Awen Storm Read online

  AWEN STORM

  O. J. Barré

  PeaceMakers Publishing

  PEACEMAKERS PUBLISHING, MAY 2020

  Copyright © 2020 by Olivia J. Herrell, writing as O.J. Barré

  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. For information, please address the publisher at:

  PeaceMakers Publishing

  14505 N Presidio Loop

  Nampa, ID 83651

  [email protected]

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  PeaceMakers Publishing Ebook ISBN: 978-1-7332736-3-3

  Cover Design © 2020 by 100Covers

  First Printing, 2020

  Printed in the United States of America

  For Full Copyright & Disclaimer, Click Here.

  TO DON & CHERYL (CHERRY) ORDES

  Table of Contents

  Not by a Long Shot

  Worst Fears

  Nathair

  Trapped Like a Rat

  Animals Amuck

  Danger in Agartha

  Draig Talav

  Concussion

  Curiosity

  Out of the Frying Pan

  The Doctora

  Dragon’s Lair

  Home Again

  A New Obsession

  Magdalena

  Magical Mind

  Into the Fire

  Shibboleth’s Command

  The Package

  Mother

  Friend or Foe?

  The Healing Begins

  Time to Act

  The Atlantean Center

  Death Sentence

  Cybele

  Best Laid Plans

  The Fomori

  The Almost Dead

  Agartha

  Azi’s Secret

  Scratching an Itch

  A Dirty Secret

  Help from Home

  Inanna

  Hope

  No Respite

  Disappearing Corpse

  Water Dragon

  Social Climber

  Medical Supplies

  Demigods

  A Gathering of Druids

  Surprise Encounter

  Documentation

  Abandoned Shaft

  The Last Straw

  On Fire

  Elder Blessings

  Access Points

  Bus Station

  The Mind Veil

  Connecting Worlds

  Narrow Escape

  Heir Unapparent

  The Way

  Good Riddance

  Closing In

  Under the Kapok Tree

  Waylaid

  Asheville

  Way Station

  Unexpected Storm

  The Heat is On

  Meltdown

  Air Dragon

  Running on Empty

  Project Start-Up

  Now What?

  Rendezvous

  Getting Serious

  A Trip to Town

  Secrets and Lies

  Manny’s Party

  A Helping Hand

  Puzzling Development

  Search and Rescue

  Ready or Not

  Fate Steps In

  Speak the Word

  The Ferry

  Staying Behind

  Up in the Air

  Live Long and Prosper

  Diver Down?

  Another World

  Going Live

  The Vortex

  Mystified

  Dragons of Beli

  Falaise

  Seeing Stars

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  UPCOMING BOOKS BY O. J. BARRÉ

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  PEACEMAKERS PUBLISHING, MAY 2020

  AWEN:

  Life Essence, Inspiration,

  Divine Creative Energy

  Not by a Long Shot

  The air stank of sulfur and noxious fumes spat into the sky by the volcano. Civil defense sirens caterwauled, announcing danger to all within a twenty-mile radius of Zoo Atlanta. Emily Hester perched on a summit, trapped on a ledge that protruded high above the Gorilla Compound.

  Cu the Irish wolfhound barked beside her, while Lugh MacBrayer peered over the edge. Brian, his nephew, turned a slow three-sixty, gawking at the devastation. Her companions were bloody and disheveled, but miraculously, alive.

  The typically-inactive Brevard Fault had apparently ripped asunder, creating the lofty peak on which they balanced and spewing lava sky high. Below them, frightened animals reeled from the shock. Some huddled inside manmade structures behind glass or bars. Others weren’t so fortunate. A screech ended mid-cry, tearing at Emily’s tender heart and punctuating the desolation.

  Early-afternoon sun broke through a bank of cumulus clouds. Dust and ashes glowed in the air like an incandescent soup. Peering through it, she whispered a druid spell to calm the animals and another to cleanse the air.

