Taberland by Colin Taber

Author:Colin Taber
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mars, coming of age, vinland, vikings, alternate history, colonization, china, near future, sf, sci fi, science fiction, aliens, dark fantasy, witches, withcraft, magic, awakening, hope, america, canada, exploration, norse, odin, thor
Publisher: Thought Stream Creative Services
Published: 2017-10-25T00:00:00+00:00

20

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Words of Warning

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The three of us left the square – I couldn’t stay, not in a place so marked by death. I led us towards the port to leave behind emerging crowds that wandered in shock, spoke of miracles, or who simply stared after us.

To some of them I was still the Forsaken Lady, but for others I’d become something else. I didn’t notice it at first, but some of them followed.

Now seemed as good a time as any to walk the streets sensing for Maria and Pedro, as I didn't think anyone would stop me. I felt tired, and doubted I could stand any more casting, but time for finding my family was running out.

Such thoughts reminded me of how I’d looked after the magic at the opera house. I lifted my hands to examine them, expecting to find them marked, stained, and wrinkled like a hag’s. With relief I saw that the skin hung a little loose, but it was barely noticeable.

My grandmother whispered, “You pushed it out, the gathered energy. You pushed it all out and didn’t let it wear you down.”

I slipped my perception into the celestial to answer her, still stung by her mockery as I’d been casting.

She was there waiting for me.

Her spectral form smiled with sparkling eyes as she welcomed me to the cold and dark void. There was something comfortable about her, about the way she carried herself. She seemed different to the way I sometimes saw her; the form marked by dark and empty eye sockets, and haunted by her skull halo.

I wondered at that. Her mood often seemed to differ, swinging easily from one extreme to another. Right now she waited to be warm and helpful, but at other times she’d been stubborn and bitter. I’d have to watch her. She was complicated, as if she came with two faces.

Regardless, this was no time to linger. I thanked her and returned my attention to the real world, to my new companions, and the search for my family.

Back on the cobbled avenues of Ossard, I walked with Baruna and Marco, along with a few others who shyly followed behind. They trailed in calm silence, not like the mob that had come down from St Marco’s, or the hateful crowd that had waited to meet them.

Those with me seemed to be gentle souls looking to bring Ossard back to peace. They’d been changed by recent events, shaken from their own complacent lives, to realise that they had a part to play in halting the city’s death.

Beyond any doubt, I was no longer forsaken, but that being the case; what was I? Of Schoperde, certainly, but the power I handled seemed to be more than priestly – after all I’d just bested an Inquisitor.

Every day only brought more mysteries.

Quite a few of the buildings we passed had been looted and some razed by fire. The streets were thick with rubble and ash. Scavengers picked over the ruins; rodents, birds, cats and dogs, and even people.

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