The Sorcerer's Betrayal by Owens Tricia

Author:Owens, Tricia [Owens, Tricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Hadrian watched as his father moved away from Benta and the handful of members who remained. He hoped that it meant he would no longer have to fight the others. His conflict was not with them, only with Gavedon. He wanted to settle this with his father once and for all.

If only he weren’t so tired.

Hadrian had used his body as a conduit for energy too many times to fight the other sorcerers. He felt hollowed out, as though someone had used a burning spoon to scrape out his insides. He had never used so much magick before. It hurt. It made his bones ache. His flesh buzzed faintly and he was afraid to touch it for fear the skin would flake and blow away. And now he had to face down Gavedon… He couldn’t do it. He had nothing left. But he had to.

Exhausted in body and spirit, Hadrian’s eyes drifted away from the grim figure of his father to the men and women gathered behind him. A small frisson of surprise struck Hadrian as his eyes alighted upon a youthful face beneath a mop of dark hair. Dark brown eyes stared back at Hadrian with anger, fear, confusion — and what had been there from the beginning, four years earlier… hunger.

Time had passed, but not much had changed in some things. Hadrian’s mouth fell into a tired frown as he remembered…

~ * ~

Hadrian’s sixteenth year…

“A new member is joining the Order today.”

Hadrian looked up from the pages of the book he was writing in as his father entered the lesson room with a young man in tow. The quill fell from Hadrian’s nerveless fingers. The newcomer was young — only a little older than himself. Hadrian stared at the other boy with wide eyes. In all the years that he had been on Shard’s Point, he had never seen anyone near his own age.

Gavedon paused before the gathered members with a hand on the young man’s shoulder. The newcomer was nearly as tall as Gavedon with a shock of brown hair that fell messily over dark, brooding brown eyes framed by thick eyebrows. He had a thin face, suggesting he hadn’t eaten properly in a while, and this was echoed in the loose fall of the new white Order robe over his lanky frame.

But Hadrian cared nothing for these details, fascinated by the young man’s expression. It seemed to be a mixture of disdain and boredom, as if he were on Shard’s Point only because he had no place better to be. It was a far cry from the usual exuberance — even gratitude — that most new members showed when first admitted into the Order. It raised Hadrian’s already feverish interest in the young man. He couldn’t stop staring.

“His name is Jessyd,” Gavedon continued in his booming voice. “He is now one of us. As an introduction to the Order I thought we would provide Jessyd with a short lesson in drawing energy.” Hadrian’s heart sped up.

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