The Unfettered Child by Michael C Sahd

Author:Michael C Sahd [Sahd, Michael C]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-27T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12: Searching

Pacing the rim of the crater, Zayra Amastacia covered her nose and mouth with a handkerchief. The smell of death polluted the air, accompanied by the incessant buzzing of flies. Hundreds of corpses were spread around the vast pit.

She felt nauseous and had retched more than once. Swallowing back bile, she gazed over the marred landscape, seeing it as if through darkened glass. Using what she called “mage sight,” she looked for signs of something magic.

The only auras in the crater were a few neutral white ones scattered around in the destruction, and she recognized those as birds, insects, or rodents. White was useless magic anyway; it signified basic life. The color Zayra wanted to see was blue, for magical beings.

Illtud’s blue aura was not in the crater, which didn’t surprise her because he would have responded to her mental shouts by now if he had been there. She had cast mage sight in order to ferret out clues. There were none so far.

She glanced over at another blackened elf corpse and vomited. Spitting to clear the bile from her mouth, she sobbed. So many dead elves. The entire expedition was dead, except the two she had left behind in the mountains. Elves could live for over a thousand years, but they may only have one or two children in that entire time. Every elven life was precious.

Taking a seat on a rock that protruded from the ground, she took a few steady breaths and wiped her eyes. She let out a sigh, immediately followed by a deep yawn. The teleportation spell she had cast had worn her out. She remembered how expertly Havelle had teleported so many years ago, and, not for the first time, she reflected on what a fool Illtud had been.

Despite her protests, he had insisted that if they killed Emperor Khalil of the Havallan Empire, then Lelran Alor, the elven kingdom, would never want for human slaves again. She had followed him deep into the Havallan Empire like a lovestruck maiden.

She put her elbow on her knee and rested her chin in her hand, drumming her cheeks with her fingers. Neither of them could have known that an ancient lich guarded the kingdom—the legendary founder of Havalla, no less.

She had loved Illtud when he had a body, and even after his imprisonment. It was only later, after his obsession with the djinn developed, that she had started to lose interest.

She sighed again. The first word Illtud had telepathically said to her after their encounter with Havelle had been “Abizou.” She had thought she was going crazy, hearing his voice slip into her mind like that, speaking nonsense.

However, Illtud had eagerly explained that he could still feel the essence of the prior inhabitant of the gem. Abizou was Malaikah, he had continued, and had been trapped in the gem by Havelle. After that, his fixation on Abizou had become his fulltime occupation. Many of his peers had wanted to send an army to Havalla on his behalf, but he had protested, insisting that finding Abizou would be far better.

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