Bridgeworlds: Deep Flux Read Free Page B

flailed
helplessly, but just when Myles' arms fell to his sides motionless, a man who
wore a hooded robe of white and walked with a shepherd’s staff approached
the cat. He stroked its fur a few times while it looked to him and down to Myles
as if pleading for help. The shepherd nodded to the feline, and, for just a
moment, the cat glowed. It looked at Myles, bent over his face, and began to
breathe life into him again. But as Myles' body was restored, the cat's body
decayed in exchange and blew away in the wind.
    This time Myles was in his own body in a gambling hall. He could feel
the hard wood stool that he sat on and it was good to be reunited with his own
body after the previous dream. His vision was beginning to come back to him. It
was a dimly lit room with a cement floor and ornately designed red and gold
wallpaper. Smoke hung in the air as laughter echoed the hall. It was an empty,
forced laughter that Myles knew all too well… the laughter of people trying to
drown their sorrows in drunken stupors. He knew everyone there and half
seemed to be having a good time.
    Omar was playing cards with the other members of the council of the
Magi; King Alagaar of Marasimlah, King Pacal of Suchikos, and a Miyka king he
couldn't name who kept rubbing his head as if he had a terrible headache.
    Omar and his companions laughed as the dealer kept passing them
cards. Their hands were bad, but the worse the cards were, the more excited
the players became. Myles glanced at the dealer and a chill ran down his spine.
It was Haylale; the devil himself. He was staring at Myles with icy blue eyes,
alight in his radiant human form. A sinister grin stretched across his face as he
tossed the cards to his players without even looking at them. Haylale wore a
light grey robe stained with blood. Myles could see a great wound running down
from his right shoulder, across his chest, and to his left hip; but Haylale didn't
seem to mind and kept smiling.
    An Asian child ran past Haylale trying to hide from his sight. She snuck
under the large card table to where Omar was sitting and began tugging at his
sleeve lightly, but Omar didn't notice. Wait… she wasn't Asian, she was a
Yaarma. The child pulled harder and harder at Omar's sleeve but he kept his
eyes on the game. He also kept winning and the more he won, the more crowns
the other players would heap upon his head. Each crown turned Omar's grey
skin a slightly darker shade until it eventually turned black. Omar began to look
almost as evil and powerful as Haylale, who smiled knowingly.
    One corner of the room seemed to house the other half, the downers of
the party. They sat, watching silently, as if waiting for something. He recognized
them all. Erestar, with long black hair and dark blue eyes, but instead of being
25 feet tall as the giant ruler of Raphad that Myles had come to know, he was
human sized. He sat with a sword in his lap; the sword Haylale had asked him to
steal the first time they'd met. Kasey sat staring daggers at Haylale and if her
glare was any colder, it would have dropped the temperature in the room.
Sebastian was sitting with them and was giving Omar an equally ominous glare.
Queen Ariana and Prince Seux of the Nepsah were there, too, looking at the
game as if in fear. Queen Elizabeth was calling to the Miyka king, but all he
would do was look at his cards and rub his head. Occasionally he would look
over his shoulder and push away at the air. He would mumble something and in
Myles’ dream he could almost hear something being said back as if someone
was trying to whisper in his ear.
    Myles tried to take it all in as everything seemed to move around him at
inconceivable speeds. He was sitting at the bar with a man who had his back to
him... Myles thought about tapping the stranger on the shoulder to ask where
he was, but the man turned around before he touched him. It was Nekar,
servant of the Master from Musterion who had cured the deadly poison