The Phoenix Unchained by Mercedes Lackey;James Mallory

Author:Mercedes Lackey;James Mallory [Mallory, Mercedes Lackey;James]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780765355065
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2007-10-16T10:00:00+00:00

“Are you sure it’s supposed to be this deserted?” Tiercel asked, a short time later.

He was standing in the center of the High Street of Windy Meadows. It was also the only street, so far as any of them could tell: a wide dirt track with a line of stone-and-brick buildings on either side. At the far end of the High Street were barns, cattle pens, and a wind-driven pump. The pump’s sails spun strongly in the brisk wind of evening, making a faint steady clacking sound. It was the only sound there was, other than the wind and the sound of their own voices.

“No,” Harrier said.

“Roneida said she’d been here,” Simelda began uncertainly.

“Did she?” Harrier said. “Or did she just say we should come here? I’ve been thinking about what she said, and it wasn’t much.”

“But . . . she was a Wildmage,” Simera said. “She knew so much. About all of us.”

Harrier just looked at her.

“Whatever—I mean whoever she was, I don’t think she was one of the Bad Things,” Tiercel said.

“ ‘Bad Things’?” Harrier said mockingly. “Tyr, how old are you?”

Tiercel flushed. “Well, what would you call them?”

Harrier’s smile faded. “You’re right. Bad Things it is. So. She was a Wildmage. And she sent us here, and, if she’d come from Vardirvoshanon, she must have stopped here on the way, right?”

“So it must have been perfectly safe then,” Simera said. She didn’t sound completely certain. “But . . . there don’t seem to be any people here,” she added.

“Hello?” Tiercel shouted. His voice echoed through the dusk.

“Don’t do that!” Harrier said, sounding as if he’d very much like to swear. He was good at it, Tiercel knew, though he didn’t do it often. Either the situation wasn’t bad enough for bad language, he said—quoting his father, who was mild-spoken for all his loudness—or it was much too bad for it. Tiercel suspected they were heading for the second category. Fast.

“Didn’t you say the stranger kept warning you about plague?” Simera asked.

“In Ysterialpoerin,” Tiercel said, sliding down off of Cloud’s back. The big bay gelding stood placidly. Whatever had happened here apparently wasn’t upsetting to horses, though that wasn’t really reassuring. He walked Cloud over to the nearest hitching post and looped his reins through one of the rings.

“What are you doing?” Harrier asked.

“I’m going to take a look around.”

“So—in case it is plague—you can catch it and die. Great idea,” Harrier grumbled.

“I’ll take my wand,” Tiercel said mildly.

“Even better. You can dazzle the plague with colored lights and then pass out. In that case, I’m coming with you. And I’m taking my sword.”

“So you can hit the plague over the head. Great.”

“Whatever’s wrong here,” Simera said firmly, “I’m bound by law to find out what it is and help if I can. So you might as well stop arguing and start looking around.”

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