The gods are at war and only a farmer’s daughter can save the world from Armageddon.
The village magician has gone missing. His four pupils think he has left a clue to his whereabouts in the Magicalis Bestialis–the book of magical creatures. They must seek the help of the elusive Simurgh, the mythical birds who know all the secrets of the universe.
However, this is not an easy camping trip into the mountains. Spirits, gods, and demons confront the four friends, who are not aware they’re being set up by otherworldly forces for a much larger task.
A farmer’s daughter, Faizah is chosen to lead the humans in the battle. She must persuade a slave, an orphan, and a rich merchant’s son to join in the battle on the side of good. Although divided by Dev, the evil god of war, the teens must band together to find the Simurgh, rescue their teacher, and stave off Armageddon.
Excerpt:
She looked at Harib when he said, “Ahmajd is a good man, but he’s hardly the type to run off after mountain raiders. Matter of fact, I can’t think of anyone in the whole village who’d even consider it. You heard Faluj. He didn’t even suggest forming a search party. I don’t think anybody is going to do anything.”Faizah bit her lip in frustration. The villagers lacked any adventurous spirit. Most preferred to live their lives as quietly and safely as they could.
Leaning over the table, Parvaiz stared thoughtfully at the open page of the book. “I haven’t had the chance to get to know Master Wafai, or anybody else yet, but I have a feeling Faizah is on the right track. Still, I think he just meant for us to search for him in the mountains, not go looking for these birds.”
Bahaar stood looking down at his feet, lost in thought. Now he lifted his head to look at Parvaiz for a second and then turned to Harib. “How about you, Harib? What do you think?”
Harib sighed and scratched his head. “I agree with Parvaiz. But we can’t go charging into the raider’s camp and tell them to give him back. They’d just laugh at us…or worse.”
Parvaiz nodded. “However, we can at least try to track where he is. If we find some evidence, we can come back to tell the village elders.”
“All right. I’ll concede Master Wafai was just directing us to the mountains, but we still need to figure out how to get started,” Faizah said. “Once we convince our parents,” she continued, glancing at Bahaar, “or brother, to let us go, we can work out the rest ourselves.”
Parvaiz stared at her and then gave a short bark of a laugh. “What makes you think you’re going? This is going to be hard enough without having a girl tagging along. That’s the last thing we need!”
Faizah glared at Parvaiz, her face flushed with anger. “I can take care of myself! Nobody has to watch out for me. Least of all some slave boy,” she shouted at Parvaiz. She regretted the last comment the moment she said it. Still, it didn’t make her any less angry that these boys, she thought were her friends, would so casually dismiss her just because she was a girl.
“You have no call?” Parvaiz began and then shut his mouth. He looked at Harib and Bahaar, who were both studying their feet with intense interest.
Bahaar looked up at him and then over at Faizah and shrugged. “Sorry Faizah, I have to agree with Parvaiz. I…I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
Faizah turned to Harib. “Well? Do you agree?”
The boy’s face reddened, and he wouldn’t meet her eyes. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
She glared at each of them in turn, spun on her heel, and stormed out of the house, her fists clenched and her head high. Stiff-backed, she marched across the tiny courtyard and through the archway. Only when hidden by the wall, did her shoulders slump and the tears begin to flow.
The Boys Have Their Say
*** Leave a comment for a chance to win a free ecopy of “Faizah’s Destiny.” ***
(Marva Dasef) I am the author of “Faizah’s Destiny” and decided the three boys in the story might like to share their views while Faizah isn’t in the room.
(Marva) I’m pleased to have Faizah’s three male companions here today for the interview. How are you doing?
(Parvaiz) Sure, make us out as secondary characters. Typical. Snorts in disgust.
(Marva) A little testy aren’t you? After all, the book is titled “Faizah’s Destiny” not “Parvaiz’s Destiny.”
(Harib) Sorry about Parvaiz, ma’am. He’s a little touchy since he was a slave all his life. He’ll loosen up the longer he’s free.
(Parvaiz) Easy for you, Harib. Your father is the richest man in the territory. He owns slaves!
(Bahaar) Hey, Parvaiz, lighten up. Harib or his father weren’t ever mean to slaves. His dad has even freed most of his workers, and they chose to stay on.
