|
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
of you," Gorol replied quietly.
"What is it?"
"Cordo wishes the spell you created. The one you said you would use to raise
Dyarzi from the dead, once you had restored your original body to yourself. He
plans on simply going to our graveyards and raising as many as we can. The
wives and daughters of the members of the Circle, female friends we recall
from our living days."
I started to reach for my glove in preparation to pull it off, open the
compartment in the ring on my right thumb, and pull out my grimoire from the
extra-dimensional space it was hidden within. After all, a member of the
Dyclonic Circle may ask any other member for a spell they have researched, and
receive it without charge. Then, I stopped. My anger rose to the surface.
"Tell Cordo that he can go to hell!" I shouted, standing. "He cannot eject me
from the Circle, then come to me and expect to receive a spell I worked
decades on for free, as though I still was a member of the Circle! If he wants
my spell, he will have to pay for it, like he would any other mage who was not
a member of the Circle!"
Gorol endured my rage quietly. "I agree, my friend. How much gold would you
want for it?"
"Gold?! What need have I for gold?! All the merchants are dead! All their
shops are rubble poking out from sixteen centuries of overgrowth! There is
nothing for me to spend gold on!" I roared.
"Then what would you have in exchange?"
I glared at Gorol. "I want two things. Listen carefully, because I am only
going to say this once."
"I am listening, my friend."
"I want an apology for the way the Circle has treated me today, and I want the
Circle to acknowledge to my face that they were wrong, and Morgar is evil."
Gorol looked at me quietly for a moment before he replied. "That isn't going
to happen, my friend."
"Then tell them that they can research the spell themselves! I am only one man
- and if Cordo is right, I am a madman, anyway. You are over eighty men - some
of the brightest and best the Circle ever produced. Find it yourselves!"
Gorol stood. "We shall try, my friend. We shall try. But you and I both know
that eighty-five brains are not necessarily brighter than one."
"Considering that Eddas brought you all back from the void to save your race
Page 19
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
and you reward her by casting her out like unwanted trash, I'd say that was
true," Arella snapped coldly. Swift-wing said nothing, merely glaring at Gorol
with one beady, black eye.
"I agree, Arella. I think that was wrong, and I voted against it. So did many
others - but not enough of us, I'm sorry. By two-thirds vote, he was cast out.
But there still remains one-third who think the decision was wrong, and wish
to still call Eddas 'friend'," Gorol replied quietly.
"I appreciate that, Gorol," I replied, struggling to contain my rage. "Leave
me now, before I say something that may hurt our friendship."
"I understand. Farewell, old friend," Gorol replied, bowing, then cast his
Spell of Returning and vanished.
All my plans had failed. All my hopes and dreams were ashes. The men I had
raised from the void had rejected me as a heretical madman. The women I had
raised from the void were sapphites. My race was dead, and would forever be
that way.
With a howl of frustration, rage and anguish, I raised my wizard's staff and
smashed the first bench - the blow split it in half across the middle. No mere
club did I wield, but an extension of my will - and my will was to destroy.
Again and again I struck the inoffensive wood, until I'd reduced it to
flinders. I stepped to the next, and did the same, striking it again and again
until it was little more than broken bits of wood scattered hither and yon by
my fury. Then I stepped to the next, and started again.
An age passed - I knew not how long. Perhaps an hour, perhaps less. Finally, I
was spent. My arms trembled with exhaustion, sweat poured from me in rivers. I
let my staff fall from nerveless fingers, fell to my knees, and covered my
face in my hands.
A soft caress like the brush of a butterfly's wings touched my shoulder. I
looked up, and Arella stood before me. She held her arms out to me, and I
stood and hugged her. "It's all gone, Arella. Everything. All my hopes and
dreams - ashes."
"I know, Raven. But you did the right thing."
"I did? When? I've ruined everything! My people are gone forever," I replied,
by voice cracking with sorrow.
"No, you haven't. You did the right thing. Come sit with me. Come," she said,
leading us back to our two chairs. I allowed her to lead me by the hand, and
when I'd seated myself, she pulled her chair over to sit before me, taking my
hands in hers. "Listen, love. Here is how I see what happened. You decided
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plmew.pev.pl
|