Blood of Innocents (Book Two of the Sorcery Ascendant Sequence) Read Online Free

Usually. Not everything is curable. If I was trying to heal someone whose mind had been damaged by sorcery, then it stands to reason that someone versed in such sorcery would be a logical place to start.”
    “No,” Caldan said. “I’m not letting her near Miranda to work sorcery on her again.”
    At his tone, Elpidia held up her hands to placate him. “That’s not what I was suggesting. She has the knowledge, and you have no small skill with sorcery. Perhaps if you questioned her…”
    “No,” Caldan repeated, shaking his head. “We can’t trust her, and I wouldn’t be able to spot a trap if she tried to set one for me. I just don’t know enough, and it would be too easy for her to hurt us.”
    “You couldn’t try anything yourself?”
    “I have no idea at the moment how coercive sorcery works, though certainly it differs a lot from any crafting I know. From what I’ve seen, it doesn’t need a physical object for it to work, which I would have thought impossible.”
    “How do you know?”
    “Pardon?”
    “I mean, how do you know it isn’t exactly the same as crafting ? Both Bells and her partner had many crafted objects on them; maybe one allowed them to use coercive sorcery.”
    “I… I guess. I don’t know.” Caldan cursed under his breath, drawing a sharp look from Elpidia. “Um… sorry.”
    Elpidia tilted her head, acknowledging his apology.
    He continued. “There’s too much I don’t know.”
    “Well, you have a source of information, if you’re willing to risk it.”
    “I’ll think about it.”
    “Good.”
    “Is there anything you need?” Caldan asked, eyeing her rash. “For your… sickness?”
    Elpidia turned her face away from him. “You know what I need. But without a place to experiment and a suitable laboratory, it’s useless to me anyway. What I also need most of all is time. Sitting around in the middle of nowhere chafes at me. I can feel time slipping away.”
    Caldan shifted his shoulders at her words and ran a hand along the sword’s scabbard. It was serviceable, unadorned leather, completely unlike the blade it hid.
    Choices and priorities ran around his mind; he couldn’t settle on one, and over the last few nights, in the brief times he’d had to sleep, he hadn’t been able to rest because of it. Elpidia was desperate, and desperate people did desperate things. He could only trust the physiker to do what was best for herself.
    He needed to get word to the Protectors outside Anasoma. Did they even know about the invasion and the use of forbidden sorcery by the Indryallans? And more than that, he had to return Simmon’s sword to them. But both destructive and coercive sorcery were prohibited. Though, the Protectors used destructive sorcery themselves when they needed to; he had seen it. Both Simmon and Jazintha had done so. He felt a stab of grief and closed his eyes at the thought of the two masters, both dead now, Jazintha by Simmon’s hand, and Simmon presumably by his own. Caldan clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.
    If the Protectors used destructive sorcery to combat rogue sorcerers, did they also use coercive sorcery? Or was that a line they dared not cross? Would he damn himself in their eyes if he tried to learn it, even to save someone else?
    He shook his head. There was too much he didn’t know. But he couldn’t give up on Miranda. He wanted… no, needed to do whatever he could to restore her sanity. No matter the cost.
    He glanced at Elpidia waiting patiently at his side then back to their meager camp. Bees and the shopkeeper Amerdan were returning from scavenging firewood. Smoke drifted up from the fire as they placed a few branches on the coals and the rest in a pile.
    Too many troubles, when only a short time ago all he had to worry about was learning as much crafting as he could and where to take Miranda out for dinner. His hand moved to touch the ring on his finger, his trinket , then to the bone ring around his neck. How