Blood and Ashes: A Foreworld SideQuest (The Foreworld Saga) by Scott James Magner

Author:Scott James Magner [Magner, Scott James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-02-25T05:00:00+00:00

XI

Valerius smiled as Lucius led Varta into the solarium. The first light of day was upon them, and he was eager to begin the next phase of his plan.

He knew without looking that the sky above was clear and cloudless. Somewhere behind Vesuvius lurked the first sliver of the moon, and by midday it would fly in opposition to the sun. By the time it set tonight, the mountain’s power would be fully under control.

The girl’s screams were muffled by a gag, and her eyes were wide with fear. Lucius’s transformation had not been easy to duplicate, and the other slaves in the room bore little resemblance to the men and women they had once been. But unlike Lucius, their new forms could handle the mountain’s power. As each one changed, Vesuvius was easier to deal with, and Valerius’s power multiplied.

Not all of the slaves had survived the process, and the bloodless bodies of the first three attempts were testament to how close Valerius’s ritual had come to complete failure. But combined with the last of the red spores, their blood helped contain the excess power long enough to transform the rest.

The result was a potion more powerful than any Valerius had ever imagined. The smell of it was nearly as rapturous as the vapors in his underground chamber, and the power he used to keep it boiling was every bit as hot.

Lucius shoved her forward with a brutal laugh, and she fell to the floor in front of the bubbling bronze cauldron in the center of the room.

Valerius noted with satisfaction how fully his apprentice had embraced his anger since his transformation. The depths of that reservoir were impressive, and his new body let him express it well.

Before this day is done, boy, I will set your hands to an even more important task than managing my slaves.

What was left of them, anyway. Although the slaves were not as fortunate as Lucius, they were still useful. They resembled corpses more than anything else, but through their bonds he knew there was a terrible hunger inside them.

Valerius sent a command through the ropes of power he’d tied off in their bodies, and despite Varta’s attempts to escape, four strong hands held her arms fast, and four more lifted her legs from the floor.

Though helpless, the girl continued her struggle even as she was carried to the cauldron. Her screams continued as sharp talons of bone tore her tender flesh, and her blood rushed out to meet that already boiling in the receptacle. Using a fraction of the power now available to him, Valerius raised a hand, and her chin snapped up so he could see the terror in her eyes.

Yes, you will do nicely.

He nodded, and her bleeding hands were plunged into the dark liquid. He felt the power enter her, twisting her body into something more than human. Her flesh burned under tightening skin, and as he watched the light leave her eyes, he tied off a thirteenth strand of power in her breast.

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