FAIZAH'S DESTINY
The gods are at war and only a farmer’s daughter can save the world from Armageddon.
Blurb:
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.
Real female warriors existed in the
Pre-Islamic world.
Artemisia (or Anahita in some sources)
was a daughter of Hecatomnus, the founder of the Hecatomnid house
that had ruled Caria since the beginning of the 4th century. She was
the warrior-Queen of Halicarnassus (now in modern western Turkey).
She was also an admiral in Persian King Xerxes navy, coordinating a
land/sea attack against the Greeks.
She definitely kicked butts and took no
prisoners. I do wonder, though, if this fighting queen was real, noting the similarity of her name to Artemis. Still, the Greek
Artemis was an archer who led a pack of wild (Amazon?) women.
Persian and Scythian women regularly
fought in battles through the 6th Century (when Mohammad appeared on
the scene). Of course, most of their names were scrubbed from any
written histories, in the same manner as the war goddess Al Uzza. An
interesting an informative essay is on artist Thalia Took’s site
(http://www.thaliatook.com/AMGG/aluzza.php).
She creates amazing Goddess trading cards.
Finally, this blog
http://apranik.blogspot.com/2009/10/persian-female-warriors.html
has descriptions of many female warriors. Definitely worth reading.
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| Iranic Scythian Female Warrior |
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| Persian Female Warrior |
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| Artemisia in Battle Against Greeks |
In my research, my image of Faizah was
influenced by these female warriors and goddesses of the middle-east.
We learn Faizah’s old enough for marriage. Her teacher and mentor,
Master Wafai, laments it would be a waste if she were to marry rather
than continue her studies of the magical arts.
Faizah’s best friends are boys (Harib
and Bahaar), and we discover early on she’s prepared to fight the
town bully to protect the boys. Later, the ex-slave boy, Qadir,
joins the others at Master Wafai’s school. He becomes part of the
group, although remains cool, although willing to join in the search
for Wafai.
So, Faizah is smart, educated, no
shrinking violet, and she learns that if your friends are boys “you
just had to pretend certain gestures, noises, and smells didn’t
exist.” Even her background as a hard-working farmer’s daughter
prepares her for war as many other of her middle-eastern sisters in
myth and history have done.
But first, she has to ‛convince’
the boys she should go on the search for Master Wafai...even if she’s
just a girl.
Excerpt:
“Faizah! What are you doing here?”
Bahaar blurted. “And why are you dressed like that?”
She grinned, enjoying their aghast
looks. “What’s the matter? Haven’t you ever seen a woman
wearing trousers before? It’s not that unusual.” She walked past
them, starting up the eastern path, as they stared open mouthed.
“Come on, let’s get moving.”
Qadir was the first to react. “Oh,
no. No, you can’t come. You’re a, a?”
“What? A girl?” She turned to face
them. “You think you’ll have to watch out for the poor little
girl?” Suddenly, she punched Bahaar in the chest. The unexpected
blow knocked him flat on his back.
“Think I can’t take care of
myself?” She shoved Harib’s shoulder while she hooked her foot
behind his leg, sending him to the ground next to Bahaar. “Since
when?”
That left Qadir. The tall boy was too
big for her to take on physically. Faizah stood her ground, fists
clenched, as he raised his hand and took a step toward her.
“We told you we didn’t want you
along. Just turn around and go home.”
“Who’s we?” Faizah asked; her
lips tightened with disdain. “I didn’t hear anybody make you
leader! I can go anywhere I please, and you can’t stop me!”
Harib and Bahaar cautiously picked
themselves up, their glances darting back and forth between Faizah
and Qadir, who stood toe-to-toe, glaring at each other.
No one moved or spoke for a long,
uncomfortable moment.
“What’s it going to be?” Faizah
broke the tense silence. “I come with you, or I’ll follow you.
You decide, but either way, I’m coming!”
She turned to Bahaar and Harib. “Well?”
Bahaar cleared his throat and opened
his mouth to speak. He shut it again and turned to Harib. “What do
you think?”
“Oh no. You’re not putting this off
on me!”
“Fine,” Bahaar said and cleared his
throat again. “I say Faizah comes with us. We’ve been friends for
a long time, and we’ve always looked out for each other.” He
glanced at Harib, who nodded. “She can handle herself. We’ve
never had to take care of her before. We won’t have to now.”
“That goes for me, too,” Harib
added, looking at Qadir. “We never should have listened to you in
the first place. Just because she’s a girl, doesn’t mean she
can’t handle herself. Besides, dressed like she is, nobody would
know she’s a girl, anyway.”
Qadir never took his eyes off Faizah
as he slowly lowered his hand. “All right.” He nodded once,
shortly. “But you’d better keep up, ’cause I sure won’t help
you.”
“You won’t have to, Qadir,”
Faizah said over her shoulder as she started for the pathway leading
up into the foothills. “You may not think so, but I really can take
care of myself.” To Bahaar and Harib, she added, “Well, what are
you waiting for? Let’s go!”
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