Chronicles of Logos Quest For the Kingdom Parts IV, V, VI, and VII Revised With Index (Quest For the Kingdom Set)

Chronicles
of Logos

Quest
For the Kingdom Parts IV, V, VI, and VII

by
L. M. Roth

Text
Copyright © 2014 L. M. Roth

All
Rights Reserved

Characters:

Alexandros
– the champion of mankind whose heroism saves many from destruction

Antonius
Hadrianus – the son of Decimus Hadrianus, an idealistic and gentle soul who
inadvertently brings about a renewing of hostilities between old enemies

Brand
Adalbart – the youngest son of Dag Adalbart, a naïve dreamer who is yet
untested by life

Brenus
– the son of Judoc, a fiery mischief maker prone to causing trouble

Brit
– the mother of Cort, a stoic yet loving woman whose life is filled with pain

Cort
Adalbart – a lively and adventurous spirit whose devotion to his adopted family
hinders him in the pursuit of his own destiny

Dag
Adalbart – a brave and impassive man who is not afraid to stand in the face of
evil although at times he stands alone

Decimus
Hadrianus – a dashing bully with a dark secret that threatens to destroy his
cherished family life

Deirdre
– a princess of Darian whose lust for a stranger brings tragedy on her people

Dirk
Adalbart – the eldest son of Dag Adalbart, a rash and daring young man who is
left to keep his embattled family together during its darkest hour

Dominio
- the all-powerful who is sovereign above all

Drusilla
Octavius – the social climbing mother of Tullia Maximus whose ambitions bring
trouble on her family

Enora
– the sly and vicious sister of Niamh who is determined to turn Eirinia back to
the old gods and old ways

Fanchon
– the flighty and pleasure-loving former lover of Dag Adalbart

Felicia
Maximus – the rebellious daughter of Marcus Maximus who will let nothing and no
one stop her from developing her gift of prophecy at the expense of her
mother’s plans for her future

Felix 
Lucius – the witty, intelligent son of Justus and Silvia Lucius

Iacomus
Cornelius – a smooth-talking, self-serving stranger who ruthlessly grasps power
in Valerium

Judoc
Adalbart – the outspoken and feisty wife of Dag who is rapidly losing control
of her children

Justus
Lucius – a man of influence in Valerium, brought low by treachery and intrigue

Kyrene
Nicandros – a powerful seer who runs a school for prophecy and trains young
warriors for battle

Laig
– a taciturn man of Eirinia, under the control of his wife

Lucius
Maximus – the worldly, playboy son of Marcus Maximus who lives for the moment yet
harbors a secret fear

Maelys
Adalbart – the courageous eldest daughter of Dag and Judoc who defies those who
work evil against others

Marcus Maximus
– a proud and noble man of Valerium. He is the leader of the Alexandrians, and
moves in the gift of miracles, yet continually manages to offend those in
power, bringing  calamity on his family.

Melisande
de Barberere - a mysterious and seductive woman with a talent for stirring up
strife

Niamh
- wife of Laig and sister of Enora, a defiant woman who forces the Eirini
people to choose between their gods

Nolwenn
Adalbart - youngest daughter of Dag and Judoc, a gentle girl, fiercely loyal to
a fault, who discovers that she has a gift of sorcery

Paulina
Hadrianus – the timid wife of Decimus Hadrianus who dares not speak of the dark
secrets of her life with Decimus

Silvia
Lucius – the wise and loving wife of Justus Lucius, still grieving over a
family tragedy

Siv
– a young woman of Trekur Lende whose devotion to her true love is
indestructible

Tullia
Maximus – the patrician wife of Marcus Maximus who possesses a gift of healing
and a passionate loyalty to her husband

Tyr
– a stranger who corrupted the people of Darian through his sly trickery

Urbanus
– the warm and benevolent Emperor of Valerium, forced to choose between his
imperial duty and his devotion to old friends

Ursula
Fabius – a former lover of Decimus Hadrianus, a vindictive woman with an old
score to settle

Yuna
– sly and crafty old wise woman whose sense of humor is as great as her wisdom
and ability to heal

Deities
and Idols:

Leon
– the evil head of the Astra, bent on the destruction of mankind

Aelia
– the goddess of the winds

Ainah
– a mother goddess of Eirinia

Astra
– the fallen beings who joined Leon in his great rebellion. They can take any
form or no form at all in their determination to stop those who oppose them.