  A welcome breeze lifted sweat-dampened curls. She swiped at her face and realized her jacket was no longer tied around her waist. Her purse had met a similar fate. But the thick haze was dissipating, taking the stench along with it.

  Turning her gaze to ground zero, the Reptile House, Emily searched for the scarlet dragon with flaming wings. It had vanished when her spell stilled the volcano. But when Lugh kissed her afterward, she'd caught a glimpse of the crimson eyes. She shuddered and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. While there was no sign of the fire dragon, she still had the willies.

  And she had no clue how they would get down from this mountain.

  The wind picked up, clearing the remaining haze and revealing the extent of the wreckage. Firefighters battled a blaze near the Reptile House, while rescue workers loaded injured people into ambulances. Sirens screamed as they careened from the park. Employees rounded up escaped animals and tended the wounded.

  A roar rose above the din, announcing several National Guard helicopters. They flew in formation toward the melee and hovered above the reptile house. One banked and approached the promontory, but the downwash of its rotors beat against them.

  Too near the edge, Emily squealed and wobbled precariously. Lugh grabbed her arm and pulled her to safety. She clung to him and Brian and Cu as a ladder emerged from the copter’s belly. Relieved, she cheered and held on tight.

  “YAY!” Brian yelled. “They’re rescuing us!”

  “Yes!” Lugh shouted, and Cu barked madly. Their heads craned upwards as the ladder descended slowly from the helicopter.

  A uniformed medic leaned from the craft with a bullhorn. “Climb up the ladder one at a time. Women and children first. We’ll send a sling for the dog.”

  Cu let go a series of shrill yaps that carried the edge of hysteria they all felt. The peak trembled, and Emily’s heart thudded as an otherworldly wail sprang from the earth. She clenched Lugh’s hand. It was the earth dragon, Draig Talav.

  “Hurry!” she hollered to the ladder inching slowly toward them.

  The wail grew in intensity, drowning the copter’s thundering whir. Anxiety inched upward toward panic. Emily sucked in deep breaths. The ledge shuddered, then wobbled harder. Disaster-weary survivors screamed down below. Brian yelled something Emily couldn’t make out. Cu’s bark deepened.

  The ladder dangled above their heads.

  Lugh stretched on tiptoes to catch hold, but a stream of fire shot through the air. The material combusted, nearly burning his hand. The flame shot up the ladder toward the helicopter. It jerked and lifted higher and away.

  The dragon rose above the lava by the R
eptile House, body blazing. Fire spurted from its massive jaws. Emily screamed and collapsed. It screeched, and she clapped her hands over her ears. A shriek answered from the bowels of the earth.

  The whole zoo quivered.

  “It’s the dragon! Look!” Emily yelled, pointing.

  The peak rocked. Brian fell to his knees, wide eyes brimming with a fear Emily knew was reflected in her own. Cu crowded close, whimpering. Lugh knelt beside them. For a few harrowing seconds, they swayed above the zoo, then the peak groaned and crumbled.

  Emily grappled to hang on, but slid from their grasp and tumbled over the edge. Pain ratcheted through her body as she slammed into the slope and bounced down it amid the rocks and debris. She skidded to a stop at the edge of a shelf and breathed a sigh of relief.

  Belly down, she crawled to the brink of the yawning abyss and stared into it, shuddering, but grateful. Then a tree trunk rammed into her, shoving her over the rim. Agony bloomed as she somersaulted into that living hell.

  It was probably only moments, but it seemed an eternity before she landed in a heap at the bottom of the chasm the earthquake had carved into the zoo. The metallic shriek continued inside the earth. Pummeled by falling rocks and concrete, Emily chanted the “calming” spell into the dirt.

  The shriek quieted to a low moan and the earth stilled.

  Raising her head, Emily ventured a peek. Lugh scrabbled toward her, with Cu close behind. Blood covered the druid priest’s face. Alarmed, she tried to reach him, but the rocks began vibrating violently against her belly. Her blood chilled.

