THE ELF MAGE (excerpt)

CHAPTER 1 (excerpt):

DAVEN Talvi awoke to blackness.
     His head hurt. His cheek lay against the cool soil floor. The air was still and silent. Too silent.
     As he pushed himself upright, his left foot kicked a chair. The screech of wood on wood echoed in the darkness.
     “Daggaha,” he whispered.
     Lights powered by elven enchantment flared into existence. He was inside the queen’s tree house, the place he had built for her with his own magic.
     The last moments before unconsciousness filtered into his mind. His son Astan had been there. Elf Queen Jelani stood by the table, tearful, angry, and accusatory. Astan and Jelani’s child was missing. Jelani blamed Daven. Astan attacked Daven with a chair. Daven struggled to remember more.
     It wasn’t my fault.
     Leaning on Jelani’s handcrafted bentwood rocking chair, Daven got to his feet. The change in altitude from the floor made his head throb. He took a drink of spring water from the hollowed gourd on the side bench. Laying a hand at the base of his skull, he marshaled his healing powers to control the pain enough to allow him to think.
     Astan, it wasn’t my fault.
     At the time the child was taken, Daven had been with the Circle, the ruling body of their elf clan hidden away in a forest glade of the Bitterroot Mountains in the land the humans called Montana. Daven had assured the matriarchs of the Circle that, though Jelani’s behavior might seem somewhat erratic and overly possessive of her son Elliun, such actions were reasonable in a new mother, particularly one who was half-human. The infusion of human blood into the clan rattled many traditions and expectations, bringing effects both good and bad. The old neris, wise females of the clan, agreed not to remove Elliun from the queen’s care.
     I did everything I could to help you.
     Astan had followed Daven to the meeting of the Elders, leaving Jelani at the tree house with her human friends. The queen and her child had been easy targets.
     Grigor seemed the most likely culprit. Since the queen had come to live in the forest with the clan, Astan had often voiced concern that the banished Grigor would return to avenge his dead master, Bartolomey. Daven counseled his son not to take action, but to wait and watch. Although Astan had disagreed, he had obeyed his father as duty required.
     And look what that has brought me.
     Had Daven underestimated the evil Grigor held within him? A sense of blackness still pervaded the atmosphere inside the queen’s home. As a full-blood elf well trained in the ways of divination, Daven perceived several mental voices lingering, several personas who left behind the barest impression of menace and ill will.
     Something about that felt familiar to Daven. Something he had not felt for many years. Something so vague he could not put a name to it. Yet. But he would.
     At one time Jelani and Astan had asked him to set a protective spell on the door, something to keep out uninvited guests. But he had refused. The Circle worried that Jelani would use the spell to keep them from the elf child. Instead, Daven’s omission may have enabled someone to take the infant who was so dear to them all.
     I failed you, Jelani. I failed you.
     He had lost so many who were close to him in his service to the elf clan. Friends and family. Astan’s mother, Veraena. Each loss carved a small chink from his determination to persevere for the greater good. The chinks added up. Knowing this tragedy could be laid at his door broke Daven’s strong heart.
     The hearth fire was cold in more ways than one. It was too late to join the search for the elf child now. Daven’s fate lay on a different path.
     He took a small sack of runes from his pocket. “Lady of the Forest, show me the way. I need your guidance.”....