Fate's Hand Read Free

of Merrithorn. Come with me to my cottage."
    "I’m sorry, sir, but I really must be going."
    ”Come with me and I’ll give you the supplies you need. I’ll even tell you where to find your sister."
    Val looked at the man with confusion plain across his face. "How?"
    With a robust voice of pleasure, the man replied, "Magic, my dear boy! Magic! Now come this way.” He turned and started off the road into the woods. Val looked at the man’s back, unsure, but then followed him down the worn game trail.
    "Is your horse lame?"
    "Ha, Gabby here? No, she is fine. She sprained her ankle once and I babied her a little too much. Anytime she gets tired of carrying me, she buckles down until I get off, then limps all the way home. She’s smart enough to know I’ll never put her down, so now I walk." The old man had a warm smile on his face as he gently stroked the horse's neck. "But I walk with a friend."
    Val smiled and asked, “Friends with a horse?"
    "Oh, I’m friends with all manner of animals. I’ve found them to be better friends than most humans I meet."
    "So you live in the woods alone?"
    Jerib looked at him with an eyebrow cocked.
    "Uh, well, I mean you live out here with all your friends?"
    Jerib smiled. “Yes, I like it better that way. This sister of yours: how long has she been missing?"
    "A fortnight and a day.”
    "Hmm. And you still believe her to be alive?"
    "As long as I am alive, I will not stop looking."
    Jerib didn’t have to look at his face; the conviction in Val’s voice was plain. "Fair enough. We're almost there."

    Drask formed in the smoke with the same smile he had when he left the world above. At once a scowl came across his face as the smell of the seventh layer hit him. His father was Baal, ruler of Verim Laris, the seventh layer. In Drask’s opinion it was the foulest plane of hell. He closed his eyes and tried to remember the smell of the burning lotus petals on the surface. With a grunt, he angrily stalked to his study to review his plans. Getting the blood the wizard asked for was no hard task; he had already obtained it several weeks before. Preparations for the book he asked for would be a different story.
    " Proclamation of the Dark Truth ," he whispered to himself. His father's consort, Lilith, spoke of it long ago: a book lost by Krevios himself that holds the secret for a creature of the abyss to walk out of hell—with a sacrifice, of course. The catch was that it was written by a "crazed and suicidal priest of Krevios," Lilith said. "And the final act in his life was to embody the book so it would teleport any demon that touched it into one of the Celestial realms. Only a human’s hands can touch the book and the words are invisibly etched into the pages. A book only a human can read that only helps a Devil! Truly a crazy one he was!" Lilith finished the story with a laugh.
    He had replayed Lilith's words over in his head hundreds of times. As everyone else waved them away in disgust, he saw them for what they were: opportunity. When Drask found a partially-destroyed scroll detailing how to trade body parts with other beings, his hand trembled with anticipation. He immediately sent his fiends to go search the purported locations of the book. Years passed before finding its true location, and then several more before he found a good pawn nearby to manipulate. It was no coincidence that Yusar contacted him with the ingredients required for that particular potion. Drask had set everything that Yusar was trying to achieve in motion. When his imp servant entered the study, Drask already knew why he was there.
    "Did you go to Yusar and tell him all I instructed?"
    "Yes, master," the imp rasped.
    “Good. Go prepare for the next part.” The imp silently left the room. Drask's mind fell back onto his plans. Everything needed to go smoothly and quickly. If he stole the hand of a human to read the book, there was no doubt his brothers and father would find him out and try to use him for