The pursuit of winter, p.1
The Pursuit of Winter, page 1
The Pursuit of Winter
Talia Beckett
Copyright © 2024 Talia Beckett
Cover Copyright © 2024 Elizabeth Mackey
All rights reserved.
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, organisations, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.
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Acknowledgements
Somehow this book ended up even longer than the previous one in the series. It was also the hundredth I ever finished. It makes it special in lots of ways. It took me too long to write it. Life has changed a lot for me since I started it, just as it does for Tanwen from the beginning to the end of this book. Sometimes a home is no longer a home and we have to move on and go somewhere else to have the chance to become who we’re meant to be.
This series means more to me than I can put into words, and I am grateful for each and every one of you who take a chance and read it. Thank you for coming on this journey with me and I hope it’s as rewarding for you as it has been for me.
Thank you to Bryan, for understanding how much my writing means to me. You support me through thick and thin and you care about giving me the time and space to follow my dreams. I am grateful for every day we get to spend together in the same place, even if I have my head in a book while sitting beside you, whether that’s writing one or reading one.
Another thank you to my two tiny humans for changing so much and reminding me that it’s important to look around and enjoy what’s around us. You’ve been a source of love and laughter in my life since the beginning. I hope you both find the path that makes you most fulfilled as you grow.
A big thank you to Ella for your endless patience with my editing and polishing my stories. You bring out the shine and make my stories a thousand times better than they would be otherwise.
Elizabeth also deserves a huge thank you for the covers she does for me. She does an amazing job and is patience and I’m sure I don’t do so well without her.
I also need to thank David for all the help with the plot. This story especially needed some help and you never fail to show enthusiasm in talking about my many worlds and the characters within them.
Finally, thank you God. I didn’t expect to be here in my life when I started this story, but I’m glad that you never left my side along the way.
Dedication
To Bryan. My journey through life is so much better with you along for the ride, even if we take more detours.
Chapter 1
Peeking around the edge of the door, Tanwen checked if she was alone or not.
Please be empty. Please be empty, she thought as she checked the interior of the temple. The stone-built room was as she usually found it, quiet and calm. Walking inside, she carried a tome under one arm.
The pews were old and uncomfortable but just in front of the altar up against the pew frontal Tanwen had placed several cushions and a blanket. She sat down here, knowing no one would be able to see her from the doorway of the temple. Overgrowing trees covered the front windows, two old plants on either side of the temple having come back to life mysteriously after the attack on the city two years ago.
For a moment Tanwen merely left the large book to one side and looked up at the scene in front of the altar. It was a painting and one Tanwen had never quite been able to get her head around. There was what looked like a man in the middle, his eyes and hair wrought with pure gold and his body clad in white fabric.
Around him were several animals, none of which Tanwen had ever seen before. There was a small bird with a dark purple plumage, and a fox-like creature it rode on the back of. Something about it had always drawn her eye, and she’d finally realised why. Her mother, Mea, had worn a brooch with the same set of creatures upon it.
And today she’d found another reference to it. The front cover of the book she carried. More than once the book had been referenced in her mother’s journals, but she’d not been able to find it until today.
It was too large to read in the time she had available. It was probably already time to go. Her uncle and aunt would be looking for her. Until she’d at least looked at the book she had, she wasn’t going anywhere, however.
Finally, she picked the heavy book back up and looked at the front cover. It was simple. Gold letters embossed on the front of the leather binding. It was covered in dust and it didn’t look like anyone had read it in ages, possible since her mother.
The Prophetic History of Ethanar sat in her lap.
She opened it to the first page with as much care as she could, the front cover creaking and the pages rustling. They were yellow and stained with time and the use of fingers in the past. Written in a clear but ornate hand, the words were also faded but in the common tongue, something rare for the books in the great elven city.
Although Tanwen was an elf, she had grown up many miles south in her father’s palace. And reading, writing and speaking elvish had been forbidden. Her mother had taught her some anyway, and she’d been learning as much as she could since arriving in Mirden, but it was a complicated language and she was no longer an elfin.
The first section of the book appeared to deal with the sources of the prophecy, talking about elves that had lived many years earlier. Tanwen flicked through this section quickly. It was more than a little dull.
The next section had been the one Mea had referenced many times. It contained all the prophecies the writer had known of that pertained to the elven rulers in the past, present and future. Mea had been an elven queen and believed at least one of them was meant for her line. And if that was the case it could also include information about Tanwen and her future.
Wherever her aunt and uncle planned to take her, it could wait until she’d read something as important as a prophecy about herself. Tanwen didn’t know which prophecy was hers, however. And that meant she had some reading to do.
