Revelation (Seeds of Humanity: The Cobalt Heresy) Read Free Page B

fifty feet away.
    I shook my head. “I haven’t found a way to consistently repeat its effects, Master,” I said bleakly. I knew this wouldn’t go over well later, but it was the truth.
    My Master’s eyes narrowed. “We shall discuss your study habits at a later date,” he said darkly, “as well as your apparent affinity with forces you clearly do not understand,” he finished with a nod to the disk-shaped Spell Key strapped to my hand.
    I shrugged my shoulders, half indifferently and half despairingly. I really didn’t have time for his cryptic nonsense. I knew he wouldn’t be happy when I used the thing, but what choice did I have? My own talents apparently lay in the realms of Somnomancy and Augury, meaning dream magic and certain divinatory spells, both of which had limited use on the battlefield. My latest attempt at bringing my Somnomancy to a fight had been met with mixed results, and I hadn’t figured out how to repeat even that much yet. I could try it if all else failed, but I wasn’t sure that even if it worked I would survive the experience.
    He was obviously displeased with my response but he gestured toward the siege juggernaut with his staff, whose red and blue marble lines had dimmed slightly since the beginning of the battle, indicating that he also possessed limited energy reserves. “The only way they can breach the wall is to bring down the Middle Gate,” he explained, “and brute force appears their method of choice. I believe I can bring down the colossus directly, but the price will be high,” he said with a meaningful look which I wasn’t entirely certain I wanted to understand.
    “Master,” was all I could muster. I had suspected for a few months that my House’s Magos was an accomplished practitioner of ‘Grey Arts,’ as they had been dubbed by Imperial Doctrine. These ‘Grey Arts’ were not entirely outlawed, but they were also not formally recognized as their own legitimate branches of study due to political backlash, if I understood correctly. My familiarity with the Imperial bureaucratic mess was limited, and I readily admit that I was all too happy to keep it that way.
    “Compose yourself, Journeyman!” he snapped. “I will not be making any grand sacrifices, and neither will any living person here,” he said sternly, and I felt a chill run down my spine at a caveat like ‘living person.’ “But should I fail,” he continued, “you will be all that stands between the colossus and the inner sanctum of the castle. Be certain to reserve enough of your energy to at least slow it until dawn.”
    In the background, I saw another flyer tear into a battlement two hundred feet away, laying waste to the dozen men stationed there in a brief, savage maelstrom authored by its talons and tail. Reinforcements immediately arrived and they drove the flyer off, but the damage had been done.
    “Yes, Master,” I agreed after witnessing the gory display. “What do you need from us?” I asked, trying to be of some assistance even though I doubted I would succeed.
    Antolin shook his head. “Stay here and conserve your strength,” he said sharply. “We shall know soon enough if I am to succeed.” With that, he struck the butt of his staff onto the stones beneath his feet and the protective field surrounding him flared. Its deep, green color illuminating the battlements for a hundred feet and within seconds he had levitated three feet off the floor. He thrust his staff toward the malevolent, green, light marking the head of the juggernaut.
    Accelerating at an impressive rate, he hurtled off toward the lumbering giant leaving a scant trail of glowing blue dust in his wake which disappeared almost immediately.
    I kept eye contact with his fleeting form and gripped my hands on the edge of the wall. My Master wouldn’t have sped off at this particular moment if he could have waited a few more, which meant that whatever he had planned would require a truly tremendous amount of