Phyllis Eisenstein - Elementals 02 by The Crystal Palace

Author:The Crystal Palace [Palace, The Crystal]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-05-29T20:56:34+00:00

Everand set the last of Aliza’s notebooks down on her desk. He had gone through her year’s accumulation of knowledge carefully, thoroughly, now and then asking for clarification from Aliza herself, now and then questioning the demon Regneniel about the quality of its teaching. Satisfied that he knew where her education stood, he leaned back in his chair and looked at her long and hard. He saw that she had changed this past year, as she always changed between his visits; she was taller and slimmer than he remembered, and the planes of her face were more angular. She had always been pretty, but now the prettiness had been refined into something more mature. She was a child no longer. Nor were her powers those of a child.

“Your studies progress well,” he said to her.

“I think so, Grandfather.” She sat on a corner of the broad desk, one foot touching the crystalline floor, one dangling. She had waited for his evaluation with patient silence, speaking only when spoken to, her eyes following his every movement, every turn of a page.

Elbows on the arms of the chair, he steepled his ring-laden fingers and gazed at her over their tips. “Have there been any special difficulties that you wish to discuss with me?”

Her cool brown eyes met his serenely. “No, Grandfather.”

“None?”

She shook her head.

“Distractions, then?”

“Nothing I couldn’t deal with.”

His fingers slid together, interlacing and dropping to his chest. “So you think you dealt properly with the human visitor.”

Her stiffening was barely perceptible, but he had been watching for it. “What do you know of the human visitor, Grandfather?”

He slouched deeper into the chair and stretched out his long legs. “I know that he has been here three times, and this latest time he took you out of the palace, and even out of Ice.” He let his eyebrows rise at the expression of astonishment on her face. “Child, you are flesh of my flesh. How could I not know what happens to you? We have a bond, you and I, that mere distance cannot sever. Did you so doubt my power that you thought I wouldn’t know about him?”

“You never mentioned this bond before, Grandfather.”

He smiled a cold smile that did not touch his eyes. “I suppose I always assumed you knew. It seems so obvious to me. After all, you are what you are by my will. Oh, I don’t know every tiny detail of your life, else I wouldn’t have to come here and question you on your studies. But I know when the changes happen. I know when the outside intrudes upon you. And it has intruded, in the form of this mortal. What is his name?”

“Cray Ormoru.”

“I don’t know that name. He is a sorcerer, of course.”

“Yes.”

“You find his company pleasant?”

“I find him interesting.”

Everand nodded slowly. “And did he tell you why he came here?”

“He saw me in a magical mirror, and his curiosity drove him to seek me out.”

“Did you believe that?”

“It is what he told me.

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.