The Pogrom of Mages: The Healers of Glastamear: Volume One Read Free Page B

from lonesomeness at his loss of William and the loss of all contact with Megan and all the people he had known before the pogrom began; friends he could never see again lest they be put to death as heretics. Tears clouded his eyes, and Arianna noticed and hugged him close as she continued her song.
    The great song told of the elves’ creation magic, which allowed them to adjust their own seed to give birth to the many different types of magical beings of Glastamear including the naiads.
    The tone of the song began to change as the elves made the enormous mistake, the great tragic mistake of all history, the creation of men. For in men they overcame the problem of too few births to populate this continent of their new world. Each man had a million seeds and women could produce a child each year. The newcomers grew in population and filled the continent with their kingdoms, but also with their endless wars and conflicts and their constant thirst for land and power.
    The elves had given each race its own form of magic so they might prosper in this new land. To the dwarves they gave earth magic, to the fairies they gave forest magic, to the naiads they gave water magic, and to the humans they gave healing magic because only the humans had the weakness of contagious sickness and short lifespans.
    In the human version of the Reel of Passage , mankind was the elves’ greatest creation, and blessed by Perry Ascendant to rule over all of nature and have dominion over the world of Home under the sun of Blue Haven.
    The naiads’ song had a different end.
    Seeing the terrible error of mankind, the elves did not have the heart to destroy their human children. They decided to begin again on a new continent far across the western sea. They took any of their other kindred who wanted to leave and sailed away. A few of the dwarves stayed behind because the humans did not bother them in their home below the surface. Some of the fairies thought the humans would never bother them deep in their primeval forests. The naiads didn’t fear the humans because they lived in the tideland and ate freely of the sea and almost never saw a human.
    So the greatest song of Blue Haven ended in sadness as the elves abandoned their troublesome human children to live happily with their other offspring far across the great western waters in the sunset lands on the continent of New Paradise.

Chapter 5
     
    They all rose and began to walk along the black sand. In the distance, Michael saw a giant rock jutting up between the reef and the shore. It seemed to be their destination.
    He thought the naiads’ version of the Reel of Passage might be the true one because he knew the Church of Perry Ascendant was really a nest of fire mages, and there had never been a time when none of the fifteen kingdoms of man had been at war. If he’d created men, he’d be disappointed too.
    “What do you know of holy Perry, Arianna? Do your songs talk of him and his church?”
    “Maybe tomorrow morning we’ll gather on the beach and sing the song of Perry and the Red Dragon, Firebreath . It tells of Firebreath’s revenge for the attempted destruction of her egg by the fool Perry and of her great prank on humankind to exact her revenge.”
    It was near sunset when they reached their destination. What he had thought was a rock was actually a cut stone tower stretching about forty feet above the waves. It had crenellation around the top and a single wooden door for entry near the waterline. Small round glass windows like portholes circled the top floor.
    “Arianna, this tower was built with metal tools, and some of you have metal tridents. If you use no fire, where do you get metal for tools and weapons?”
    “What you’ve heard is true; we’re thieves. It’s not difficult if you can go invisible and know open all locks .”
    “The myths always say you leave a pearl or two in place of whatever you take.”
    “That part is true. There is a certain ethic to our pilfering