Shadow Rising Read Free Page B

eyes, her arms crossed across her chest. She looked like she was gathering courage.
    After a moment, she looked up and said, “We have dire news.”
    Delilah let out a little gasp. “The spirit seals are missing, aren’t they? We feared—”
    But before she could get out any more, Camille silenced her. “This is worse, isn’t it? This is far worse.”
    Inclining her head slightly, with a pained voice, Asteria answered. “Yes, far worse. Although, it
does
have something to do with the spirit seals. At least, the two that Shadow Wing has managed to steal away from you.”
    Silence followed as we waited for more news of death and bloodshed and panicked plans to descend. We’d been embroiled in this war for months now, going on a year and a half, and there was no easy way out.
    “Telazhar has returned to Otherworld, the first time since we exiled him. And he’s brought the war with him.”
    Her words hung like crystal in the air, then shattered into a thousand shards, raining down on us.
    Telazhar
…the ancient necromancer who had led the Scorching Wars up from the Southern Wastes against the northern cities. Telazhar, who had been banished from Otherworld to live with the demons in the Subterranean Realms. Telazhar, whom we had done our best to kill, but who had slipped through our fingers. And now, he was here.
Back in Otherworld.
    Everybody started talking at once, but after a moment, I jumped up on the table and, putting my fingers in my mouth, let out a shrill whistle.
    “Shut up! It’s not going to do any good if we all talk at once.” In the lull that followed, it occurred to me that my spiked heels might not be the best thing for the marble table, but the queen gave me a soft smile as I leaped down and took my seat again. “You know this for a fact?”
    “Thank you, my dear. I’m too weary to whistle and shout on my own. And yes, it’s true. Shadow Wing is behind it. Telazhar, wearing one of the spirit seals, has been spotted in the Southern Wastes. From what our informants say, he’s inciting the sorcerers to align with him. He’s rallying them to war.”
    “The Scorching Wars.”
I stared at her, barely able to comprehend what this meant for Otherworld, beyond one hell of a bad party.
    “Yes. He seems to be planning to create another series of wars as bad as—or worse than—the Scorching Wars. Only this time, the sorcerers have a Demon Lord at their back. While Shadow Wing can’t gate over here,
yet
, Telazhar can raze half the world for him and then open up the portals if he can get hold of the spirit seals we have hidden here. I’m afraid that, very quickly, Otherworld will be embroiled in such turmoil to make the recent battle in Y’Elestrial look like chicken scratch.”
    We sat, silent, digesting the news. This was far worse than what any of us had been imagining.
    Camille shifted. “Will the sorcerers follow him? Do we know the extent of his influence?”
    Queen Asteria moved back and Trenyth took over. He pointed to the city of Rhellah, the last city before a long stretch of desert in the Southern Wastes, where rogue magic played free and easy on the winds, bonding with the grains of shifting sand.
    “We’re readying a trio of spies. They’ll head to the south, first to Rhellah to discover what’s actually going on. From there, they will infiltrate the desert communities. The cities farther south—down in the heart of the Southern Wastes—are dangerous and wild and filled with slavers and sorcerers. We don’t dare just barge in. Our spies must proceed carefully. They can acclimate to the weather in Rhellah while planning out the next step.”
    “How long have you known about this?” If this had been going on for a while, then we had wasted valuable time.
    Trenyth looked straight at me. “Lady Menolly, we first learned about this development four days ago. We dispatched a runner to check out the rumors at their source—over in Dahnsburg. The rumors
are
true. And our runner was