Spellslinger: The fantasy novel that keeps you guessing on every page by Sebastien De Castell

Author:Sebastien De Castell [de Castell, Sebastien]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2017-05-04T05:00:00+00:00

25

Family

Of all the tales my people tell, of all the great myths of heroic mages casting the most daring and dangerous of spells to save their clans from monsters both devious and diabolical, the very best ones – the most thrilling and terrifying stories of all – are always about the shadowblack.

When the Mahdek sorcerers performed their foulest spells, committing atrocity upon atrocity in order to spill forth perfect pitch-black hatred upon the world, they pierced the thin veil that separates our world from the hundred hells beneath. Some of those sorcerers, their mouths split wide with manic glee, discovered that by emptying their souls of any shred of goodness they created a void contrary to all the laws of magic and nature. Such an emptiness could not last of course, and it was slowly, inexorably filled by something worse than mere evil. A mage who descended those final steps into darkness found the inky marks around some part of their body – an arm, a torso or, perhaps, an eye. Those marks were the sign of the shadowblack taking over.

‘Come with me, Kellen,’ my father repeated. How many times had he said it before he grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me from the street, up the marble stairs and through the wide double doors into our house?

His shout had carried down the street. Already we could hear people coming from their homes, looking to find out what was going on.

‘Into the study,’ my mother said, her voice calm, steady, in control. I couldn’t say the same for myself.

‘You’ve got to fix me, Mother,’ I pleaded. ‘Please … I didn’t do anything! I didn’t ask for—’

She placed one hand on each of my cheeks and gripped me hard, locking my head in place. ‘Listen to me now. You’re scared. You’re hurt. You are still my son.’

You are still my son.

It wasn’t relief that I felt exactly, as she let go of my face and put an arm around me, but it was something. ‘Family,’ my father had always said, ‘is the strong stone on which we stand. It is the beginning and the end of what we are.’ I knew at that moment that he must be right, because what I wanted more than anything in the world was to know that I still had a family.

‘You’ll find my child,’ he said to Ferius, blocking her from entering the house after us. It wasn’t a question.

I saw her hesitate, but finally she nodded. ‘Make sure you honour our deal, master mage. This isn’t the boy’s fault.’

My father gave the slightest hint of a laugh, but it held no mirth, only a desolate pain bigger than any desert. ‘There is no one to blame for this, Argosi, any more than one can blame the lightning when it sets fire to the village.’

I expected some clever reply from her, but none came. I think maybe I blinked from sweat dripping into my eye and then she was gone and my father closed the door and turned to us.

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