Blood of Mystery Read Free

in such a place.
    All life and feeling went out of his wings; he could move them no longer. His wheeling descent became a plummet. Just as the bloody circle of the sun touched the horizon, Gauris crashed to the turf in the center of the stone circle. He lay crumpled in a heap of black feathers, dazed, unable to move.
    A shadowy figure approached him.
    “Well, now what have we here?”
    The words were cooing, the voice feminine, but the sound of it was hard and lifeless.
    Another figure drew near. “It’s just a bird, Shemal. That gust of wind must have caught it and dashed it down. If I’m out here too long, my absence from the castle will be noticed. Toss it down the hill and let it die.”
    “Truly, Liendra?” crooned the icy voice. “And here all this time I believed you and your sisters considered every living thing precious. I’m so pleased you’ve shown me otherwise. However, this is certainly not ‘just a bird.’ ”
    The one called Shemal knelt beside Gauris, encircled his body with thin fingers, and picked him up. He struggled weakly, then gave up; he did not like being held, but he could not escape her clutch. He craned his head to look at the one who gripped him. All he caught was a fragment of a sharp, white smile inside the heavy black cowl of a robe.
    The other, the one called Liendra, stepped closer: a tall, regal woman with red-gold hair, a cloak of pale green thrown over her shoulders against the evening chill.
    “Why can you never speak plainly, Shemal? If the bird is important, then tell me.”
    “Come now, Liendra. I know your magics are feeble compared to those of your sisters. That isn’t why I chose you. But surely your spells are enough to sense this is no mundane bird.”
    Liendra frowned; either she did sense it, or she didn’t wish to admit otherwise.
    “This raven is one of his messengers,” Shemal said, stroking Gauris’s feathers. He shuddered under her touch.
    “Whose messenger?”
    “And now you’re willfully misunderstanding. A messenger of the one who will have you trade your heart for iron the moment you show the first sign of weakness.”
    Liendra shivered despite her cloak, tightening her arms across her breast. “Your master....”
    “My master?” Shemal laughed, a sound like glass shattering. “Yes, I suppose he believes he is my master still. But in the end, we both serve the same master, that is all. Sometimes I believe, over the centuries, he has forgotten that—that he has become used to ruling in our master’s absence.” A colorless eye peered from the cowl of the robe. “And recall, Liendra, my master is your master as well.”
    Liendra swallowed. “If it is a messenger, then what is its message?”
    Shemal stroked Gauris’s feathers, harder this time. “Speak, raven. What did your pale master bid you tell me?”
    The message. He had to speak the message. Gauris opened his beak, but only a low croak came out.
    “Hush,” Shemal said, a sound like a flame dying. She pinched his beak shut with two fingers. “You need not bother to speak the words. I know the message he would send me. It has been long years since I have journeyed to his dominion. He bids me go there and abase myself before him, so that he can be certain he rules me still. He, who was born a mortal, while I was once a goddess!”
    “Shemal? I...”
    The robed one shuddered and released Gauris’s beak.
    “Yes, Liendra. I have not forgotten. It would not do for that wench Ivalaine to discover you here. Soon she will be nothing, a doll for us to play with, but not just yet. So run along to the castle.”
    “But you haven’t told me why you called me here.”
    Again Shemal laughed. “I fear our feathered interloper has quite distracted me. I simply wished to tell you this, Liendra: I have found the one whom we seek.”
    Liendra’s eyes flashed. She took a step forward, her voice quavering. “You don’t mean...the Runebreaker?”
    “No, not quite. But close. You see, I’ve