City of Sorcerers Read Free

help!"
    "I'll help, Papa!" Coren piped up with all the enthusiasm of a ten-year-old trying to outshine an older sister.
    "You know, I think you could," Gabria replied, bending down to his level. "I want to visit a boy about your age. His name is Bennon. Would you like to come and talk to him?"
    "Can he wield magic, too?"
    "I think so."
    "Good! I've got lots of spells I can show him!" Coren announced proudly.
    Sayyed grinned, his teeth shining white against the black of his neatly trimmed beard. "Take Nara. She always impresses the children." Coren matched his grin.
    "Could we, Mamma?"
    As an answer, Gabria blew a sharp, piercing whistle that cut over the noises of the busy council grove. The men by the chieftains' tent looked up at the sound and turned their heads again when the call was answered by a distant neigh. From the far fields, where the clans' horses grazed, a black form cantered over the grassy valley floor---Nara, Gabria's Hunnuli mare.
    Unlike the clan-bred Harachan horses, which were the pride and livelihood of the semi-nomadic clans, the Hunnuli were a breed of legend. Descended from a single stallion blessed by the clans' goddess, Amara, the Hunnuli had greater intelligence, strength, size, and longevity than any other horse. Originally bred to be the mounts of clan magic-wielders, they were endowed with the ability to communicate telepathically with the clanspeople who had the inherent talent to use magic. After the fall of Moy Tura, city of the sorcerers, and the slaughter of the magic-wielders that followed, the Hunnuli slipped into obscurity and almost died out. Then, two hundred years later, Gabria found a Hunnuli mare, Nara, trapped in a mudhole. She saved the horse's life, thus forging a friendship that had remained inviolable.
    With that friendship came a renewed understanding of the Hunnuli horse and its purpose within the clans. It was partly because of the people's awe and respect for the Hunnuli that they learned to accept Gabria's power to use magic. Since that time, the numbers of magic-wielders and Hunnuli in the clans had slowly increased to about thirty each, and the admiration for the fabulous horses had continued unabated.
    Even now, eyes were turning to watch Nara as she galloped past the Khulinin camp and swept into the shady council grove. Like every Hunnuli, the mare was ebony black with a white mark, in the shape of a jagged lightning bolt, on her right shoulder. Her thick mane and tail flew like black smoke as her long, powerful legs carried her easily over the ground. She stopped neatly in front of Gabria and nickered a greeting.
    Gabria mounted and settled happily on the mare's warm back. She always felt safe and comforted in her old friend's presence. The prospect of a gallop to the Reidhar camp drove the confusing shadows of her vision to the back of her mind. She would probably learn soon enough what had caused that strange episode, but in the meantime she could do something she enjoyed---share her love of magic with children.
    "Come on." She smiled to her son and held out her hand.
    Coren whooped in delight and bounced up onto Nara's back in front of his mother. With a wave to the two men, Gabria and Coren rode off to visit the Reidhar clan.

    CHAPTER ONE

    For the third time in as many minutes, Kelene gritted her teeth and tightened her knees as her gelding vented his feelings in a bad-tempered hop and a buck. Head lowered, back arched, the horse barged around the starting line while the other riders cursed and kept out of his way. The gelding was feeling murderous---Kelene could sense it in every stiff jolt of his body.
    Of course, that was nothing new for Ishtak. The gelding was a stone-gray Harachan, as hard, bleak, and difficult as a rock cliff. A more bad-tempered animal Kelene had never seen. She knew he tolerated her only when he felt like it, and she also knew he would dump her at the first opportunity. Yet she had chosen him, learned his moody ways, and put up with his