(Parvaiz) mumble…
(Marva) Hey, sorry to hit a sore spot Parvaiz. Maybe if you talked it out a little. Don’t you feel a little grateful to your father for adopting you as his son and heir?
(Harib) What’s that, Parvaiz? I don’t hearrrr youuuu!
(Parvaiz) Yeah, yeah. I am grateful to Ahmadj, but at my age it’s a little hard to adapt to having a father.
(Bahaar) I wish I had even a fake father to get used to. Me and my brother are all on our own. We don’t carry a chip around on our shoulder.
(Parvaiz) All right! I’m grateful! Now can we just drop it?
(Marva) Of course. Tell the readers about your search for Master Wafai.
(Harib) Jabs his hand in the air. Oh, me, me!
(Marva) Go ahead, Harib.
(Harib) One day, we all went to school in the morning at Master Wafai’s house. But he was gone and the room was a mess! We couldn’t think of anything other than he was kidnapped.
(Bahaar) You see, his herb bag was still there. He wouldn’t go anywhere to treat anybody without that. It had to be a kidnapping.
(Parvaiz) But Faizah doesn’t accept that story. Well, she didn’t say Wafai wasn’t kidnapped, but she thought he left a sign we were supposed to find the Simurghs to find out where he was.
(Marva) Why did she think that?
(Harib) His book of magical beasts was open to the page about the Simurghs and a big X was chalked on the page. She figured he’d never mark up a book except for good reason.
(Marva) So you all set out to search for the Simurgh?
(Parvaiz) No way! I thought it was an idiot idea. Faizah being a girl and all…
(Bahaar) interrupting Hey! Faizah can take care of herself. She made that pretty clear when she caught up to us.
(Harib) Yeah. She never hid behind her skirts or us. She always jumped in and started swinging. Remember when Raziq and his gang were beating you up?
(Bahaar) Huffs I could of taken them. But it was nice you and Faizah showing up to help.
(Marva) So, you’re saying at first that you all didn’t want Faizah to go along on the search, but you changed your mind.
(Parvaiz) Well, yeah. I didn’t know her like these guys. She pulled her weight once we got going. She even saved the rest of us from Pazuzu’s ill wind.
(Marva) Ill wind?
(Parvaiz) Yeah, it’s a demon who makes everybody sick. Most of the time, people die, but Faizah knew what plants to use to cure us.
(Marva) Speaking of demons, what was that all about?
Bahaar and Parvaiz turn noticeably red.
(Harib) That jerk demon didn’t take me over like these two.
(Bahaar) We apologized for that! It wasn’t our fault.
(Parvaiz) Right. Harib didn’t even have a very good demon try to tempt him to Dev’s side.
(Marva) Who’s this Dev?
(Parvaiz) God of war. What could we do? Both Bahaar and I wanted to be warriors, and the demons promised we would be great heroes.
(Harib) Yeah. All Nanghaithya did was try to make me feel bad. Not a good way to convince somebody to join the dark side.
(Marva) I know there’s plenty more to tell the readers about your search for Wafai, the battle with the demons, and so forth. But since I’d like to sell a few books, we’ll leave it for now and let folks read about it themselves.
Thank you, boys. You’ve been a great interview.
(Boys) Sure. Anytime. Hey how about a story starring me?
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Marva Dasef lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two ungrateful cats. Retired from thirty-five years in the software industry, she has now turned her energies to writing fiction and finds it a much more satisfying occupation. Marva has published more than forty stories in a number of on-line and print magazines, with several included in Best of anthologies. She has several published books, including six since 2011 with MuseItUp Publishing.
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/mdasefMarva/home
Blog: http://mgddasef.blogspot.com
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Twitter Handle: @Gurina
Book Trailers: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarvaDasef/videos
Thanks for the spot. I had fun writing this interview. Also, I like the neat scrollable window for the excerpt. I haven’t seen that before. Thanks, Cheryl.
Ha, ha, typical boys. You did that so well, Marva. I enjoyed reading it. As you know, I enjoyed this story so much. I do think it’s a read for all ages, don’t you?
Great post.