Bladesinger by Strohm Keith Francis

Author:Strohm, Keith Francis [Strohm, Keith Francis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780786938353
Published: 2006-04-11T00:00:00+00:00

Taen stood in a circle with his companions.

The chill afternoon breeze ran ice-tipped fingers across his skin. He shivered slightly beneath its unrelenting touch and gathered his cloak around him. The familiar weight of his armor offered some measure of comfort in the dying light of the sun, but he knew from speaking with Borovazk that the citadel to which they would be teleported sat high in the Sunrise Mountains, wrapped in winter like a king draped in royal finery.

“It is time,” Mahara said, interrupting his thoughts.

He watched with keen interest as the assembled othlor gathered around them in silent convocation. First one then the rest of the masked witches raised pale hands into the air. Suddenly, the clearing fell silent—neither wind nor bird nor shifting branch broke the stillness. With his own arcane senses, Taen could feel the slow buildup of mystic forces, like the gathering of power before a storm.

“May the telthor guide your steps,” Mahara said then began a complex chant.

As her voice rose and fell to the rhythmic patterns that would focus and seal the power of the witch’s spell, Taen’s vision began to shift and blur, as if the world itself stretched and coiled around itself. He nearly jumped as he felt a hand grip his own. By its size and calloused feel, it could only be that of Borovazk. Blindly, he reached out until he could feel Marissa’s shoulder; he rested his hand heavily upon it.

The flow of the arcane energy shifted violently, and Taen knew, from his own mastery of magic, that something was wrong.

“The traitor has some sort of mystic shield repelling our spell, Mahara,” Najra called out, confirming what the half-elf had already suspected.

“Whatever she has in place,” Mahara shouted, “the power of the Urlingwood will not be denied!”

With that, the witch slammed both of her hands together, palm to palm. Eldritch energy roiled from her joined hands, spilling out in waves upon Taen and his waiting friends. The world lurched madly then disappeared in a single moment of violent disorientation. Taen’s mind tried to rebel at the utter nothingness around him, but years of arcane study had prepared him for the sense of dislocation.

Half a heartbeat later, the world resolved into a faded tableau of gray stone—the suggestion of a wall, the hint of an uneven floor—then just as suddenly, it disappeared in another gut-wrenching twist out of reality.

This time, Taen counted the heartbeats spent suspended in nothingness. Though he knew that he remained linked to his companions, all sense of touch had disappeared. Clearly, something had gone wrong! He’d used enough teleport spells in his day to know that some outside force had forcibly changed their destination. Now he worried that they would spend the rest of their lives trapped on the astral plane.

He was just about to cast a spell of his own when the darkness shifted around him again. When the nauseating sense of disorientation abated, Taen could once more feel solid ground beneath his feet, and the touch of his companions.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.