Analindë (The Chronicles of Lóresse) Read Online Free Page A

had passed before Analindë felt unfamiliar surges of power begin to stir within the great house. She heard shouting again but couldn’t make out the words. The surges were powerful. She knew, because she hadn’t yet developed the skill to fully sense energies, and she felt these Energy fluctuations without even trying. The surges were different from the powerful backlash she’d felt earlier in the forest. These didn’t pull at her but ebbed over her in rebounding waves.
    The raging power built upon itself, rising into peak after peak, ever larger. When the cone of power had grown to encompass an enormous area, it exploded with enough force to literally knock her over. The shouting ceased, the energies were gone. She scrambled forward, listening, but she heard nothing but the rustle of leaves on the wind.
    She pulled herself back up onto her knees, settled next to the window, willing herself to hear something.
    Anything.
    But there was nothing.
    What had happened?
    What was happening?
    She pressed closer to the open window. She closed her eyes, slipped into magesight, attempting to see. The world was black before her, but she sensed strange bursts of Energy pulsing intermittently from the great house: human spells. Her chest felt heavy with worry and her breathing became labored. She lacked the skills to identify what kind of spells they were, but she recognized their alien feel. Her knees ached from crouching for so long and she began to think about leaving her hiding spot and entering the great house when she heard it.
    Laughter.
    Then voices getting louder.
    She didn’t recognize them. Her heart sank to the pit of her stomach as she trembled against the cool smooth wall. She slipped out of magesight, then took a peek out the window.
    She watched the three humans stride out of the great house and into the courtyard. The human wizard had drawn the hood back away from his head and was tucking an amulet with Elvish markings on it beneath his robes. His hawkish face was pale and covered in sweat.
    He looked giddy. Not the happy kind, but jittery. The type filled with the skittish elation one feels after one thinks one is going to die but doesn’t. The spell must have pressed his limits and she momentarily wondered, before despair kicked back in, what would have happened if he’d lost control. She ducked down out of sight and shivered against the cool wall while waiting for the sound of their footsteps to fade out of range.
    She’d never seen humans before; their rounded ears had looked stubby, and she finally understood what the word ‘tanned’ meant, as in beautifully rich olive tinted skin. She wished that her first encounter with humans had been under different circumstances. Any other circumstances.
    It was rare that humans attacked elves; the last time had been about six hundred twenty years ago. They’d been at peace since then. Why had they attacked? What did they want? Why here? And why now?
    She wondered if the humans were far enough away by now that she could go search the house for her family. She studiously avoided asking herself questions of why her parents had let the humans walk away. Her eyes smarted. She blinked furiously to make the wetness go away, then began to inch out of her crouch.
    “They weren’t there,” a man grunted. She froze. The humans were just steps away from her window. She felt hot all over and her hands turned clammy.
    “The elves couldn’t have hidden them. They didn’t know we were coming.” The woman’s gravelly voice reminded her of beginning music students, bows scratching awkwardly across strings.
    “Obviously.” She could hear the sneer in the wizard’s tone.
    “Maybe we were too close to the rubble for the compass to work,” the woman suggested. The human language sounded abrupt and disjointed to Analindë’s ears. It wasn’t lyrical and reminded her of the harsh things in life.
    “Yeah, they’re–”
    “They were here.” Arrogance oozed off the wizard in