Chaos Rises Read Online Free Page B

fifteen years, and Kallinesha stood up
straighter as the door swung shut, leaving them alone.
    "You must find the Chaos Mage, Kallinesha.
Find him and destroy him."
    "What?"
    "You and Ista."
    "But—"
    "I know where he is."
    "You do?" He'd eluded everyone for so
long.
    "The far-knowing showed the truth before it
took hold of me. He's in Baron Selkimear's castle."
    "But shouldn't we tell the King and the High
Mage? Let them send their best men?"
    "The High Mage entrusted me with the task."
The veins on her neck stuck out like a choke-vine on a tree trunk,
slowly sucking the life out of its host. "Listen. The Chaos Mage
has supporters inside the mages' guild, in the army, everywhere.
Yes, even in your perfect father's army." Kallinesha stiffened.
"They're everywhere, seeking the downfall of the King. The High
Mage trusted me alone." Her eyes were impossibly wide now, like
crazy old Robbila down the street, who was always talking about
ghosts and poisoners in the shrubs, and animals who gave her news
of the future—almost always wrong. "You and Ista, I trust you, just
as the High Mage trusts me. You have to destroy the Chaos Mage.
He's developing powers we don't understand. Powers that will kill
the King."
    "I know," Kallinesha said. Mistress had
spoken of little else for weeks. King Tykell was a good man, a
noble man. Kallinesha's father had spent most of his career
defending the King's mother, and now he served King Tykell with the
same dedication. Queen first, self second her father always said,
when Kallinesha was younger and complained that he was gone too
long on campaigns. For three years now, the King had sat on the
throne of Andalinn, and already they were calling him Tykell the
Just, and Tykell the Wise.
    The last few months, however, he'd grown
preoccupied, distant. Her father had mentioned it too, not just
Mistress, not just rumors on the streets. Ista thought maybe it was
worry over his wife's failing health. Mistress believed, as did the
High Mage, that it stemmed from worry over the Chaos Mage's growing
powers. Nearly every week some report of his evil reached the
capital: a summoned wind destroying one village, mage fire another,
travelers found dead on the road with no signs of violence, all
their gold still in their bags, entire families disappearing from
their houses, unexplained waves of illness, livestock going mad and
stampeding off cliffs, unexpected floods. All this was the work of
the shadowy Chaos Mage, who no one had ever clearly seen.
    "You must destroy him," Mistress pleaded, her
voice growing weaker. How much of her life essence had the
far-knowing drained? "King first, self second. Your father will
finally realize how brave his daughter is."
    It was crazy to think she could defeat
someone the King and her father hadn't even been able to find. But
if she put a stop to the Chaos Mage's evil, her father would have
to recognize how hard she had worked, what courage she had shown.
My daughter, she saw him say, tears in those ever-strong,
ever-tearless eyes of his. Defeater of the Chaos Mage. You are
truly my daughter. Her mother would ride from Eslamyst province and
throw her arms around her, as she hadn't done for years, forgetting
solemnity and propriety. One day you will be high mage. And the
King: Kallinesha would kiss his royal hand, but the King, overcome
by gratitude, would kiss her hand.
    "Kallinesha," Mistress whispered. "You will
succeed because he's not expecting you. Take Ista. You'll need her
raw power. Go to Baron Selkimear's castle. The Chaos Mage, he's
tall. There's a gold chain he wears."
    "The far-knowing showed you this?"
    "Yes. And there's fear in him. Power, but
fear. Use it. And use your wits. Don't fail your king."
    Kallinesha took a deep breath. This was her
chance. All those years of her childhood she watched her father
march off to battle and return victorious. After he was raised to
high commander, she watched him counsel his queen, then his king,
giving his all for Andalinn.