Cadel
– the warrior god of Erinia

Eoghan
– the sun god of Eirinia

Floris
– a goddess of flowers in the land named for her

Ingheane
– a maiden goddess of Eirinia

Pandra
- the Crone goddess of the Eirini who was totally evil and met unlucky
travelers at the crossroads

Tuadan
- the rulers of the wild places. The Eirini were warned to stay to the path in
the woods for fear of incurring their wrath if they entered their domain.

Places:

Annick
– a fishing village in Eirinia  

Darian
– a small island nation famed for healing, diminished from its former glory

Eirinia
– a wild rural country of legendary beauty, magical enchantments, and savage
inhabitants

Florindia
– a country that worshiped the goddess Floris and attributed power to flowers         

Golida
– a wealthy resort land where the aristocrats went to be pampered

Grete’s
Land – formerly known as Jytte’s Land; a land set apart from the rest of the
world

Guadereaux
– the land of pleasure where the inhabitants lived a life of frivolity

Isles
of Solone – a land renowned for its pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment

Leith
– a farming village of Eirinia    

Lucerna
– the mysterious Land of Eternal Bliss to where many who ventured never
returned

Lycenium
– the city where East meets West. The jewel of the Valeriun Empire, it was the
crossroads of culture, commerce, wisdom and wealth.

Moldiva
– a mountainous country with Lycenium its capital

Potentus
– the capital city of Valerium where the inhabitants vied for power and
advancement

Trekur
Lende – a wild northern country also known as the Land of the Long Day      

Valerium
– an empire of invincible military power

Quest
For the Kingdom Part IV A Stranger Among Us

“Marcus knew
he should stay out of their argument, but he saw the look of hurt in Felicia’s
eyes when Tullia silenced her.

“What do you
want to do with your life, Felicia? Is there something in particular?” he asked
in a voice bathed in tenderness as his wife shot him a reproachful look.

“Oh, yes,
Father, there is!” Felicia cried as the light sprang back into her eyes at her
father’s concern. “I long to travel to Solone to be mentored by Aunt Kyrene! I
have heard so much of her school there, and how she trains those who are gifted
with prophecy. For I have that gift also!”

Marcus did not
greatly care for the look his wife shot him across the table, but he considered
that the damage was now done and too late to rectify. The meal proceeded in
silence as each avoided looking at the other, preferring their own thoughts to
the potentially explosive conversation of the others.

At last,
Felicia risked one more chance to state her case to her parents. She took a
deep breath as if for courage; then let her words rush out as if in fear that
the flow would be stemmed by another lift of her mother’s hand.

“I must tell
you that I had a dream, just last night, one that I feel may be very
important,” she ventured.

Tullia did not
quench the torrent of words, but gave her daughter a look of motherly concern.

She does try
to understand Felicia, Marcus thought. She is merely trying to teach Felicia as
she herself was taught. What could be more natural than that?

Except that
for Felicia, her mother may as well have been trying to teach her a foreign
language.

“Yes?” Tullia
inclined her head. “Proceed, child.”

Felicia
exhaled slowly and searched for words.

“In the dream,
I saw a man who lay as one dead. Then he rose up from his bed, and with him
rose fire and destruction, and screams filled the night as people fled from
before him. I saw buildings cast to the ground and those who saw him fled from
his coming.”

Felicia paused
and shuddered. Marcus waited patiently for her to go on. It was evident that
the dream had affected her deeply.

“And then, I
heard these words in my head: “‘Beware of the one who rises from the dead, he
will bring destruction in the days ahead. The smoke of flames burning shall
block out the sun. One kingdom shall rise as another is done.’ ”

Felicia
lowered her eyes and did not look at either of her parents. But the eyes of Tullia
widened and she paled. As she caught the eyes of Marcus she mouthed to him:

“Iacomus.”

