Shadow Mage (Blacklight Chronicles) Read Free Page B

lingering in the background, but sunbeams shone on the temple. Even when it stormed outside, sun always seemed to strike the temple, bathing it in radiant light.
    Talis turned and spied Nikulo climbing the hillside. They clasped arms. “She’s a beautiful temple,” Nikulo said.
    “I haven’t seen you in ages…thought you’d abandoned me like the rest.”
    Nikulo chuckled. “Maybe I should’ve. You dragged us to the ends of the earth. And poor Rikar. Where is he now?”
    The vision flashed in Talis’s mind for a second. He sat, seeing Rikar’s sad eyes staring at him.
    “You alright?”  
    “Sorry, I was remembering a vision I had yesterday in the swamplands. I heard Rikar calling out to me, calling for help. He was trapped inside a storm filled with tortured faces. What’s a vision like that supposed to mean?”
    Nikulo shrugged and sat next to him. “How did the vision start?”
    “The Surineda Map glowed and I touched it—Mara saw it too—the map showed us another world far away in the stars. I think he’s out there, on that world.” Talis glanced at Nikulo. “Rikar’s in trouble.”
    Nikulo waved the idea away. “Trouble, indeed. He made the wrong choice the moment he decided to follow that sorcerer. But enough talk of our old friend . There was a reason I came to visit you. Do you remember the scroll I stole from Aurellia?”
    Talis felt suddenly dizzy. The scroll, Rikar had said. “What about it?”  
    “I studied the Tandria Scroll for months after we returned. Hours and hours of translations. I finally discovered a poison spell written within and mastered it after weeks of study. But I ignored the other parts unrelated to Poison Magic. I left the scroll alone for awhile, but a few weeks ago, I found something.”
    “This is just too bizarre….”  
    “What?”
    “Rikar told me in the vision that the scroll you stole from Aurellia was important.”
    Nikulo’s face paled.  
    “What is it?” Talis said.
    “Aurellia must have told him about the scroll. Why would he do that?”
    “He’s a master of deception. Perhaps he wanted you to find it. Think about it, he was leaving anyways.” Talis thought a moment, then stared at Nikulo. “How did you find the scroll out of all the ones in his library?”  
    Nikulo looked nervous, as if he was caught in a lie. “I…I had visions of Aurellia before we reached Darkov.”
    “When? But you never told us a thing!” Talis couldn’t believe Nikulo had kept it from him.
    “He kept telling me about all he could teach me, about mind control and poisons…all the things I’m interested in.” Nikulo sighed and stared out over the Nalgoran Desert. “If we figure out how to decipher the characters on the scroll, we’ll gain a rare spell. The true discovery inside the Tandria Scroll…is the knowledge of casting portal spells.”
    “Are you serious? A portal spell? So we could travel anywhere we wanted?”
    Nikulo grinned. “Can you imagine?” He unfurled the Tandria Scroll, and tapped a finger on a part littered with archaic illustrations. “See…here are the portals. Going through walls, across rivers, to tall peaks. This looks like a summoning portal…calling someone to you.”
    “And what about this?” Talis pointed at an illustration of two figures aiming at a portal.
    “This seems like the lead sorcerer…maybe bringing someone along with you through the portal? I don’t understand all this.”  
    Nikulo eyed cakes Talis’s mother had packed for him in the morning before he’d left for the temple. “Are those apple tarts?”
    “Pay attention! I thought you’ve been studying the scroll for months?”
    Nikulo grunted at the cakes. “Just one?”
    Talis rolled his eyes. Nikulo’s stomach was always more active than his brain. “So what don’t you understand about the scroll?”
    “The language constantly changes…characters I don’t know.” Nikulo crammed the cake into his mouth. “I wink I unwerstand awout walf of