  She might not be dead yet, but she was about to be.

  Panicked, she flailed in the shifting rubble, struggling to climb out. But her elbows and knees could find no purchase. The pebbles churned and quickened into a whirling pool of grinding, biting rock. A vortex opened beneath her. Emily screamed as it sucked her into the bowels of the earth.

  **

  Brian MacBrayer wasn’t ready to die. He dangled from the mangled fence, desperate to reach the top. But his hands were sweaty and he kept sliding to the end of the pole. Spying an exposed tree root, he stretched his arm and almost had it when he lost his grip.

  Clawing at nothing but empty air, he screamed bloody murder and plunged toward the precipitous slope. At the last moment, his muscle memory kicked in. He twisted in midair and landed hands-first on a chunk of buckled concrete.

  He shrieked as the upside-down bottom rushed toward him.

  Getting his feet beneath him, Brian rode the broken section of concrete over the cascading rocks. For a split-second, he was grateful to be a skateboarder. Then Emily disappeared, and a boulder bounced and struck Cu in the head.

  “Noooo! Cuuuuu!” Brian leaped from the slab to grab hold of his pet. His fingers sank into Cu’s wiry hair, then the ground opened at Brian’s feet and sucked him under.

  **

  Lugh watched as his nephew circled the same pit that had claimed the head of the Awen Order. The love of Lugh’s life.

  Without hesitation or thought for safety, he dove into the whirlpool, frantic to save Brian and Emily. He fell a long way and landed in the dark on a pile of rocks. Before he lost consciousness, the stink overpowered him. It smelled like a backed-up sewer down here.

  Worst Fears

  Emily blinked. Or thought she did. No glimmer of light penetrated the darkness. Was she dead? The absence of pain said probably so. Still, she would keep her eyes closed, otherwise, her phobias would kick her ass. If alive, she needed her wits.

  Getting up on all fours was too easy. If she was other than worm food, wouldn’t she be in pain? Or at least feel something? She groped the cramped space, half expecting to find her dead body, broken and battered like in the movies.

  Pent-up tears trickled down her cheeks and her wail echoed off the walls of her prison. Just her luck. After twenty-nine years, she had finally found a place where she belonged. A place where she mattered and that mattered to her. A place of acceptance. A place of love.

  Were the others dead, too? As a disaster specialist, Emily knew the odds. She sobbed a prayer for them anyway.

  Attempting to rise on unsteady limbs, she slipped and took a shard to the knee. Pitching forward, she landed on hands that were already bruised and raw. Physical pain found her then and she collapsed in the rubble.

  She wasn’t dead after all. Again she had been spared, while those she loved died.

  Giving in to the anguish, Emily keened. And in the rubble of yet another catastrophe, she hugged her knees and rocked like a child. Hot tears stung her ravaged face like a swarm of bees.

  The earth rumbled menacingly, and the ground vibrated beneath her. Emily’s heart raced.

  She stopped rocking to listen. If the walls came down, she would be crushed. She had to get out of here. If she didn’t, who would lead the druids against the Darkness?

  The earth rumbled again, louder this time.

  No one was coming. As usual, Emily would have to save herself.

  Pushing back at the panic that conjured all sorts of frightful endings, Emily squeezed her eyes tight and sat up to assess her situation. She was underground. In the dark. In a claustrophobic space. And those who knew her whereabouts were likely dead.

  All her worst nightmares come true.

  Saliva pooled in the back of her throat. She pitched forward and heaved what was left of the hot dog she had eaten for lunch. It hadn’t been that great going down. It was worse coming up.

  When the nausea finally passed, Emily wiped her mouth with a ripped sleeve and rose on shaky legs to feel her way around the perimeter. Her ankle would barely hold her weight, but at least she could stand without banging her head.

