Hello, this is the foreward to the novel I'm hoping to one day have published. All the characters are copy right Tanya Marie McFarland.
 



Foreward....

   Elvandia's breath came to her in haggard gasps, feeling the deep wound in her side the drow's slender sword had inflicted upon her. She knew the wound was fatal, feeling the insideous poison slithering through her veins, but she had no choice but to kill her menacing drow father or her mother's death would go unavenged. 
   Valdax leaned against the white marble column upholding the beautiful sapphire statue of Elvandia's Goddess Aerosia, Mistress of the Night, goddess of passion, love, valor and virtue. Bright blood trickled from his smirking swollen lips sensing the inpending bruise from Elvandia's sword hilt which she no longer held. Struggling as he tried to straighten his sore and exhausted back muscles, he wondered briefly how incredible she could have been if he had raised her but of course her human mother infested her mind with thoughts of virtue, honor, and compassion. Too bad for her. He smiled softly at his half-breed daughter.
   "You know Elvandia, you are an abomination to humans and drow, but I can say that I love you and am very proud of you."
   Shocked and a little hesitant, Elvandia raised her bruised and battered face toward her father. He kneeled on the beautiful marble floor, allowing his slender, magical sword to roll from his grasp, crashing with an eerie screech. Her heart began to pound furiously in her sore chest, she had always wanted to find her father and kill him for the raping of her mother and the atrocities he had committed to her people, but could her thoughts about him have been wrong?
   She looked to her beloved Akoravin's lifeless body, what a friend the wolf-dog had been, and then to Hale, unconscious and sprawled across the marble floor a few feet away. Her wonderful Hale, a man with enough love in his heart to accept and love her for who she was. Anger welled up in her heart. No. Her thoughts about Valdax were not misplaced.
   Valdax watched intently as Elvandia scarcely brought herself from her knees. He smiled mischieveously, fingering the tip of his dagger protruding from his sleeve, well hidden from sight. His plan was working. She'd approach him, feeling that at last she was loved by her long lost father and then when she was with in range, he'd slide the dagger between her ribs and into her heart. Oh what sweet victory it would be!
   Wobbling slightly, Elvandia stepped toward Valdax, her anger calming long enough for her to fool her father. Deception, after all, runs through even half drow blood. "You really mean it?" She asked softly. Her large dark blue eyes stared at him, almost enough to pierce his dark soul.
   She pressed her left hand against the bleeding wound on her side to constrict the flow of blood. Closer to Valdax she limped, his glowing sword lying between them. She eyed it quickly but knew she had not the speed to retrieve it. What an irony it would be to kill her father with his own sword.
   "Oh my beautiful daughter, I've wanted to watch you grow but your mother prohibitated me from having any contact with you."
   Elvandia played along trying to keep her father off guard as she neared. "I should have known that you wanted to see me all those years, to save me from the persecutions of man."
   Slightly taken aback by Elvandia's words, Valdax slightly rocked backwards onto his heels. She seemed so innocent and lovely standing before him, her shoulder length auburn tresses with silver and white streaks dancing in the soft breeze blowing through the temple's open doors. Her soft bluish-gray skin, she had inheritated from him, gleamed with sweat and bled from the wounds that he had placed upon her. His heart sank and in that moment Valdax felt the pain of guilt he had never felt before.
   Elvandia knew she would never have another chance. Softly, she whispered and her magnificent fellblade, Shadow Wraith, materialized into her small, waiting hand, basking the goddess' chamber in a fierce purple glow. Valdax's eyes almost rolled from his skull as the sword appeared. The devilish grin that spread across his daughter's lovely face haunted him in his last few moments of life.
   Shadow Wraith flared valiantly as it impaled the drow through mesh armor, skin, muscle and bone. Valdax's lifeblood gushed from his chest as he grasped at the blade. Elvandia pressed with what little strength she had left, bringing herself nose to nose with the drow and shoving Shadow Wraith through the slender drow's posterior. "This is for my mother and her tribesman that you had slain on the night of my conception. Your seed may have made me but you are no father to me. May you rot in the Pits for your crimes!" Elvandia snarled, feeling her life ebbing as her sire's drained from the wound.
   Staring into those dark blue orbs of retribution, Valdax whispered, "You are more of a drow then I had thought." His eyes closing permenantly, he slumped to the icy marble floor, falling into eternity's sleep.
   Elvandia collapsed near the drow's corpse, a sensation of devouring cold eating away at her consciousness. She crawled by sheer will alone to Hale's side. Blood splattered his tan skin and clothing but his chest rose and fell with the soft breaths of slumber. Smiling, she kissed his cheek and gently lowered herself beside him. An invigorating warmth consumed the cold and brought forth new life. She looked to the beautifully crafted sapphire statue of Aerosia and smiled gratefully. "Thank you." She whispered softly, sinking into a deep restive sleep.
  
                *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

   Aerosia kneeled beside Elvandia and kissed her gently on her forehead. "Be rested my child, for your journey is not yet over."