“Beware of the
one who rises from the dead, he will bring destruction in the days ahead. The
smoke of flames burning shall block out the sun. One kingdom shall rise as
another is done.”

Thus was the
prophecy given by Felicia, the young daughter of Marcus Maximus. In the Empire
of Valerium, a stranger has come among the Alexandrians, a stranger who is
supposed to be dead. As he walks among them and quickly gains power over them,
Marcus feels a growing sense of dread, one that will soon prove to be
justified. As he and his wife share new adventures in struggling to cope with
the rebellious choices of their teenaged children, an old enmity returns to
visit them. And persecution comes upon the Alexandrians when their old friend
Emperor Urbanus discovers that they pledge an allegiance to another kingdom
than Valerium…

In the land of
Eirinia, a mysterious young woman spreads discord between closely knit
brothers, and threatens to tear a family apart. Rumblings of discontent are
heard in the land from a people who were thought to be subdued. And the rise of
an ancient evil will test Dag Adalbart and change the lives of his family
forever.

Quest
For the Kingdom Part V Rise of the Time of Evil

 
“I mean this:
no one has ever been found with an expression like was found on his face, with
no mark on them, no explanation for what took the life of them. For though some
have left the path and not returned, none have been found off the path dead,
and with no reason for their demise.”

“The Tuadan:
he must have encountered the Tuadan. For it is clear that something frightened
him to death, and that mound had once been one of the sites of their rituals.”

“The Tuadan
were cast out of their places long ago,” Dag reminded Laig.

“Yes, I know:
I said the same to myself when I found his body. But the smell of evil was in
that place, an evil I remembered as a boy. For I know; I had an encounter
myself once, in that very spot.”

“I was
seventeen, and walking in the woods one May evening. It had been a fine day and
the air was full of birdsong. As I wandered along I disregarded the warnings to
stay to the path. I had been told many times not to stray from it, but the
grass was so green and I took off my shoes to feel it between my toes. I recall
laughing for pure joy and spinning around.

“I suddenly
became aware that the birds had stopped singing. Just like that; one minute
singing their songs, the next complete silence. I had an eerie feeling come
over me, and realized there was no sound of anything else in the spot. Do you
know how many sounds are to be heard in the woods, Dag? There was nothing,
nothing I tell you!

“And then, I
heard it. A footstep. And another. Right behind me. I turned and looked. There
was no one there. But I saw something that nearly frightened the life out of
me. The grass, Dag. The grass suddenly fell beneath an unseen step; the same
step that was following me.

“I did not
wait to see who was there but ran as fast as I could back to the path. For once
I was on the path I would be safe; that is what I had always been told, and to
the path I flew. I tore out of that place as fast as I could, never looking
behind me to see what followed, all the way until I was safely out of the
woods.

“And he was
found in that very spot. And if you were to ask me, it was leaving the path
this time that killed him.

“Because in my
heart, I know he had an encounter with the Tuadan, and whatever he saw scared
the life right out of him.”

“Do you
remember what charge we laid on the Eirini? We told them to keep sacred trust
with Dominio, for if they did not but fell back into their old ways, the Astra
would return. Someone must have turned back to their idols, and that is why the
Astra are back!”

In a desperate
race against time a woman and her son pursue an enemy through strange and
exotic lands, seeking the recovery of a treasure beyond price, taken for a
motive known only to the thief who stole it. As they encounter obstructions and
hidden perils, they fear that every moment lost ensures its loss forever.

Marcus Maximus
searches for his runaway daughter, only to be met with one calamity after
another as evil rises around him. And the greatest blow lies in wait for him on
his return home.

The Valeriun
Empire is in an hour of darkness, as momentous events accelerate the ascent of
violent men to ultimate power.

In Eirinia a
tragedy as mysterious as it is sudden has struck a family. An undesirable union
has unforeseen consequences for the Adalbarts, bringing conflict and danger
into their close-knit clan. And the rulers of the wild places are once more
seeking dominion over their former domain.

As Marcus and
his family and their friends soon learn, the price of serving Dominio will be
at a greater cost than ever before in the Rise of the Time of Evil.