The Godlost Land Read Free Page B

was to become immortal. The alternative was unthinkable.
     
    Some courses in life you just had to stay with, and this was one of them. So he would stay the course, and when the answers were finally his and he ascended, he would take his revenge on the demon king. A vengeance so vicious that no demon for the rest of time would ever forget it. He would also make sure that they knew for the rest of eternity what he would do to them if they tried to trick him. They would learn fear.
     
    “Sir!”
     
    A soldier stepped into the hall and immediately stamped his foot and nodded officiously at him.
     
    They were forever doing that and Terellion wished they wouldn't. It was annoying. When he'd taken the castle in Lion's Crest for himself it hadn't been for prestige or to be seen as the new king. That was a meaningless title. Indeed he refused to accept any title other than the one he had earned as a wizard of the Circle. Master Terellion. But really only another wizard would address him that way. The rest just called him “Sir” and he left it at that. He was no simple fool to be swayed by the baubles of power and wealth, nor flattered by the words of those too simple to truly understand him. He wanted real power and that had nothing to do with a bunch of soldiers wandering around behind him all day jumping to do his bidding. Especially when they were mercenaries who only cared about the pay they received.
     
    Unfortunately paying them was going to become a problem soon. As the population of the five kingdoms slowly decreased, the amount of coin the survivors could send the Circle to pay for their armies was decreasing as well. It was a balancing act. A riddle worthy of Pan himself. The Circle had to provide Xin with his lives or he would stop helping them even as much as he did. He would stop providing them with his armies of chimera. And Terellion's chances of finally discovering the answers to the six great mysteries and taking his place in the heavens would end. But if the Circle stopped paying the mercenaries Terellion would end up with only the other wizards by his side, facing the demon king's followers and his beast armies alone. His bargaining position would be greatly weakened.
     
    It was for that reason that he'd started the preparations for the war with the dryads. With the five kingdoms broken he needed more funds, and the dryads had gold. They didn't have much in the way of coin – they were strange about such things – but they had gold mines. Lots of them. Some nearly as bountiful as Midland Heights. He needed that gold.
     
    The wars didn't trouble him. He knew they would win. So in time Inel Ison and Pariton would be his. What troubled him was the question of what came after them? The two dryad realms would only provide enough wealth to keep paying the mercenaries for a time. Maybe another couple of years. And the way things were going he had no certainty that he would have achieved his goals by then. After that came the nearby realms of the satyrs. But while they had enough lives to keep Xin happy, they had nowhere near enough gold to pay his mercenaries. His problems would begin again.
     
    “What is it soldier?”
     
    The man frowned suddenly. Probably because he had some sort of rank judging from the bits and pieces of gold on his green and black uniform. But Terellion had never bothered to learn about such things. In the end he didn't care about them. Neither their ranks nor the soldiers themselves. They were just mercenaries. He only cared about the answers to the mysteries. Everything else was a distraction. Especially when he was getting older and he could feel his life slipping away day by day. When he could feel his flesh decaying on his very bones.
     
    “We received a pigeon from the southern wastes Sir. The High Priestess is being brought here.”
     
    The High Priestess! Now there was another distraction he didn't need. But still, she presented a bargaining tool nevertheless. Xin wanted