Ring of Lightning by Fancher Jane S

Author:Fancher, Jane S [Fancher, Jane S]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Published: 2011-11-03T04:59:25+00:00

“Nikki, no!” Just Deymio screamed and lunged toward the fire, tangled in his blanket, and fell to his knees, fists clutched to his stomach, cursing in an endless, breathless stream.

“Deymio?” Kiyrstin propped herself on a weary elbow, “Are you all right?”

A shuddering breath. A curse that was half-sob. And a breathless: “I’ll kill her.”

“Who, Deymio?” She sat up and leaned toward him.

“Who do you want to kill?”

Another shuddering, teeth-chattering inhalation.

“Who? … Oh. Sh-shepherdess.”

“Nightmare?”

“I … suppose.”

Suppose, Rhomatum? she thought, as he returned to his nest. If not a dream, what else might it be?

“Don’t let it concern you,” she whispered. “There have been others. They all have themparticularly the first night or so. Whatever the old woman does evidently wreaks havoc on a sane mind. Want to talk about it?”

“N-n-no. You’re probably right. Nothing but a dream.

Tired, that’s all.”

“Let’s hope there isn’t another. ‘Night, Rhomatum.”

“G’night, shepherdess.”

“Idiot!”

Anheliaa’s shout was as potent and as physical as a blow to Nikki’S face. His head snapped back, he spun away from rings gone suddenly wild, rings spinning randomly on offcenter, canted axes, bouncing and scraping against each other, releasing living wails of protest that echoed through his head.

He struck a wall, rebounded into a stool, and dropped to the floor, scrambling for cover from the storm raging within the room, from deafening light and blinding shrieks.

Pure instinct for survival located a small nook, a tiny haven within the maelstrom, and he cowered there, clamping his lips on mindless, babbling horror at the havoc he’d wrought.

Silence, darkness, when they arrived suddenly and without diminution, were equally consuming.

“Idiot, Idiot. Idiot.”

Rhythmic chant in the void, invading his silence: Anheliaa’s bitter whispered incantation.

Alarm bellswithin the Tower and without.

For the first time in living memory, the energy flow out of Rhomatum Node had ceased.

Idiot, idiot, idiot.

The words were a chant inside Deymorin’s head.

Sleep. As if he could. Or would ever again want to, now he knew the nightmares lying in wait for him.

Idiot, idiot, idiot.

The throb echoed the relentless beat of Anheliaa’s dream-rings.

The shepherdess had said Anheliaa’s other victims had had nightmares. Not surprising. Arriving in the middle of nowhere, losing months in an instant … the human mind took a while to adjust to such realities.

Six months … If not, he suddenly realized, much longer.

Perhaps years. How would he know?

Still, one had to wonder, who had faced Anheliaa’s rings before, if nightmare accounted for the images still so crystalclear in his mind. This was not the scene he remembered, not himself and Mikhyel facing Anheliaa, but Nikki, alone.

And not. He had been there. Mikhyel had.

Dream? Reality? Or simply Anheliaa’s revenge on him: torment based on his own deepest fears for his brother?

His own mind set to feed off his own fears?

Anheliaa had been experimenting with the rings for years. She’d alluded to seeing the future. She’d tried to use them to force him into compliance, had used themor so Kiyrstin and the priest claimedto transport him out of Rhomatum.

How much did Anheliaa know? Could she read his mind? Was

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.