Free Chronicles of the Overworld Book 1 — Nihal of the Land of the Wind by Licia Troisi Page A

them to their rooms, which were adjoining and overlooked the waterfall.
    The view from the windows was spectacular. When she looked out, Nihal wasn’t able to tell whether she was seeing the water in the lake or some trick of the eye that made it seem the sky itself had descended to earth.
    She stood there, entranced, until Soana knocked on her door. The moment had come to meet the rulers of the Land of Water.
    Soana led Sennar and Nihal to the heart of the royal palace, a perfectly round room topped with a semispherical crystal roof through which the waterfall was visible.
    It was like being in another world. Sennar and Nihal, their noses in the air, stared at the play of water as it remolded the outlines of everything on the other side of the roof; when Galla and Astrea made their entrance, it almost caught them off guard.
    Nihal had never seen a water nymph. Astrea walked as if propelled by a light breeze and seemed hardly to touch the ground. Barefoot, she wore a delicate gown that enveloped her slender body. Her hair, which was transparent like pure water, disappeared at the end of its many whorls into the surrounding air. It was clear that she belonged to a different order of being than humans. The queen of the Land of Water was a direct emanation of nature.
    Galla held Astrea’s hand. The king was a simple human being. Although there was something delicate about his features that made him seem very young, he looked just like any other ponderous land dweller standing there beside the nymph.
    The two peoples had always lived side by side in the Land of Water. For a long time, they had put up with each other while trying to limit their interaction as much as possible. The humans lived in graceful villages built in clearings or on pilings, while the nymphs kept to themselves in the woods.
    The marriage of Galla and Astrea, however, was the first mixed marriage in the land. It ushered in a new era.
    Galla was part of the royal family. Even though they lived in the same territory, the two peoples did not have common institutions. The Land of Water was governed by the humans, who sat on the King’s Council. The nymphs had a queen of their own whom the humans barely acknowledged, at least until the young Galla had had the bad taste to fall in love with Astrea.
    The union met with hostility on both sides. Galla’s parents complained that they had never seen a man marry one of those diabolical creatures. What was more, Astrea was neither a queen nor a princess. She was a common plebian who spent her time romping half naked in the woods.
    The nymphs, for their part, forbade Astrea any further contact with the man. He was a human—that is, an uncouth being, incapable of living in harmony with the primeval spirits.
    But Galla and Astrea would not give up. They continued to see each other despite the interdictions and never stopped dreaming of a life together as they broke every one of the unwritten laws on unions between nymphs and humans.
    From the day they were married, many things changed.
    The king and queen decreed that traditional divisions must disappear; the two races were to cooperate. To that end, they arranged for villages to be built in which humans and nymphs would live side by side. The experiment was successful. Initially, the two groups looked upon each other with suspicion, but life in common gradually led to acceptance.
    Astrea addressed Soana. “My lady sorceress, it pleases me greatly that you have returned to visit us after such a long absence. My people and the Council need your wisdom. There are terrible rumors going around, and my heart tells me that the Tyrant’s power is constantly growing.”
    At those words, her consort squeezed her hand and looked at her tenderly.
    “I thank you, Queen,” replied Soana, “but as you well know, my contribution to the decisions of the Council holds little weight. This is why I have brought before you Sennar, my most promising student. I’ve had the opportunity