Excerpt -- start of new work

I've decided to do something a little different here and have posted the opening of the book I've just begun. Some of you have heard parts of the others in the Henge series. I'm inviting people to comment.

Confrontations
I Easren

ASHLEA

While those on kitchen duty bustled around her Ash sat at the massive granite table and searched the winds of the princedoms. She brushed the thoughts of three friends who also had an affinity for Air. What would they learn? Steam from an aromatic tea blend reached her and she savored the aroma of mints. What she read on the winds ruffled her calm center. Voices shouted of pain and fear. These cries rose from each of the four princedoms.

With a mournful sigh she turned her search for information to the highlands. She found few troubled thoughts but the number of blank spaces aroused her curiosity. One marked the protective dome they’d woven over the lodge where the four heirs of the princedoms lived. She believed at least one of the other ones marked Dom Senet’s hiding place. She shuddered as remembrances of the evil man who sought her and her companions rose.

Once more she focused on the lowlands. In Easren the rains continued. Flooded lands present the people of this princedom from raising crops. Hunger cries assaulted her. With the approach of the venal equinox melting ice and snow in the highlands would add to the already raging rivers.

The news from the other princedoms seemed as dire. In Soutren the deserts grew and threatened to invade the fertile lands along the coast. The rivers were mere trickles. Before long Soutren would become a barren wasteland. Epidemics swept through the animals of Nortren and spread to the people. In Wesren the airborne dust caused by the destruction of the henge rode the winds and brought blight to the forests, orchards and farms.

A questing thought stabbed her barriers. She closed her affinity with a snap. Who had quested? The touch had been rougher than the probes Dom Senet sent.