Veneficus: Stones of the Chosen by Chris Page

Author:Chris Page
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sorcery, Magic, Fantasy, Spell, Rune, Pagan, Alchemist, Merlin, Magus, Ghost, Twilight, King, Knight, Excalibur, Viking, Celtic, Stonehenge, Wessex
ISBN: 9781849891745
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Published: 2010-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

The heavily guarded carriage carrying Queen Phoebe and Princess Rawnie stopped some two hours before reaching Penda’s camp. They wanted time to look their best before meeting their all-conquering king, husband, and father. A huge tent was erected by some of the protecting group of northern soldiers in a shady clearing by a stream; a guarding circle was placed around it at a discreet distance, and they were left to their ministrations.

High above the camp two Merlin falcons hovered. One of them was Phi, the lead bird and special favorite of the long magus, and the other was a young male called Hiz. They had been shadowing the convoy for some two hours and had already formed the opinion that this woman and young girl were Penda’s wife and daughter coming to join him. Phi indicated that before they set off to let Merlin know of the new arrivals, he would take a closer look to see if he could learn anything else that might be of interest. With Hiz still hovering high and unseen in the leaden afternoon sky, the alpha hawk rode the thermals in a zigzagging glide that brought him silently to a good vantage point high in a beech tree overlooking the tent where the excited voices of the queen and young princess could be heard giggling and discussing various dresses and hairstyles with their maids. Hopping from branch to branch Phi worked his way down until he alighted on a thin bough just above the top of the tent. With his streaked brown and yellow plumage Phi blended in perfectly with the autumn foliage.

Until he exploded in an instantaneous cloud of feathers and splintered bone and sinew.

Hiz, watching carefully from above, could hardly believe his eyes - eyes that were so keen that they could pick up the movements of a black beetle crawling under a leaf from this height. As the feathers of what had been, seconds ago, a full-condition alpha male Merlin hawk called Phi floated gently down to the ground - and shaken by the suddenness and violence of the destruction of his friend - Hiz was in turmoil for a moment. Should he try and get a closer look at whatever had suddenly destroyed his companion? Or would he meet the same fate? There was a menacing aura present; something wasn’t right. His hawk instinct took over and, heart beating furiously, he rolled on the wind and began to climb even higher before heading back toward the west as fast as his strong wings would take him.

The long magus received the breathless, screeched report from Hiz with a bowed head. Besides being the leader of the Wessex hawks, the brave and intelligent Phi had been his constant companion throughout the years of solitude at his forest compound. He ran his long, bony fingers down the quivering back of Hiz, calming him, then waved him away with some comforting words of praise for his courageous deed, and turned to Twilight.

“It is

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