Ghost Undying Read Online Free Page B

Sicarion knew just who had dispelled the wards around the mansion.
    “You’re one of her enemies, aren’t you?” said Sicarion, his mind racing. “She must have collected a few over the centuries, if she is as old as she claims.”
    “I am Talekhris,” said the masked man, “of the Sages of the Scholae of Catekharon. Where is the Moroaica? I have come to put an end to her evil.”
    “She’ll just claim another body,” said Sicarion. If he could goad this Talekhris and the Moroaica into fighting one another, he could escape during the battle. “Why bother?”
    “Because she is evil,” said Talekhris. “Because she has used my knowledge to wreak great harm, and will work greater harm if she is not stopped.” His jade mask took in Sicarion’s new sword hand. “And you are one of her disciples, one of her students in the vile necromancy of old Maat.”
    The rod began to glow with silver light.
    “Wait,” said Sicarion, scrambling to his feet. “I’m not…”
    “Talekhris.”
    The Moroaica stood at the end of the hall, pale and motionless and beautiful. 
    “This ends now,” said Talekhris, pointing his rod at her.
    “No,” said the Moroaica, “it does not. How many times have you said that in the last seven hundred years? Time and time again I have slain you. Do you even remember them all?” Scorn entered her voice. “Do you even remember your own name? Or how to lace your boots?”
    “I remember enough,” said Talekhris. “I will not allow you to continue using my knowledge to work harm.” 
    “Fool,” said the Moroaica. “Your Sages squat in your precious Tower, pouring over old books and hoarding knowledge you barely understand. I labor to remake the world and cast the gods from their thrones.”
    “Your path is madness,” said Talekhris, “and you will kill the world.”
    Again Sicarion shivered at the thought. An entire world dying at his hand…
    Killing brought him pleasure. 
    How much pleasure would he derive from killing the entire world?
    “No,” said the Moroaica, green fire burning around her fingers. “I will remake the world anew. And you will not stop me.”
    They both struck at once, the Moroaica unleashing a volley of green flame and swirling darkness. Talekhris waved his rod, a ward of silver light appearing around him, and sent a blazing pulse of silver flame at the Moroaica. Their wards turned aside both attacks, but the howl of competing spells filled the hall, the mansion trembling around them.
    And then both the Moroaica and Talekhris began fighting in earnest.
    The roof and the walls exploded, both combatants using psychokinetic force to hurl volleys of jagged masonry at each other. The floor heaved, knocking Sicarion from his feet, and he saw his slaves fleeing and screaming as the mansion ripped itself apart around them. He supposed their disloyalty ought to enrage him, but he could not blame them for trying to escape.
    In decades of assassinating powerful magi, he had never seen wielders of arcane force as mighty as Talekhris and the Moroaica. 
    Talekhris took step after staggering step at the Moroaica, the fury of his sorcery thundering around him. The floor between the Sage and the Moroaica cracked and melted, the air between them rippling as their competing spells wrestled. Sicarion got to his feet and again worked the spell to sense the presence of sorcery. 
    The amount of power he detected almost overwhelmed his senses. 
    Yet the Moroaica and the Sage were almost evenly matched. The Moroaica’s face was locked in a grimace of effort, her hands hooked into claws as her blood-colored robe billowed around her slender body. He could not see the Sage’s face beneath the jade mask, but the man’s arms trembled, sweat rolling down his neck. 
    Both their wards had collapsed, and they were just barely battering aside the attacks of the other. The first one to make a mistake would die. 
    Sicarion hesitated. Now was his chance to kill the Moroaica, to take