Child of the Sword, Book 1 of The Gods Within Read Online Free Page A

though naked now
and washed, on the stone floor at the center of the chamber. And
about them all the air shimmered with power.
    Olivia turned to the young boy. “I need your
strong back, grandson.”
    He appeared to know what was required of him
without being told; he stepped to the heavy stone door, put a
shoulder to it, and pushed. It swung silently on its hinges and
closed with a thud to form the twelfth wall. He reached out, threw
the bolt, sealed the chamber, and except for the hinges, handle,
and locking bolt of the door, the twelve walls were now without
feature. The boy joined the two younger women at the center of the
room.
    Olivia stepped up to the now clear seventh
corner, and without hesitating she reached upward and cried,
“ Septimus . I bid you come.” And in her lowering hand she
brought forth the black Ward, unique in its silence and lack of
color.
    She stepped to the last corner, the only
corner that did not glow with the infinite power of a Ward, and her
bearing changed, for now she was in command. Her back straightened;
her chin thrust outward, and her sagging, old breasts stood out as
if she were a young girl again. There was a sense of strength in
her movements; her eyes alight with godfire, and about her hung the
aura of a queen. “ Octavus ,” she commanded, “Ward of the
power of the eighth tribe, Keeper of the House of Elhiyne, I
command you . . . attend me.”
    Instantly the eighth Ward appeared, red,
angry, and powerful. She admired it for a moment, then turned her
back on it arrogantly. “The circle is complete,” she said to the
others. “None may enter. None may leave.”
    Without speaking further she joined them at
the center of the chamber and added her hands to the living circle
they now formed about Rat. She looked at each of them closely,
judging them. Her eyes—large black pools in the middle of white
orbs—shown with an orange red glow, a manifestation of the power at
her command. She knew that to the others her eyes gave her the
appearance of near madness, and she was oddly proud of that. She
stood wrapped within her power, dark, arrogant, dangerous.
    She lifted her face to the gods and
spoke. “We, of House Elhiyne, of Clan Elhiyne, of the eighth tribe
of the Shahot, are here assembled in arcane rite. Let those whose
magic is not ours . . . BE GONE.”
     
    ~~~
     
    Rat awoke suddenly, though cautiously he lay
without moving for a time, eyes closed and listening. Only when
certain he had heard every sound the room would yield did he open
his good eye. He was naked, and alone, lying beneath a blanket on a
cot in an otherwise empty room: a bare stone cell with a doorway
but no door.
    He tossed the cover aside, swung his legs
off the cot and crossed the room in an instant. He found no one in
the hallway beyond, but to his delight he discovered many shadows.
It took much searching to find his way in such strange
surroundings, for often he had to hide in a convenient shadow while
witches passed. And then there was the stairway, a long winding
path of steps down which he had to sneak with no help whatsoever
from shadow. But he made it, and once below he found the courtyard
easily. From there it was a simple matter to find the front gate,
to slip through the iron bars and lose himself in the shadows of
the city beyond.
    It took all afternoon to cross the city and
find his den, but he managed it, and once there he searched
frantically for his gesh . To his great relief it was there,
undisturbed. But as he placed a pinch of the root on his tongue it
seemed to catch fire, his eyes felt suddenly as if they would burst
from his head, and the contents of his stomach came boiling forth
to splatter all over the filthy straw of his bed. The convulsions
continued without mercy until he finally fainted.
    Twice more he awoke in the bare stone cell,
naked and alone, and twice more he escaped from the witch’s den to
the city beyond. Each time he returned to his lair to taste the gesh ,