Settling in and making sure she was comfortable, Tanwen started to read. It was heavy going, some of the prophecies visions and pictures that the author had tried to draw or transcribe and others riddles. Some were single words and had detailed context given with them.
All of them had a note detailing who had given the prophecy and where and when. It didn’t take Tanwen long to notice they seemed to be in some sort of chronological order, some even referencing other books.
Finally she reached a section of prophecies that mentioned something that might mean herself or Mea, but she didn’t stop because she figured that out. Right at the top of the first page was another picture. A bird with purple plumage, sitting on the back of a fox. She stared at it for a moment before looking up. It wasn’t identical to the picture in the temple, but it was close enough. It was meant to be the same creatures.
Tanwen looked back at the book, intending to carry on reading, but before she could, she heard someone shouting her name. A very familiar someone. Her uncle. He’d worked out where she’d run off to.
Frowning, she considered trying to be very quiet and pretend she wasn’t there, but she knew her uncle. He was going to come inside and check every last inch of the place. He was one of the few people who knew it still presented a refuge for her and was her favourite place to go when she needed to think.
The temple held a strong claim on her emotions. It was where she had seen her mother last. Well, a spirit form, anyway. It was also where she’d finally overcome the daemon inside her, nurtured by her father, the great daemon Melakan.
Before Oravairen could come into the temple and start searching, Tanwen got to her feet and went to meet him. She spotted the elder elf a fraction of a second before he spotted her. His hair had gone white a long time ago but his eyes usually showed a youthful twinkle.
Today, however, they didn’t. Today they were tired and disappointed. It only made her sigh. As much as he might be angry at her for running off that morning without giving a good reason, she’d not wanted to give him the chance to dissuade her from her task.
Of course, she actually had results to show for her efforts. Had she still not found the book, she’d probably feel far more guilty.
His gaze flicked to the tome, tucked under her arm again.
“I’d ask you where you’ve been and what you’ve been up to, but it’s pretty clear. I hope whatever is in that book is worth making us and everyone travelling with us two hours late,” he said, the words more resigned than angry. Now she did feel guilty. She’d assumed it was just going to be her, Enetha, Aileas and Oravairen. It sounded like there were going to be others.
“I don’t know yet,” she replied truthfully. “I’ve not had a chance to read it. But I’m pretty sure it’s something I needed to see.”
“Needed? Or wanted?”
“Needed. But it’s hard to explain why. I think I’m being given a sign.”
Oravairen lifted his eyebrows a moment before ushering her toward him.
“Well whatever it is, we need to go now. We can ask one of the other elves to return t he book to the library for us.”
“No,” Tanwen replied, shaking her head. “This one needs to come with me. At least until I’ve read it.”
“None of the great tomes are meant to even leave the library.” Oravairen stopped in her path again. “There aren’t any copies of them. If they’re lost, the information in them is lost forever.”
Tanwen paused, studying his face and trying to work out how stubborn he was being and how much she needed to heed his wisdom. Although he had a point and she didn’t want to rob the city of prophecies it might need in the future, she needed to know these ones.
“Then we’re going to have to be a bit later leaving,” she replied. “I need a copy of some of these pages to take with me.”
“Can it not wait until you’re back?” he asked.
She tilted her head to the side, trying to decide rationally. Of course, she wanted to just say no, but Oravairen wasn’t her father and she didn’t need to be deliberately irritating to him. He actually cared about her.
“How long will I be away?” she asked, thinking of the dreams that came almost every night and tried to drive her in some kind of direction.
“If all goes well, a season, definitely not as much as two.”
“Then no, it can’t wait. I want to actually sleep while we’re gone.”
Again Oravairen lifted his eyebrows, the news that she was struggling to get enough sleep new to him.
“The visions have kept coming, then?” he asked.
She nodded. The longer she tried to ignore them, the more insistent they seemed to become. It was why she had been trying to find the book in the first place and why she’d tried not to leave without it.
“Then come, quickly. Let us transcribe the section you need.” Oravairen made his way down the hill ahead of her once more, the great elven city of Mirden hidden in the trees nearby.
Their house was one of the few that could be seen from the stairway up to the temple. Both of them were wrought of similar stone, but the house was a little larger and had a second floor.
Tanwen was amused to see Enetha still patrolling around the outside of the house, just as Tanwen had asked her to do, to make it look like she was still inside.
The wildcat let out a disgruntled yowl, making it clear Tanwen’s lateness wasn’t appreciated by Enetha either. Near the door, waiting by a pile of heavy-looking packs was Aileas, her aunt.
Relief washed over her features when she spotted both her husband and Tanwen.
“Come on, we must hurry,” Aileas said. “Everyone will be waiting.”
