Blood of the Earth Read Free Page A

the ground. The man mixed with darkness looked at Alexander and smiled, then disappeared.
    He heard the enemy’s thoughts through Mindbender and knew that Isabel was his target. She lay stunned on the ground, her shield long since dispelled, helpless.
    Everything slowed down for Alexander. He was in a fight and he had a sword in his hand, but not just any sword. He held Mindbender. A weapon fashioned by an adept wizard to be wielded by an adept wizard. A weapon of surpassing power.
    He formed the image he wanted and released it into the sword, even as the man mixed with darkness reappeared standing over Isabel, only the enemy didn’t see what he expected to see. When he looked down, he didn’t see Isabel at his feet, where she truly was. Instead, he saw Isabel sprawled out on the ground a good ten feet away. Alexander had projected a simple illusion to deceive the enemy.
    Confusion stole across the man’s face and his confidence faltered as Alexander slipped off his horse.
    A nearby Ranger drove an arrow into the man mixed with darkness. He disappeared and reappeared behind the Ranger, killing him with a single thrust to the heart.
    Again, Alexander created a false vision of reality and released it into the sword. Mindbender had substance only as a blade but it was powerful beyond words, for it could create belief within the mind of the enemy.
    Belief was all powerful.
    The man mixed with darkness stopped and looked around with wary confusion. The Ranger encampment was gone, Isabel was gone, the horses were gone. All he could see was Alexander in an open field on the outskirts of Northport.
    The man mixed with darkness shrugged off his confusion and fixed his murderous glare on Alexander before vanishing. Alexander knew where he would reappear, Mindbender told him his enemy’s thoughts even as they formed. He stepped to the side and brought his blade up to strike.
    When the man mixed with darkness reappeared, he slashed at Alexander with his dark blade, tearing into his left arm, slicing deeply across the outside of his bicep. Alexander drove the point of Mindbender into the man’s right eye socket and out the back of his skull. A tremor ran through the man as the darkness released him and he slumped to the ground, dead.
    Alexander raced to Isabel, ignoring the sharp pain of his fresh wound. She was just regaining consciousness when he reached her side. She looked up at him and tried to smile through a wince of pain.
    “Did you get him?”
    “I got him. Now lie still, that was quite a fall. Does anything feel broken?”
    She frowned, taking a mental inventory of her injuries before shaking her head. “No, just banged up and bruised.” Then she noticed the blood coating his left arm.
    “You’re bleeding—let me heal you,” she said as she sat up with a grimace.
    “I’ll be fine,” Alexander said, “nothing a little healing salve won’t fix.”
    “Nonsense,” she said as she gently put her hand over his wound and opened her connection to the realm of light. She focused on her love for him and released the healing energy of the Maker’s light into his wound.
    Nothing happened.
    Isabel frowned, shaking her head in confusion. “I don’t understand. It worked on Abigail and Anatoly.”
    Alexander looked at his wound and the sight staggered him for a moment. He felt his breath catch and a thrill of fear course through him.
    There was a taint of darkness in the gash on his arm. He looked quickly at the long dagger on the ground near the corpse of the man mixed with darkness and saw in a glance what he feared. The enemy had used dark magic to enchant the blade.
    Rangers had gathered all around them, providing a cordon of security. The quick-thinking perimeter commander deliberately cleared his throat, drawing Alexander’s attention.
    “Lord Reishi, I’m Lieutenant Doyle,” he said. “Can we expect more enemy or was this the only one?”
    “This should be the last of them. Have your men stand down and send