Shadowmage: Book Nine Of The Spellmonger Series by Terry Mancour

Author:Terry Mancour [Mancour, Terry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-09-09T03:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

A Kitten in a Cottage

Often a man has no better purpose than to entertain and delight a beautiful woman.

Duke Enguin The Black

Rondal was always wary about casting a spell taking him through a strange Waypoint, even though he’d done it a dozen times, now. The difference this time was that this portal to the Alkan Ways – more like weak points in the nature of the Magosphere, he reflected, thaumaturgically – was deep within rebel territory. After searching and seeking for a means of returning to Enultramar, he’d finally discovered one, while prospecting through the Otherworld with Tyndal’s assistance. The process was made far easier by their new thaumaturgical rods, but jumping blindly into the unknown was always prone to invoke anxiety in him.

Luckily, when the world returned to his view after three heartbeats of nothingness, and after his empty stomach heaved, he found himself in a broad meadow filled with sheep in the late afternoon. He struggled to orient himself as he scanned the horizon to get his bearings.

Then he sighed and summoned Bulwark. Within moments the rod had conjured up precisely where he was: in the Coastlands, about sixty miles of the east of the great river Mandros. And about a hundred and eighty miles away from Falas. That put him in . . . the county of Rhemes, he realized.

His Waypoint was in the heart of rebel territory. A glorious start to his career in espionage. Technically, all the land was rebel-controlled, but the county of Rhemes was the home of the Count – Anguin’s great uncle, Vichetral, he’d learned. Indeed, the House of Remigius was attached to the ducal line in several ways that gave him some legitimacy as he quietly controlled the duchy.

But it was unlikely that he would be hunting for spies in his own hinterlands, Rondal decided. Particularly spies who could appear and disappear into thin air at will. He calmed himself at he looked around at the peaceful meadow. There were no shepherds in sight, but they would be along soon, he knew. It was almost dusk. He could see the first dark triangle of the Void starting to form over the southern horizon, and the waxing moon was already climbing in the east.

He made mental contact with Tyndal.

I’m through. Looks like a sheep’s pasture, somewhere in Rhemes.

That must be lovely! his partner replied, though he was still in Vorone.

It’s actually quite idyllic, Rondal agreed, grinning to himself. Let Gat know. I’ll hike to the nearest village and get my bearings.

That proved harder than he anticipated, though he found a road quickly enough. He walked nearly seven miles before he came to a settlement of more than a hut, an hour after darkness fell.

The hamlet was called Gandy, and it lacked an inn, though the headman did have a cottage vacant he was willing to let Rondal rent for the night. He explained himself as merely a lost traveler on his way to Falas, though his dress was far above his landlord’s station.

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