Anake

By Jeff Crook

On a frozen world where the demonic minions of Maedra, the queen of Death, roam unchecked, the village of Fallweather is the last outpost of humanity, final remnant of the once-proud kingdom of Rholand.

On the day the sun rises after eight long years of darkness, Caya, a young but hardened ranger of the woods, finds herself alone on the mountainside with only her hogwari companion, Teke, to keep her company. But the rising of the sun is no cause for joy, because she knows it signals the final day, the end of time when Maedra's armies will begin the final assault on humanity -- the Day of Ananke, when even the gods must die.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeff Crook
• Release date: Mar 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311669155

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Ananke

by Jeff Crook

Copyright © 2014 Jeff Crook

O

riginally published in Theaker’s Quarterly

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Chapter 1

At Caya’s feet lay a steaming corkscrew heap of tarry black dung, spiked with shards of yellow bone. Clawed footprints crisscrossed the trail she’d been following through the snow for the last hour. She scrutinized the cloudy, forest-clad slopes of the mountain above her, her gray eyes studious, too old for her young face. Her breath hung about her in the bitter air, tinged silver by the faint starlight reflecting off the snow. The mountain night hung still as a frozen sheet, hushed by the surrounding forest of dark, snow-laden firs.

"Esa, I think you had better see this," Teke said. He dropped from the branch of a tree, arm membranes spread to slow his fall, and clapped softly onto the side of her boot. He scrambled up her leg, claws plucking at the threads of her homespun britches.

What is it, Teke? Caya asked without looking at him. She knelt in the snow beside the blasted trunk of a fir tree, peeled off a chunk of charred bark, sniffed it thoughtfully. A line of similar trunks, scored and blackened by an old fire, stretched away down the mountainside.

"Esa Caya, I think you had better see, Teke said as he settled on her shoulder. I think Day is coming."

She stood, leather creaking, boots crunching in the snow. Her vest of close ring mail nearly swallowed her. Her bow, slung crosswise across her back, was nearly as tall as she, and the baldric of her scabbarded short sword knocked about her knees. Teke clung to her neck and peered out from beneath her chin.

A faint blush had appeared on the snowy slopes above her, pinking the boughs of the trees with salmon hues. Turning east, Caya squinted into the unaccustomed light as gold-limned clouds parted to reveal the scarlet-flushed horizon. The valley below slowly shook off the shadows that had veiled it since she was a girl. Her village, nestled in the woods beside a frozen river, was surrounded by a vast ruin hidden by a snow-quilted forest. The old castle bailey, half in ruins, rose up from among the trees and slate rooftops of the village. A few tendrils of blue smoke twisted up from chimneys, then spread out in a haze at treetop level. The soldiers guarding the west gate had gathered in the road to stare at the mantling sky.

I suppose that’s it, Caya sighed. This is The End, Teke. We’d better find Mother. She turned and raced up the game trail, hurtling fallen trees, spronking from boulder to boulder, gripping a quiver of red-feathered arrows against her hip as she ran to keep it from slapping about.

"Will I see this sun, do you think, Esa?" Teke asked as he clung to her shoulder. His bushy tail wrapped itself around the beam of her long bow.

Maybe, she huffed. Though not yet winded, she conserved her breath for climbing.

I have never seen this sun, Teke said. Of course, I am only two years old. Triminshae had already fallen before I climbed from my mother’s pouch.

Be quiet, Teke, Caya said between strides. Be my ears and listen for me. I can’t hear when I run. Teke was a hogwari – an arboreal creature about the size of a one of Caya’s shoes, with large, moist eyes and a sharp, inquisitive nose. His furry prehensile tail was nearly as long as his body and ringed with alternating stripes of white and royal indigo. His thick slate-blue fur protected him from the bitterest cold. The thinner fur covering his face and paws was glossy white. To celebrate Caya’s thirteenth birthday, her mother had bought Teke from a wandering witch two years ago and bound the hogwari to Caya using wood witch’s magic.

Teke was Caya’s companion. He kept her warm and watched her back and remembered things for her. He was the closest thing she had to a friend, because there weren’t many children in the village. Caya spent most of her time in the woods. She loved to track and hunt. She could shoot a bow better than any boy her age, she knew weather signs and how to read snow drifts and navigate by stars and cloud movements and air currents and the wind in the trees. She could build a fire even in white-fall from tinder buried under snow pack, and she knew how to dig a snow shelter when caught outside in a storm. She knew animals and their ways, what mosses to eat and what barks could be brewed for headaches or fevers as well as which ones brought visions. She also knew how to fight Maedra’s minions. She knew where to shoot to kill bashars and where to shoot to cripple akhar devils, but most importantly, she knew