Drogoya: Book 3 Circles of Light series Read Free

– it is named for Maressa.’ He pointed to a tag on the
seal.
    Maressa took it with
some surprise. ‘It is from the High Speaker of Vagrantia,’ she told
them, reading the upper seal. She flattened the roll of paper and
read silently. ‘I have to go to the circle tomorrow Lord Seboth.
Two will arrive from the Stronghold at mid morning.’
    Seboth settled on a
large pillow and poked a stubby finger into the baby’s
midriff.
    ‘Leave that child alone
Seboth, he has only just decided to sleep at last,’ Lallia told him
sharply. She arched her brows at him. ‘Have you connected the name
of Vagrantia with anything yet?’
    Seboth sat up
straighter. ‘I have, but it seems a rather wild connection,’ he
admitted, looking at his wife then at the three
visitors.
    Elyssa repeated to the
Lord of Far and his brother what she had told Lallia and watched
their rising excitement.
    ‘All these cycles you
have been hidden safely away,’ he exclaimed. ‘I suspected as much.’
He gave them a shrewd look. ‘And do you now intend to lay claim to
your old lands? They were once called Valsheba, but the local
leader of those left after the catastrophe was named Sappher and
the lands were thus called Sapphrea in honour of his slaughter of
the greatest number of your people.’
    Maressa paled. ‘I had
not known that. We have had no contact beyond Vagrantia’s walls for
near two thousand cycles Lord Seboth.’
    ‘So you know nothing of
the Ganger Wars, or the appearance of the tall ones in Gaharn?’
Olam asked with interest.
    Maressa shook her head.
‘Nothing of the world at all since the catastrophe. But we have had
to learn rather a lot, rather quickly in the past days,’ she added
ruefully.
    ‘And who are the two
who will travel your magic circle tomorrow?’ Olam
questioned.
    Maressa glanced at the
paper in her lap. ‘Lashek. He is the Speaker for Segra Circle. He
is an earth mage as I am an air mage.’
    ‘One of your leaders?’
Seboth sounded surprised.
    ‘He is also filled with
more curiosity than anyone else I know,’ Maressa smiled. ‘I have no
doubt he has wheedled and cajoled the High Speaker until she
permitted him to travel out of sheer exasperation!’
    Elyssa nodded. She had
always found Lashek the kindest of men, and remembered especially
how gentle he had been when her eyes first became
silvered.
    ‘Who else?’ she now
asked.
    Maressa frowned.
‘Someone called Ren.’ She looked at Seboth, Olam and Lallia and
sighed. ‘We have just learnt that there is another land, on the
other side of this world, called Drogoya. Ren is from that
land.’
    It took the rest of the
afternoon to explain everything to Seboth, Lallia and Olam, during
which time the baby was despatched to the nursery and the group
transferred from the pleasant sitting room to the library. Seboth
got up and down, finding various texts, while Elyssa deplored the
non existent system of ordering his shelves.
    After an argument, Olam
left to take Seboth’s place in the great hall to preside over the
evening meal while the others ate in the library so as to continue
their discoveries. Olam returned surprisingly quickly.
    ‘I said I had the belly
ache,’ he grinned, and snatched the meat pastry from his brother’s
hand.
    ‘Farn is back with
Brin,’ Tika announced. ‘I must go down to them.’
    ‘We all will come,’
Seboth said generously.
    For the first time,
Lallia showed the timidity Tika had thought was the norm for
Sapphrean females. ‘May I come with you Seboth? It is almost dark
and perhaps you could say that our guests needed a female
escort?’
    ‘Of course you can
come,’ Tika pre-empted Seboth smartly.
    Making their way down
Seboth’s private stairway, Tika realised just how different Seboth
was in his attitude, both to the way he treated females and in his
eagerness to learn, and his openness of mind. If she had been
raised in his household, perhaps she would not have run away. But
then she would never have found Kija and