  Her skilled hands edged along granite walls that gave way to glassy dampness. Forgetting for a moment, she opened her eyes to inspect the surface. A shiver ripped through her as the nyctophobia struck, knocking the wind from her and dashing the little nerve she had mustered.

  Squeezing her eyes shut again, Emily gulped musty air and rested her brow on the cool, notched surface. She called on God and every ounce of training she’d ever had to calm her nerves. She was alive. Someone would find her. They had to.

  Soon the panic faded to a dull thud, and the flop-sweat dried.

  From far away, Emily could feel more than hear a pulsation, similar to that of the ley lines. Only this was rhythmic. Man-made. Was it an earthmover? Were they digging for her? A ray of hope pierced her despair.

  “Maybe the others did make it,” she whispered aloud. Her gut knew better, but then she should be history too. If not found soon, she would be. The walls would cave in. Or her oxygen would run out. Her heart raced and pounded hard as the panic threatened again.

  She fumbled for a rock and reared back to bang it against the wall, but her ankle gave way on the uneven ground. Mind-numbing pain shot up her leg and she lost her balance.

  Crying out for help she knew wouldn’t come, Emily fell and struck her head on a rocky outcrop.

  Nathair

  Hijacked by the spirit of a wandering druid, Nathair ascended the tunnel at a pace impossible for most snakes. The ground warmed as the path steepened. He paused as it groaned and shook violently.

  Fortune had smiled on Alexis Mayhall. After wandering the Underworld longer than she could remember, a vain earth dragon pressed her into service, promising a reprieve should she complete one task.

  Anxious to escape never-ending misery in a realm that allowed no redemption, Alexis had snapped at the chance. Here in the Underworld, nothing was real but pain. And though she had consciously chosen this lot in life, she hoped for salvation. Even if it meant inhabiting a snake.

  But Talav, the clumsy earth dragon, had released more than Alexis—molten magma now coursed through the Underworld. With luck, it would remain below her and not travel any higher. She might be dead, but pain was her penance. She’d rather not endure the agony of being burnt to a crisp.

  The passageway narrowed, becoming little more than a tiny c
revice. As Nathair, Alexis shimmied through it, relishing the sensation of tight skin ripping from her long, lithe form. Leaving it behind, she slithered toward the figure lying in a heap on the rocky ground and stopped short.

  It was the child she had failed to protect in life. A child now grown and hovering precariously between worlds. But she was not her allotted task.

  Reaching into the Otherworld, Alexis called the dragon. Talav would help. Talav could save the girl. Alexis could not.

  **

  Weaving in and out of consciousness, Emily flickered between worlds. The line between them was tenuous, both dark and frightening, both full of recrimination. She had saved Atlanta, but couldn’t save herself. And what about her friends and her Da? Were they safe? Or were they dead?

  Probably the latter. And it was her fault. If she had listened to her father, they would all be alive. Still, she didn’t deserve this—a slow, painful death, alone and underground in the dark. Every one of Emily’s worst nightmares had come true.

  She slipped into a delirious dream as her life-force ebbed.

  “Help,” she cried.

  From the recesses of the cave, a voice whispered back. “Help is here.”

  Emily’s fear subsided. “Here where?”

  A soft hiss arose, like pressurized air escaping a tiny hole. A way out?

  With great effort, Emily crawled toward the sound until she reached a narrow tunnel. The hiss was barely audible from the other end. Desperate to escape what was likely her tomb, she crept through the ever-narrowing crack. The ground groaned and shook violently.

  With her last ounce of strength, Emily squeezed through to the other side. Her skin peeled away like a snake’s.

  Emily shivered awake. She was cold and lethargic. The damp had seeped into her bones, making her dangerously hypothermic. All she wanted to do was go back to sleep. But the still-reasoning part of her brain knew death would follow.

  She groped in her pocket for Awen’s ring, then realized it was on her finger. Too weak for anything more than a whisper, she held it to her chest and implored, “Awen, please save us.”