Shadow Dawn by Chris Claremont & George Lucas

Shadow Dawn by Chris Claremont & George Lucas

Author:Chris Claremont & George Lucas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2018-04-17T04:00:00+00:00


* * *

“What will happen here?” Elora asked Khory as they returned along the porch to the inn.

The taller woman shrugged. “Maybe nothing.”

Her gaze was always roving, sweeping the space immediately surrounding her and flicking from point to point across whatever lay within eyeshot to check for any possible threat.

“You don’t believe that. The Commandant doesn’t.”

“The government in Sandeni has decided. They have to make a stand.”

“What’s that mean?”

“The best I can do, little Princess, is tell you what Drumheller told me before I left. The Republic has to hold what is theirs, not only against the Maizan but against these marauding forces of Greater Faery. The Maizan must be made to bleed for what they wish to conquer, not only to maintain Sandeni’s independence but to demonstrate to the Veil Folk that there are Daikini who will stand in their defense. There is no longer any middle ground, as the Commandant said. Testeverde was proof of that. To save the lives of its populace, the decision was made to surrender the city, even though that meant the eldritch power of its World Gate would be stolen away by the Deceiver. Instead, some force beyond the Veil shattered Testeverde’s Gate with a spell so foul that the land there is death for any Daikini who even comes close.”

“Like Angwyn.”

Khory shook her head violently. “No. What happened at Testeverde was an abomination. For all the enmity we may bear him, the Deceiver has committed no such atrocity. Angwyn is ensorcelled, as Thorn’s stories say your Tir Asleen once was. Consider the Deceiver more like a drain, drawing to himself the magical essence of the world. That upsets the balance of things. Because the Realms are interlinked, what affects one affects all. The less energy a thing possesses, the colder it becomes.”

“So if the Deceiver wins, we all freeze?”

Khory exhaled sharply and both of them watched the thick cloud formed by her breath as it chilled.

There was a bite to the air strong enough to make others clutch their jacket collars about their throats and exchange knowing nods about how quickly summer was giving way to fall, but neither woman appeared to mind.

“Everyone’s desperate,” Elora noted, using the term to encompass far more than just the Daikini within the stronghold’s walls, “everyone’s scared. That’s why they’re lashing out so fiercely, they figure there’s nothing left to lose. That’s the Deceiver’s doing,” she told Khory, “that’s the responsibility he must bear. He’s the one who’s pushed us all into these corners.” She looked around the whole of the parade ground yet again and exclaimed, “There has to be a way to help!”

“The decision has been made.”

“That this fort is to be sacrificed? I refuse to accept that!”

“You have no choice, Elora.”

“Do you ever wonder,” Elora asked her, “about where you come from?”

“Formlessness into form. I was not and then I was.”

“Trust a demon to speak in enigmas.”

“I am not a demon, Elora. Any more than I am this woman whose flesh is foster home to my spirit.



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