Tanwen wanted to ask who everyone was, but Oravairen quickly explained about the book and Tanwen’s desire to transcribe something important before they left. For a moment Tanwen was sure Aileas would refuse and make them leave anyway, the city elder’s lips pursed.
Eventually, however, she relaxed, as if a dam burst on the inside of her and took her objections away with it.
“All right, but we must hurry. I do not think the others will be quite so understanding.”
The three of them rushed inside, Tanwen feeling a little guilty for leaving Enetha to patrol some more. While Tanwen took the tome over to the dining table, Oravairen fetched some parchment and Aileas unstoppered the ink and readied a couple of pens.
“Here,” she said, handing Tanwen one of them. “You transcribe the left hand pages and I’ll do the right and hopefully we’ll have this done before the sun has reached its peak. Tanayth alone knows if they’ll all wait for us longer than that.”
Tanwen didn’t waste time replying, but quickly reopened the book and flicked to the strange bird. Immediately Aileas gasped and even Oravairen stared at it.
“Did you really find this in the great library,” Oravairen asked.
“Yes. Tucked away in a small room near the back. I didn’t even know the room was there until Mother mentioned it in her journal. I read the first entry where she found it just last night.”
“Well, that explains a lot,” her uncle replied, putting down the parchment and encouraging them both to write.
Getting to work, Tanwen didn’t really take in the words so much as just focused on copying them as exactly as she could. Thankfully Aileas seemed to be intent on doing the same until they had four pages of prophecies transcribed and Tanwen’s wrist hurt.
“Come. Now we really must leave.” Aileas rolled all the pages together the second they were dry and tied some twine around them to hold them together.
Tanwen took the bundle and added them to her pack, being careful not to crush the small roll with anything else. With that done, she finally allowed someone else to take the book and prepared to leave her first proper home, even if only for a while.
As Enetha came bounding to her side again, Tanwen found herself thinking back to the first time she’d been there, and how Vethesot, the elf who had tamed Enetha, had never left her side. She still missed him, despite them not having known each other for very long. He’d been the first to touch her heart, and she didn’t think she’d ever forget him.
Aileas was the most eager of them to continue on down the hill to the main part of the city. She led them downwards, her face serious and her stride quick. It was all Tanwen could do to keep up.
As she went, Tanwen noticed the outline of a shadow following along with Enetha, the wildcat trotting along beside them and bounding down yet more steps. Looking up, Tanwen stopped and tried to work out what could be making the strange shadow.
Immediately she spotted the outline of a small bird, not very far above them, but it was flying right in front of the sun and Tanwen couldn’t get a good look at it.
“Come on. We need to hurry,” Aileas called when she noticed Tanwen had stopped again.
“Coming,” she yelled back, but still she didn’t move, trying to work out what sort of bird it was that for now was keeping pace with them. As Enetha continued and the bird did the same, the angle changed just enough that Tanwen could get a better look.
A gasp escaped her as she noticed the colouring of the feathers. It was purple. At least she thought it was purple.
“Tanwen,” Aileas said, her voice beginning to show her anger finally. “It really is time to go. What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” she replied as she finally got moving again, not confident enough that she’d truly seen the bird from the prophecies to mention it.
When she glanced up again to try and check, the bird was gone. Had she just been imagining the colour? Had the bird really been purple?
There was no way to know now and she had definitely pushed her luck as far as she could get away with already. Aileas wasn’t going to tolerate any more delays or excuses to wait.
On top of that, Tanwen thought the bird had gone in this direction. If she wanted to try and see it once more, then hurrying after Aileas was a good idea.
Tanwen soon caught up as they reached the next house and the area of the city opened up more before them. When she saw what lay ahead Tanwen almost stopped again and refused to go on.
In the heart of the city stood almost every single elf who lived there, all of them standing either side of the main road out of the city and toward the river.
This area of the city held many memories for her. It was where they’d fought off the hordes of infected rats, and other animals Melakan had sent into the city. It had been an attack designed to wear down their defences, and Tanwen hadn’t possessed much in the way of power. She’d traded it all, given it back to Tanayth in exchange for becoming whole and vanquishing the evil inside her.
Now everyone they’d managed to save appeared to be there to say goodbye to the group of travellers, but Tanwen was puzzled about why it was so important to do so.
Near the middle of the group were the council leaders, many of them smiling at Tanwen as they came forward to talk to her.
“We know it must be hard for you to leave your new home when so much has happened,” one of them said. “But we look forward to having you return when you have finished meeting and experiencing the rest of the elven cities and cultures.”
“Thank you,” she said, not sure what else she should say to such a statement. It made her worried though. What were they expecting of her and this journey?
She continued down the line of elves, many of them waving instead of speaking and then Tanwen found herself at the end of the line and next toa larger group than she’d expected waiting for her.
