Malediction (Scars of the Sundering Book 1) Read Free Page A

and adjusted his grip on his sword. "On our side
or the other?"
    "Yes."
Pancras moved his hands in the complex patterns of the ritual required. Sealing
the rift should be like sealing any other magical portal… I just hope I have
strength enough left to do it. He chanted under his breath, allowing the
volume of his voice to rise with the power of the magic. " Stenee
pyealee , stenee pyealee …"
     
    * * *
     
    As Kale
listened to the minotaur's chanting, he wished his sister could be with them. Deli
would burninate anything that attacked us right now! He flipped one of his
daggers in the air, catching it by the handle.
    Edric
gripped the hilt of his sword with nervous energy. The dwarf muttered to
himself. "Should've stayed at the pub. Never deal with this stuff at the
bottom of a bottle. Warm beds, happy whores, maybe get a job, pay off my debts,
but not this. Never this."
    The air
crackled with energy. Kale surveyed the room. The walls seemed to undulate and
pulse, but he wasn't sure if that was an effect of the energy in the air or if
the walls actually moved. What little he understood about raw chaos made him
wish Pancras would hurry.
    Gelatinous
sludge squished between his toes. Kale looked down to see the floor oozing up
around his feet. Yelping, he danced around, shaking the goo off them. One of
the walls erupted in a shower of blood and ichor, swirling toward the rift like
a tornado.
    "You
have to stop him, Kale."
    Kale stopped
and gasped when he saw who spoke. It was his twin sister, Delilah. Her crimson
and ebony scales appeared dull and ashen in the sickly light of the rift. She
leaned on her skull-topped staff and flashed her eyes at him, smiling.
    "Come,
Kale," Delilah held her arm out for him. "Let's leave this nasty
place. Come away with me."
    Kale looked
back at Pancras. The necromancer gave no indication he saw or heard her. It
sounds like Deli… but it doesn't . He stepped toward her. She put her arm
around him and hugged him close, her muzzle tickling his ear.
    "It
ain't real!"
    Deli jerked
back as Edric pulled on her arm, hacking at it with his sword. She squealed as
the dwarf sliced through skin and bone, black ichor spewing from the ragged
stump.
    "Deli!"
Kale lunged toward Edric.
    The dwarf
caught Kale's arm just as the drak stabbed at him with a dagger. "I told
you, it ain't real. Look!"
    Kale's
attention wavered just enough for him to see Delilah dissolve into a tentacle
that retracted into the wall. He shuddered and pushed Edric away. Two more
tentacles shot out of the wall headed for Pancras. With a shout, Kale leapt
toward them, slashing with his daggers.
    Tentacles
from the ceiling snagged Edric. The dwarf cursed and slashed at them with his
sword. Each slash met with a splash of ichor, like grease bursting from plump
sausages. One of the tentacles wrapped around Kale's ankle, hoisting him into
the air.
    Slashing at
the tentacle which held him, Kale felt his dagger draw a line of burning fire
across his leg. He cursed at his clumsiness and then screamed when the tentacle
flicked him like a bit of mud on a shoe. He sailed through the air into the
rift.
    Kale's world
burst into flashes of green, yellow, and silver. He spun, wheeling through
eternity in a realm where up and down were the same as left and right. He could
see the flavor of ripe apples and roasted meat. Opening his mouth to cry out,
Kale found he could only smell the sound of Pancras's chanting.
    Through to
the other side of the rift he sailed, and as he crashed into a metallic wall,
Kale's world went dark.
     
    * * *
     
    Pancras
realized Kale was in trouble when he caught a glimpse of the little drak dangling
by his ankle but knew if he helped his friend, the magic he manipulated to seal
the rift would be ruined and he would have to start over.
    He repeated
the words, continuously, pouring every bit of arcane energy he could gather
into the rift. " Stenee pyealee , stenee pyealee ." He was
uncertain the ritual would work. His