down there are a few matters of which I wish to address, the kids are in bed but before I laid Ella down she started talking about, the broken spirits”, raising her voice a little she asked, did we or did we not say that the kids are not old enough to understand the war?”

  With a slight look of thought that he was in the wrong, he tried to defend himself, “Meredith the children are very mature I actually believe they can start training tomorrow, Ella would be a good addition to the apprentices, considering we could use a vampires the lack of them is unbelievable.”

  Meredith agreed that the vampires could use a bit of buildup. The two Planed for Ella to be teleported each morning at seven o’ clock.