Blood of Mystery Read Free Page A

found
a
Runebreaker.”
    Liendra’s frown returned. “I don’t understand, Shemal. You mean to tell me there’s another who can break runes?”
    Shemal’s voice was triumphant. “Yes, a second Runebreaker! And this one has pledged himself to me.”
    “But the prophecy of the Witches...”
    “The prophecy says only that Runebreaker will shatter the world. It does not say which Runebreaker. And now this one is under our control, a tool we can use toward our ends.”
    Liendra opened her mouth to speak, but Shemal shook her head.
    “That’s enough, dearest. I will tell you more later, when you have need to know. For now, keep watch over Ivalaine, and if she hears any more from your two sisters in the south, let me know at once.”
    The sun was gone; dusk had fallen over the mound. Despite the dimness, Gauris could see the hate in the eyes of the gold-haired woman. Liendra wrapped her cloak more tightly around herself and slipped between two stones, into the gloom.
    Shemal held the raven to her breast. “Soon, my little messenger. The signs fall into place. The war comes. But it may not all go as your master believes it will.”
    Gauris struggled in her grasp. Something was wrong here. He had to return to the north, to tell the king.
    The other held him tightly. “No, little brother. I can’t let you tell your master what I’ve spoken here. It wouldn’t do. It wouldn’t do at all. And you are weary; you have no strength left to fly.” Her cold fingers encircled his neck. “It’s time for you to rest.”
    One last time he fought against her, but it was no use. She was right. He was weary, so terribly weary.
    The fingers tightened around his neck. A popping sound echoed off the circle of stones. For a moment Gauris flew into an eternal sky of darkness.
    Then he was lost.

2.
    Grace Beckett had never really believed in fate.
    After all, it wasn’t fate that brought people through the doors of the Emergency Department of Denver Memorial Hospital. It was cruel luck. They happened to cross a street just as an oncoming driver—who had never been sick a day in his life—had a brain aneurism. Or they didn’t notice the electrical cord was frayed as they plugged it in. Or they got a phone call when they were unpacking groceries and forgot to put the box of rat poison they had bought on a shelf where their toddler couldn’t reach it. In an instant, for no reason at all, their lives were changed forever.
    Nothing was destiny; things simply happened. And if sometimes prophecies came true, it was only because they were selffulfilling by nature.
Oedipus Rex
wasn’t an affirmation of the existence of fate; it was a warning about heeding warnings. Oedipus would never have killed his father if the seer’s words of doom hadn’t set the whole thing into motion. The only real fate was what people made for themselves.
    At least, that was what Grace had always believed back in Colorado. Only now she knew another world. A world where gods appeared to the naked eye. A world where magic was a force as real as electricity. A world where maybe, just maybe, prophecies really did come true.
    It had been over a month since the demon freed by Xemeth was destroyed, transformed to a dead lump of rock by the touch of the Great Stone Sinfathisar. Over a month since they fled the destruction of the Dome of the Etherion only to find that not all of their number were present. And over a month since they had begun the impossible search for those who were lost.
    The villa where they had been living stood atop a hill a half league from the outermost wall of Tarras. The tile-roofed building was shaped like a horseshoe, encircling a courtyard filled with fountains and fragrant
lindara
vines, and the entire house was surrounded by a circle of
ithaya
trees that made Grace think of green-gold columns. The emperor had rented the villa for them when he learned of their intention to take rooms at a hostel in the Fourth Circle.
    “I won’t have my