The Men in Brown

The Men in Brown is the second tale of Arheled. It is divided into two main books, The Dreamer and The Nine Lords of the Night.

Only the First Book is given here. The full volume is available for sale on Amazon.com.

The Dreamer
Book One begins from the point of view of Chris and Stephen, two small boys living in Winsted in 2012, six months after the conclusion of Arheled. Because of vivid dreams Chris experiences, he is hunted by the Dragon-born and is protected (and queried) by the Men in Brown, nine beings of power who are gathering in Winsted to resist the Nine Lords of the Night. Three of these are ordinary men with strange gifts: Ronnie Wendy from ARHELED, an author named Old Nuncle Jimmy who bears the Sword of Sorrow and whose imagination can take physical form, and Turin Turambar himself returned from the dead. Beleg Strongbow, a Finnish mage named Vainamoinen, the mysterious dark brother of Arheled named Tu, and none other than Radagast the Brown, Tom Bombadil and Arheled himself complete the number.

Chris's dreams relate the mysterious apparitions of the Sleeping Heros of legend from all around the world, who are being awakened into an army by Wayham Lane, now the King of Men returned. The Dragons send two gangs of homosexual bullies upon Chris and Stephen, which gangs are massacred by Turin and Beleg when they rescue the boys. Tutored by Vainamoinen under the guise of the eccentric Root, Chris begins to learn what is going on. After several escapes from Dragon-born and the Witches of Winsted, he and his friend Mindy accidentally awaken Tu, who hates Men and who was to be woken slowly. In raw fury the dark Tu takes on the form of storm and pulverizes Torrington (south of Winsted) into a wasteland; Arheled and the Men in Brown barely manage to bring him to some version of sanity and induct him into the Men in Brown.

The Nine Lords of the Night
Book Two takes place in July of 2012, a month after the first book. Ronnie Wendy meets up with Fand, a local airhead who fell for him, and has to protect her against various Dragon-born. They take up residence in the ghost town of deserted Burrville on the edge of the Torrington Waste. The Children of the Road gradually meet the Men in Brown in the course of several clashes with Foes.

Lara Midwinter, however, has in her grief for her dead sister allowed Diana, the goddess of the Moon, to possess her and give her great power. She resents Ronnie Wendy and does battle with him to steal the Key of Arcturus, which opens dimensions and the way into the Past. Her attempt to change Time is foiled by Father Time, who seals her among the Builders of the Roads; Ronnie frees both them and her.

The massacre of the gay bullies has caused a backlash of pro-gay legislation; the political front grows ever more grim and even apocalyptic, as persecution looms and President Bannon becomes more ominous. In a confrontation with the Men in Brown they realize that he may very well be Antichrist. A gay pride rally in Winsted is interrupted by Tu, sent to disperse them; instead he eats the rally. This backfires upon Arheled's cause, as it only gives the enemy fuel.

During all this, the first Lord of the Night is identified as being under the form of a vein of rock in a cliff. Awakened, he escapes into the first hour of Night, causing a plague to rain upon the Earth during that hour. As the other Lords begin to surface under the guise of landforms and statues, the Men in Brown find themselves outmatched; they cannot understand what their enemy is, and hence cannot fight them. By now all Nine Lords are in the Night, and a month of plagues wrecks society worldwide, except for west/central CT which is under the Road. The Blue Wizards arise from the past, serving Bannon as sorcerer and prophet, and cause Lara Midwinter to be possessed by seven damned ghosts. Ronnie exorcises her. However the President has already begun to lead her astray.

A stained glass window gives Ronnie the clue they need: the Nine Lords are actually reincarnated Ringwraiths, complete with the lost Nine Rings for Men, dredged up from the Black Sea/Mordor. By manipulating light, they cast the Nine Lords out of Night and chant an incantation against them by their origins, which at last destroys the Lords.

CONTENTS:

BOOK 1

Ch. 1: The Dreamer

Ch. 2: The Men in Brown

Ch. 2: Dragons (3)

Ch. 4: School Shooting

Ch. 5: Vainamoinen

Ch. 6: Airhead Aino

Ch. 7: The Sampo

Ch. 8: Mindy

Ch. 9: Witches

Ch. 10: Tu