Mindsinger

A small planet spins in a rainbow-hued nimbus.  Her name is Windfallow; sister world to Earth, fashioned by the same Creator and given innocence as her cloak.  In the dim past the worlds were connected and their inhabitants passed to and fro upon both worlds.  But planet Earth was tempted, fell and was corrupted by evil.  The gates between the worlds were closed by the Fallowfolk themselves to prevent that evil from wounding their world.

The world of Windfallow differs from Earth in three respects.  She never fell to the temptation of sin.  There, angels are still visible, and the common building material is gemstone.  Many lifetimes and generations of lifetimes have passed on Windfallow, where time is measured on a scale more closely resembling that of the Eternal Plane.  Windfallow is not Heaven.  But Windfallow is magnificently innocent.

Now, a demon has discovered the tiny planet and despising its peaceful inhabitants, claims it as his own.  Only allowed into the Barrier Wood which surrounds the planet at the equator, the demon known as Jackal brings in thugs from Earth to seduce the world.  Using the fabulous gemstone as bait, he manipulates its destruction.

Through what he believes is an accident, Zachary Thomas, a teenager from Earth, arrives in Windfallow shortly after the first incursion.  Four times the demon seeks to destroy Windfallow.  And four times he is defeated by Zachary, by the Angari, (And Alari or Angel), and the council of fallowfolk convened to resist the invasion.  The fourth attempt ends as the demon is cast into outer darkness and annihilation.

A few more centuries pass and a space ship happens to see a planet surrounded by a ‘curious light’.  An away team sets down to explore and one of the crew happens to have an antique family idol…

The double trilogy, The Chronicles of Windfallow will be published in two volumes.

Vol. I:   Book One: The Great Bell of Fellowship

Book Two: King of the Barrier Wood

Book Three: The Deceiver

Vol. II: Book Four: Carnivore

Book Five: A Curious Light

Book Six: Angari’s Temptation

Both mss are complete and ready to publish.

PROLOGUE

“It’s no use!”  The professor of antiquities threw down his pen and walked away from the table.  “We’ve tried every ancient language known on earth and alien worlds alike and none of them fit!  No language, no code, no nothing!”

The offending book lay open on the big table in the union hall of the University.

Beside it was a wooden box – old, heavy, with a simple key lying beside it.  A scent as fresh as springtime still lay on the remaining five books it contained.  The box had been uncovered by archeologists exploring an old space center in the western desert of New Iberia.   No markings could be found on the box but the key had been found in a small easily opened compartment.  Lying amid dust and mold in the ancient vault, the box remained clean and untouched by age.

The archeologists found six books inside filled with unintelligible writing.  The box with its contents was brought here where all had been studied in minute detail.  The wood itself made the box special and marked its age; for what trees remained were no longer used for lumber.  The binding of the books was another puzzle.  The coverings were not leather, but some kind of vegetable product with properties similar to leather or a form of synthetic.  The pages were fine linen and the lettering was done with regular ink.  Regular that is, except there was no fading and no apparent aging of the documents.

Professor Keanoe left the enigmatic objects lying on the table and walked across to the refreshment console.  While he dialed up a stimulant, a young student staffer took the opportunity to dust that portion of the table.  His eyes fell upon the ancient manuscript and he stood there studying it.

“Get away from that!” Keanoe strode back across the room.

“But what is it, Professor?  It looks like an interesting story.”

“None of your business…What!?  What story?”

“Well, it says here The Chronicles of Windfallow: a history of our world.”

Thus it was discovered that certain individuals could read the ancient writings with ease.  A group of them was gathered to transcribe the manuscripts and the following documents are the fruit of their labors.