Page 97 of An Archer's Redemption
The mist flowed faster, glowed brighter.
I stepped toward the Well, then froze, my head tilted to the side.
The chamber fell silent as the world paused.
Then the mountain trembled.
The pulsing of light inside the crystalline cavern seethed as crystals began falling from the ceiling. A scraping sound wailed from somewhere deep beneath the Well.
Tremors grew as the mountain woke.
I stood before the Well and stared into its angry waters, ignoring the chaos erupting around me. I muttered rapidly, a whisper that grew into a cacophonous shout, my head bent backward as I screamed the final words of my incantation.
My spell complete, the rending sound grew to a roar so loud I had to cover my ears. It sounded as if the whole world were being broken apart. I stared down in wonder and fear as afracture appeared in the floor, a tiny crack at first that grew and splintered and spread.
Mist seeped through the rend.
Starting at the base of the Well, it clawed its way across to the far entrance of the cavern, dividing the room in two and allowing the river of power to swell and spill onto its unmarred surface.
Everywhere the currents touched, mist sizzled and snapped, a poisonous acid devouring everything it touched.
In its wake, plumes of dark vapor clawed against the pure blue fog, infecting it with malice, turning glowing life into something dark and foul.
Near panic gripped me as I watched the brilliant cavern descend into darkness, yet I managed to calm myself enough to picturehomein my mind: my small house in the Kingdom where my father and mother had raised me, had loved me—and where they had died.
The last I saw before Traveling was an aged man in blue Mages’ robes appearing in the entrance to the cavern.
Chapter 40
Danai
Danym kneeled before me.
I forced the idiot to remain cowed for over an hour, only allowing him to look up when answering a question.
I couldn’t recall the last time anger boiled within me so fiercely.
“Do you honestly believe you hadanyother use to me? Or had you deluded yourself into thinking your brilliant wit could serve some purpose in my cause?” My words dripped with contempt as I stared down from my ivory throne.
“Master—”
“Shut up! That wasnota question. Evenyoushould understand sarcasm when you hear it.” I stood. “You had only one mission, and you failed. What more might be said?”
“Excellency, forgive me. Jess—I mean, the Queen—she would not be moved. I managed to get a private audience with her, to get her thinking about our time together before—”
“Do you think I care?” I shouted, punctuating each word. “Youfailedme, and now you—and any other representative I might wish to install—are banished from the capital. I cannot begin to calculate the harm you have caused. I should get my staff and Turn you here and now. At least then youmightbe of some use.”
“Master, no—”
“Stop it, Danym. Just stop groveling. You have destroyed months of work. I cannot allow your incompetence to threaten our mission any longer.”
“But, Excellency—”
Danym’s words cut off as I waved a hand and bright flame enveloped him. He writhed and screamed until the fire’s hunger stilled his voice, leaving little more than the charred ruins of a Priest and his robe.
I stared at the smoldering mess as I sat and sorted through what the reckless child’s folly had cost.
Moments later, a lanky Priest entered. His loose-fitting robes flowed behind him as he strode the length of the chamber, only slowing as he passed Danym’s remains. The man wriggled his nose and covered it with a sleeve, then kneeled and remained cowed until I bade him rise.