Necromancer Falling: Book Two of The Mukhtaar Chronicles Read Free Page B

who.
    Jacobson chuckled and patted his adda-ki on the head, running his hand through the black splotch on her otherwise bright red mane of hair.
    “You can leap twice that far, isn’t that right, Freya?” Jacobson said, ruffling Freya’s mane.
    “Captain,” Aelron said.
    “I said that’s enough,” Jacobson said.
    “Please,” Aelron said. “Hear me out. We don’t know what we’re riding into. That dome was up for forty years and we haven’t heard from anyone trapped inside since it came down. That place looks like the gods destroyed it for a reason.”
    “Frightened?” Jacobson asked. “You should be. No, we don’t know what we’re going to find. But that doesn’t change what you did. And it doesn’t change our duty.”
    “I was defending myself.”
    “You killed Letcher because of a coin toss , you festering murderer!”
    “As I told the tribunal, he was planning to—”
    “I’ll not hear any more of it! Your case was tried. I’m not your judge.”
    “No. You’re my executioner.”
    Jacobson turned away.
    “Easy to hide behind the decisions of others,” Aelron said. “Isn’t it?”
    “You’ll not die by my hand, boy .”
    “We’re of the same age.”
    “Nor will you die by the hand of any man here. Be grateful we had an arrangement with your father.”
    “My father may not even be alive.”
    “That’s your problem. Now, unless you want to be bound and dragged behind Freya, no more talking.”
    “Captain, we found something,” Simmons said, carrying something in his fist. “In the ravine. It was just standing there.”
    Simmons tossed a white object in the air, which Captain Jacobson caught with ease.
    Strange. Aelron could have sworn Simmons tossed it out of reach, but the object made an unnatural arc downward and landed in Jacobson’s hand as if drawn to it. His eyes must have been playing tricks, because no one reacted to the odd movement.
    Captain Jacobson flipped the object over in his hand. It was a tiny, white statue of some sort, depicting a smiling man with arms clasped behind his back.
    Something about it made Aelron uneasy.
    Captain Jacobson grinned a wicked grin. As he moved his adda toward Aelron, one slow step at a time, he shook his head and put the little statue in a saddle bag. When he looked back up from the bag, the grin was gone.
    “What are you lot doing?” Jacobson said. “Let’s get this over with!”
    Aelron thought it best not to speak as they guided him across the ravine and into a land he no longer remembered.

CHAPTER TWO

    Early scholars of the Origines invariably held the belief that Necromancy is the only true magic. My position is different, and perhaps would have been considered heretical five hundred years ago. We should not come to such a hasty conclusion. While it is true the only sacred writings we possess show the institution of Necromancy, that should not be taken to mean the other gods have not passed on magic of their own.
    - Coteon of the Steppes, “Coteonic Commentaries on the Origines Multiversi” (circa 520 RL)

    Zorian Osa gazed through the portal of his cabin on the Barathosian flagship Vengeance , toward the city called Dar Rodon, whose buildings reflected in the mirrored surface of the Bay of Relig.
    Zorian would never admit it, but the stark contrast between the azure bay and the pale sands of the desert city was beautiful to behold. He’d heard about the deserts of the Three Kingdoms—vast expanses of sand and dry ground, ever-changing dunes making it impossible to map certain regions accurately. Barathosia had nothing comparable.
    Zorian had no experience of these Three Kingdoms people, yet somehow he doubted they were cowards , as his superiors would have him believe.
    No coward could build that palace beyond the bay, with its multi-leveled terraces and spiraling towers. The Religarian palace glowed from whitewashed walls and cast a brilliant light on the pristine inner city that surrounded it. It rivaled the Palace of