The Girl and the Guardian Read online


WHAT SOME EARLY READERS HAVE SAID:

  ‘…I loved the experience of the read… I was whisked away into fantasy…. Apples of Aeden really is an epic. A huge rich story in the telling. Your writing is, as always, sublime….’

  - Rachel Taylor (Muse, writer)

  I do find the thing as a whole very remarkable – the wealth of detail, the extent of the imagined world, the concept in its totality.’

  - Christopher Goj (Editor, writer)

  ‘…this enchanting tale will help to shape the renaissance mythology for the new millennium. … one girl’s transformation on her journey to save the soul of the universe… For the first time since reading The Lord of the Rings, my imagination’s fancy soared with the landscapes created in my mind’s eye…’

  - Anna Harris (Doctor. Admittedly possible bias - she is Peter’s daughter)

  ‘ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!! I mean seriously, move aside J.K Rowling!’

  - Olivia Brandt (then 11)

  ‘‘Better than Harry Potter! …Some say, and I fully believe, that there are only three true stories in the universe and that the rest are just twisted retellings of the original tales. However… I have unearthed a fourth…’

  - Alice Bailey (then 14)

  ‘Breathtaking, spellbinding, a lovely exciting read… thank you for re-awakening me to Faery.’

  - Ian Leighton (Gardener)

  ‘A well-written book, supremely imaginative. I prefer it to “The Lord of the Rings.” A great story.’

  - Lucie Warham (Our most senior reader so far, at the venerable age of 90)

  Volume one of the Apples of Aeden pentalogy

  The Girl and the Guardian

  Based upon the First, Second and Third Enneads of Aeden, (the Lore of the Nine Worlds), and on the diary of Shelley Arkle.* Compiled in narrative form by Christopher Hill,* with the blessing of Ainenia, Lady of Aeden.

  *(Fictional names to preserve identities.)

  By Peter Harris with John Harris

  October 2012

  www.applesofaeden.com

  (temporarily: www.applesofaeden.wordpress.com)

  Copyright © Peter and John Harris 2006, 2007, 2012

  Artwork by Peter Harris

  Published by

  Aeden Print, an imprint of Eutopia Press, a division of Dreamspace Limited, Peter’s vehicle for this-worldly manifestation of otherworldly visions.

  P.O. Box 37, Kaiwaka 0542, New Zealand. Ph. 09 4312 178

  [email protected]

  Dedication

  To my brother John, the Blue Knight, who first saw the White Horse and the Frozen Army, and discovered the land of Namaglimmë. He collaborated in the exploration thereof, and funded this writing over long years of my dilatory narrative labours, while the book grew from the originally anticipated one volume to the present three.

  Also to all the early readers, critics and encouragers: Alice, Anna, Christopher, Dayna, Donna, Elaine, Ellen, Ian, Marc, Laura, Marie, Olivia, Petra, Raewyn, Rosa, ‘Tink’, Xanthe, Yummy; and our mother and father, without whom (for good or ill) none of this could ever have been.

  P.J.H.

  In the beginning of the Ages was the Song of the Makers in the forests of the Green World.

  One day the Traveller Emerglím alighted on the Green World, bringing a Living Crystal.

  These were the founders of the Order: the Makers, the Travellers, and the Living Crystals.

  In Aeden they made Namaglimmë, the Starfish Isle, and planted apple groves bearing the seed of Jeweltrees from the Green World.

  In the centre of the Island was planted the Tree of Life, and in the crown of the Tree was the golden Heartstone, a Living Crystal which linked the nine Worlds by the power of the lightning.

  So the Unfolding was guided in wisdom, and Faery was revealed. Thus began the Golden Age of the Order.

  But certain of the Travellers also made the Vapáglim, perilous devices which fold space using the Power of the Void, and the Dark Entities approached.

  Then the Makers departed to do battle with them, and they have not returned. The abode of the Travellers became Phangkor, the Darkened World, and they were named the Aghmaath, enemies of Life, whose dark thoughts twist the Unfolding, and by their thoughts even their bodies were deformed, and they brought the thorns into Aeden.

  So began the Silver Age of the Keepers.

  Then Athmad and Ewana stole the Jewel of Knowledge, and the World of Edartha fell into darkness, and was sundered from Aeden.

  So began the Bronze Age of the Guardians.

  Then arose the Limnakorites, who denied the Balance, and there was war on Aeden, and the men usurped power over the women.

  So began the Iron Age of Schism and the long decline.

  -Ennead of Aeden, Of the Fall of the Order of the Makers.

  For nearly six thousand years the Tidak Nama guarded the Tree of Life against the Aghmaath. But in the third year of Korman son of Entanifer, a boy came into Aeden, and he stole the Heartstone. Then the Tree began to die, and the lightning ceased on the Tor Enyása. And because of the dark Mindwebs of the Aghmaath, Faery was hidden, until the coming of the Kortana.

  - Narrator.

  Contents

  Book One

  (Being the Narrator’s Tale and introduction to the World of Aeden and how he found out about Shelley. Young readers could skip this for now and read from Chapter 8, where her story begins.)

  Kor-Edartha

  Narrator’s Preamble

  1 “What will follow is Hidden”

  2 The Mystery of the Lost Templar Knight

  3 The Sacred Yew of Iffley

  4 The Ouvron

  5 The Labyrinth of Chartres

  6 The Forest Portal of Silverwood

  7 The Narrator’s Dream

  Book Two

  Kor-Aedenya