Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 142916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
The Frisii were a people who, once riled, refused to quit. They got the job done. The Romans had an overpowering force, so the villagers pulled back to the forest they were so familiar with and prepared for battle. The forest held its own secrets, many known to those people long ago and to many of the villagers in the present day.
“The demons are looking to map out the land. To see the best way to attack us,” Tora said. “Notice they are particularly studying the forest.”
As the stories of that epic battle unfolded, much was lost in the translation of accounts. Many simply believed that the woman leading the battle and aiding the small army was mythical. Unreal. She was called Baduhenna and named goddess. The suffix -henna often denoted a female deity. The prefix Badw- or Badu- meant “battle.” Baduhenna’s daring and skills became the thing of legends as she became known as the Frisian goddess of war and battle.
To the villagers living in Nachtbloem, Baduhenna was very real. In the stories, many believed mythical Baduhenna led her small army into the darkened forest. The crows aided her, flying through the woods or circling above. The cries of the crows instilled fear into the hearts of the enemy as the sounds pierced the absolute quiet just before the battle ensued.
Many believed another goddess, Morrigan, in the form of a crow, aided Baduhenna. She helped to bring panic and confusion to the enemy. The small force of Frisians, using only light weapons such as hand axes, killed over nine hundred Roman soldiers in a day. In their confusion and paranoia, the Romans killed an additional four hundred of their own men before they fled, making the Frisians the only people to defeat the Romans.
The villagers living in Nachtbloem were extremely proud of their ancestors. They also believed the rest of the legend—the part history left out. The Romans had been aided by demons from the underworld in their invasion. Without Baduhenna and Morrigan to aid them, even with their fighting skills and the affinity they had with the forest, they would have been defeated.
Legend said they would be invaded again. This time the battle wouldn’t be for their small village but for mankind. No one knew how they could defeat a modern-day army aided by creatures from the underworld. They just believed they would have to do so.
“I began to suspect these storms were covering the movements of those sent to spy on us,” Silke said. “I can’t command the weather the way you do, but I’ve been practicing.”
Silke was a demon hunter. A slayer. Her mother died in childbirth, passing her gifts, her responsibilities and powerful tarot cards to her only daughter. Tora and several elders in the village began her training when she was a child. Most of the techniques for killing demons known to her female ancestors were passed on to her at birth. She had to perfect each one. Learn the names of demons, what they were capable of and how best to slay them.
She knew there was a hierarchy among demons, and some were far more powerful than others. Tora had three friends who knew demon slayers. They didn’t live close, but like Tora, they were Carpathian and guardians of the gate. Carpathians were nearly immortal, existed on blood and slept during the day in the rejuvenating soil. The other three women were very generous passing the information on fighting demons to Tora, who shared it with Silke so they could better defend their people when the time came.
“You don’t want to draw their attention to you,” Tora cautioned. “I’ve been very careful to counter their storms with a gradual decline, so they don’t notice it’s waning any way but naturally.”
Silke wished she were as adept as Tora. Tora had centuries of experience on her. Her Carpathian heritage allowed her to shape-shift and fly through the air, which Silke very much wanted to do. That was one gift she was especially envious of. Silke had discovered she had a small talent for manipulating weather, but it was underdeveloped. She trained as a slayer from the moment she rose to when she finally allowed herself to sleep. In that time, she had to fit her day job into the mix. That left little time to refine the gifts she needed to develop.
“We want to keep every advantage that we can,” Tora added.
Silke nodded her agreement. “I sealed the ground beneath the village the best I could after we found Albert Friesorger dead. His body looked as if animals had torn him apart, but it was a pack of small demons. I tracked them to the edge of the sea as if they found their way to us via water, but I know they came from underground.”