Twixt Heaven And Hell Read Free

looking at Darius as he let the obvious question come through in his tone.
    “Magic,” Darius replied. “Powerful magic. They’re up to something, Robert.”
    The Gryphons moved rapidly through the forest. The men were hardly fazed by their interrupted slumber, even the newer additions. No man could join Darius’s company until he had seen combat at least twice. Some of the Gryphons had been with the wizard for the better part of four years, ever since he had organized the elite force.
    As they marched, Darius studied the roiling magic around him, easily identified as the foul work of sorcery. Darius had expected them to have a magician with them, but the sheer magnitude of power he felt indicated several.
    “Impossible! The enemy would not dare risk so many at once.”
    Darius’s eyes narrowed as he tried to think of an explanation.
    The outpouring of power faded and died, vanishing completely. Darius liked the situation less and less. He scoured the currents for some clue of the enemies' actions or intentions, some discernible pattern.
    Finally the Gryphons reached the edge of a clearing – but this clearing had been made recently, and violent had been its creation. It was a massive patch of ash. The center of it was nearly ten paces from the edge, and the devastation radiated outward in a perfect circle. No tree was left standing, not even stumps. The ground was scorched earth, perfectly smooth and almost glassy in some areas where the heat from whatever hellish forces had been let loose had fused the minerals of the dirt.
    “Choirs defend us…” Darius muttered, stepping out onto the devastated landscape, ash rising in a low cloud as his boot disturbed it. Realizing that the enemy had somehow escaped him, he opened himself up more fully to the currents of power.
    Robert came to stand beside him, sword drawn and ready.
    “Where did they go?” Robert asked, daring a question even while his commander was concentrating.
    “There is nothing left. Nothing at all,” Darius whispered.
    Robert nodded. “No sign that there were trees here in the first place, much less a forest.”
    After some moments, Darius’s eyes focused on his second in command. “No, not trees Robert. Magic. There’s no trace of it here.”
    “No magic?”
    Darius shook his head. “I mean, there is nothing that shouldn’t be here. It’s as if this ash was always here...”
    Darius trailed off, mind spinning with the complexities of the problem. Robert waited patiently for him to continue the explanation, waving approaching men back into a guard pattern.
    Running a hand through his hair, Darius turned again to Robert, urgency in his eyes.
    “We must return to Bastion at once.”
     

Chapter Two
     
    “He has gone too far this time!”
    The words rang out through the spacious council chamber, echoing off the vaulted ceiling.
    “Darius defies this council and endangers the War! He must be dealt with accordingly!”
    Arric stood with his hands palm down on the table, leaning on it as if for support. At his back the tall stone seat of the council leader rose in majesty to remind all of his position.
    “Darius was specifically ordered to report to Fortress Nebeth, but instead runs off into the forest! What explanation does he give us? He ‘detected something wrong!’ Now the garrison is under strength! We cannot tolerate this behavior!”
    The gathered wizards nodded along with Arric’s outraged statements, and a chorus of assent was heard – though it lacked the conviction of Arric's own tirade.
    One man called out from the edges of the room, a young wizard known to be one of Darius’s supporters. “Darius must have had reason!”
    As Arric’s cold, piercing gaze turned to him, the young man stood his ground, glaring back defiantly.
    “Do you think him infallible, Alain? He makes as many mistakes as any man – some would say more.”
    The younger wizard swallowed uneasily, but held his glare in place. “Only you call them