Angus Wells - The Kingdoms 02 Read Online Free

came against Kedryn and blinded him before he was dispatched.
                “I believe that Kedryn Caitin is the
Chosen One foretold in the Text and that only he—though he may not know it—has
the answer to the questions the Text raises.
                “I side with Jara and Lavia in the
interpretation of the Text. I believe that the Messenger lives still, and that
Ashar will seek to send him against the Kingdoms again.
                “His strength will be lessened south
of the Lozin wall, but it will remain potent. How he will go about his master’s
work I do not know, but I believe we must warn our Sisters in the Kingdoms of
this, and ourselves stand ready.
                “I ask you to continue your studies
of the Text, for in time Kedryn Caitin will journey here, seeking to regain his
sight. 1 do not know if we shall be able to restore vision to him, but I am convinced that he is the only one
capable of ending Ashar’s threat and 1 hope that we may furnish him with the
answers he will doubtless seek.”
                “ In darkness shall he see , though blindness swathe him. ” Lavia
murmured, a finger tracing the line. “I had wondered about that.”
                “I do not understand it,” said
Porelle, “though I bow to the wisdom of the Paramount Sister.”
                “Are we then agreed?” asked Gerat
gently, looking from face to face. “Our studies must continue whilst we await
Kedryn’s coming?”
                “And warn our Sisters in the east,”
nodded Jara.
                “The mehdri will carry word,” Gerat
promised. “Sisters?”
                “It is all we can do,” said Lavia.
                “I am in accord,” Reena murmured.
                “And I,” said Porelle, though a
trifle dubiously.
                “Thank you,” said Gerat. “Now it is
late and I have kept you from the dining hall long enough. Let me delay you no
further.”
                “Do you not join?” asked Reena. “I
should like to discuss those lines concerning his blindness.”
                “In a little while,” promised Gerat
with a gentle smile. “For the moment I should like to be alone to think on
everything you have said.”
                Reena nodded and rose with the
others, leaving the soft-lit room where the Paramount Sister sat, her features
composed.
                Only when she was alone did Gerat
allow some measure of her own doubts to show. She stood, crossing to a carved
oak door that opened on to a narrow spiral stairway winding steeply up to the
roof of the tower. She shivered as she stepped out into the night and the wind
struck her, sending her long hair in a streaming pennant behind her as she
faced into it, setting her hands on the chilled stone of the surrounding wall
to stare out across the rooftops of Estrevan. She dismissed the cold,
instinctively adjusting her mind so that her body refused to recognize its
bite, letting her gaze wander from the star-scattered panoply above to the
kaleidoscope of twinkling lights that shone serene as grounded stars from the
streets of the Sacred City.
                If only, she thought, the Text were
clearer. I have read it and reread it, and I have studied every word Galina
wrote, yet still I can only guess. If only I were sure. Can I guide properly
when so much of my advice is based on surmise? Or is that what Kyrie intended?
To advise without shaping our decisions for us. If so, 1 pray that what I do is
right.
                She sighed and turned from her
contemplation of the City, returning to the warmth of the room, where she
banked the fire before making her way to the dining hall and the questions she
knew would await her there.

          Chapter One
     
                “ME? Why me? What do I know of such
things?” Kedryn’s