Master of the Cauldron Read Online Free Page B

knows how accurate it is.”
    She cleared her throat and repeated, “Of course.”
    â€œYes,” said Tenoctris. “I understand. But there is an account?”
    â€œSandrakkan was attacked by pirates who came from the Inner Sea,” Sharina said, not letting her tone carry any emotion. “There was much raiding then, after Carus and his fleet were overwhelmed. These pirates were led by a wizard.”
    She was surprised at how difficult it was to go on. When she’d found the codex with the story in a temple library in Carcosa, it’d been interesting enough to struggle through despite the copyist’s awkwardly back-slanted hand—but it’d been merely an anecdote. Perhaps it was slightly more important than otherwise because it took place in Erdin, where the royal fleet would be going next; but only slightly.
    What had seemed a scrap of history in an old book took on a disquieting immediacy here, staring at the ruins of Volita. All the more reason to go on, Sharina thought with a grin.
    â€œThe Earl of Sandrakkan had a wizard also,” she continued. “The monk doesn’t mention the wizard’s name, but he was apparently more learned than he was powerful.”
    Sharina and Tenoctris exchanged broad smiles. Tenoctris was an exceptional scholar irrespective of the subject on which she focused. She could appreciate better than most a wizard of former time with greater learning than power.
    â€œHe summoned a third wizard from a distant place,” Sharina said.
    â€œDistant in time or space?” Tenoctris wondered aloud. “Though I don’t suppose a monastic chronicler would know the difference.”
    â€œHe didn’t,” Sharina agreed. “‘From a far country’ was what he said. This third wizard met the pirates on Volita and raised great giants to battle them. At last the giants defeated the pirates and pent them under the earth. Erdin and the rest of Sandrakkan were saved, but everything on Volita was ruined. The island spat red and blue lightning for all the year following.”
    Tenoctris got to her feet with studied ease, barely touching a hand to the deck as she straightened. She smiled at Sharina, sharing with her younger friend a triumph over the insistences of age. She looked over the railing at Volita.
    â€œYes,” she said, “I can imagine there were flashes of wizardlight that even those who aren’t sensitive to the forces involved would notice. And I’m not surprised that the houses haven’t been rebuilt even today.”
    She nodded toward the ruins marching up and down the beach. The location should’ve remained desirable for the same reasons it had been during the Old Kingdom, but the only present signs of human activity were wandering sheep and the beehive hut that a shepherd had built from fallen debris.
    â€œIt’ll be uncomfortable staying on Volita,” Tenoctris continued, “though it won’t do us any harm. The soldiers will probably feel itchy, some of them more than others.”
    Sharina watched the troops and sailors scrambling over the shore of the island. Groups were moving up the slope, spreading the way spilled liquid does through a piece of cloth.
    She turned back toward the wizard. “What about you, Tenoctris?” she asked sharply. “‘Some more than others,’ you said. The sensitive ones, don’t you mean? Then you most of all.”
    Tenoctris chuckled. “Oh, child, I know what’s happening,” she said. “For me it’s no worse than being out in the rain; and the land needs rain, you know. But what if you didn’t know what rain was?”
    With a sad expression she watched the busy men. Sharina pursed her lips, understanding now why this landing seemed a little different from those she’d experienced before. The shouts were harsher, angrier than they should have been at the end of a successful voyage. The crews and