Black Eyes

Prologue

Evelyn was just twenty-two, she wasn't particularly smart, but very beautiful and her thin features, the face filled with freckles made her appear no older than seventeen. She lived in a small town, Myfolh, in the Lands of Elves which were situated on the north of the continent Faerhom.

Myfolh was a quiet town. It was populated exclusively by elves, who didn't allow any other species inside their small town even though in other towns in the Lands of Elves also humans and sometimes half-demons were allowed.

The pavement of the small square in the centre of the town was the only part to be cobbled. Every other part was beaten earth that during wintertime was covered by a thin layer of frost that cracked under the shoes. Some people wandering in the forests perceived muffled cracklings around them and they returned to the town telling stories about protective spirits roaming the forest. Someone swore they had seen will-o'-the-wisps in the most recondite parts of the forest, but those were mostly stories told to entertain children.

The continent Faerhom was almost the same size of England, it could be crossed on horseback or with a carriage in a few weeks, maybe a month, depending on the number of horses and the weight of the load. It was entirely populated by rural towns that cut it in half with a large road of beaten earth. To the west there were only immense forests in which a few dared to wander, but they were still inhabited by indigenous people or hermits, far away from any kind of civilization. To the east there were port towns that lived on trade and farming. To the east, where the weather was mild and the sea was placid, the complete opposite of the dangerous cliffs on the west, the farmers with bronze skin of Nae Tao worked in wheat fields and traded the harvest to the factories that turned the golden plant into soft flour. They also grew sugar canes that were sent in big freighters that circumnavigated the continent.

At the south of Faerhom there was one big city: Zraegan which prospered while monopolised by one government branch. It delivered all the needs to the city and controlled every movement of it. It was like living under a big and heedful eye which controlled everything through the Zarka. It was there that all the goods from Nae Tao were sent, where they were processed and sold to the small businesses of the city, spread throughout all the city but prevalent in the South. North and West bought everything already packaged and boxed, while East was almost in a total state of abandonment.

When she was younger Evelyn dreamed of moving to the city and living a less monotonous life than the one she had at Myfolh where she worked as a washerwoman. Her callous hands betrayed her young age, but she had abandoned that dreams years ago, when everyday life had already taken hold of her exploratory nature.

That evening smelled of spring. The first flowers had already bloomed on the windowsill of Evelyn's small house. She watered them with care. The evenings were starting to get warmer, the days were longer and mild. Summer was never suffocating, but winters were harsh and covered in snow.

The girl had managed to steal a book from the town's sage who dispensed ointments and medicinal herbs to the sick and who had learned the arts of surgery and alchemy. He was an old elf, the village healer, but he also kept, in his modest house with iron bars on the windows to discourage possible thieves, the treasures of the Elves of Myfolh which had been entrusted to him by the inhabitants themselves. Amulets, silver powders, ointments and jewels, all made of gold. With an excuse he made him disappear into the back room and managed to grab a bound book in black leather with an engraved circle cut in half by a crescent moon, hiding it under the handkerchief of her wicker basket filled with apricots.

That late evening, as she covered herself with a black shawl trying not to be spotted, her long red curly hair tied in a bun and hidden under the hood and wearing only a dark dress, she asked herself if she was doing the right thing. What she was intent on doing that fateful night was a dark spell of black magic that she never thought she would try. After thinking for a second she closed the small book, she gathered up all the salt she had in the house, then the book and with a firm step and hidden in the shadows she headed into the nearest woods. She knew the environment very well as one of her hobbies was wandering the woods spotting mushrooms. One day she had found the perfect spot. She knew that in the forest, once past the almost impenetrable barrier of trees, there was a clearing and a small lake which, now that Evelyn saw it at night, irradiated the grass all around, reflecting the light of the almost full moon. The atmosphere was freezing. The lake gave off a light condensation that made one think of the smoke released from the nostrils of a large dragon sleeping just below the surface of the lake.