Rogue Magician (The Magician Rebellion) Read Online Free

worry so that only a calm
clarity remained. She exhaled lightly one moment and inhaled more heavily the
next. The beautiful young woman opened her eyes and began to sing. A sweet
melody of peace and love sprang forth, but her voice was low and controlled.
She sang in a whisper like a mother singing a lullaby so that only her intended
ogre was close enough to hear.
    The
ogre was still deep in hibernation, but as the woman sang it began to stir from
its long slumber. For months the beast slept as the winter passed and now as
the foul creature was finally waking a loud growl of hunger came from its
belly. It was consumed with an overwhelming desire to feed.

Chapter
3
     
     
     
     
    Sane
watched the family exchange through their kitchen window. Inside the boy called
Byrn ate and laughed with his family. The sorcerer blissfully remembered what
it was like to be young and ignorant of the world’s dangers. When life seemed
so simple and the world seemed right and just... but that was long ago before
he knew anything of magic and he was much younger than this boy. Sane wondered
if he was about to impose the same fate on Byrn. To learn the harsh lessons of
loss and sadness better saved for a man much older, but rarely was the world so
kind.
    A
half hour had passed since Sane woke from his dream and it was already starting
to feel like a distant memory. Why was it always so hard for him to remember?
In his dreams the visions were so clear, but when he woke they began to get
muddled like the reflections in a pool after a handful of pebbles were thrown
in it.
    “ Why
am I here?” Sane muttered to himself. A nagging frustration that he should be
doing something important kept eating at him. Maybe it had something to do with
Byrn Lightfoot. He had a certain presence, an aura, that was almost... magical.
The sorcerer came here to protect someone. It must be this boy.
    Sane
closed his eyes as he tried to remember what brought him here. His breathing
was soft and measured. His heartbeat slowed as he centered himself to enter the
trance-like state necessary to relive his vision. It would leave him exposed
and unprotected, but he saw little choice unless he wanted to find Kellen and
ask for his assistance, but the sorcerer remembered that time was of the
essence. He was just not sure why. After a few moments Sane was back in his
vision reliving it. He could see everything that was to happen, but it was all
jumbled together like the pieces of a puzzle waiting to be fit together. Byrn, he thought, Show me, Byrn.
    The
images cleared in the sorcerer’s mind and he began to see an image of the young
man forming there. It was night and Byrn was carrying his mother to the temple
of Ashura as the life rapidly drained from her body. The woman was bleeding
from a gash on her head and she appeared to be suffering some internal damage
most likely from an ogre attack.
    The
city was in shambles many of the buildings in the temple district were
destroyed or badly damaged. Rubble lay around them as the young man hurried to
find a healer. The temple was overrun with the injured and the dead. Byrn sat
his mother on the hard ground unable to find an unused cot.
    “ Please,
everyone just remain calm and we will help you as best as we are able,” shouted
the high priest to the crowd.
    A
pounding came from off in the distance. It was feint at first, but the sound
rapidly grew louder as the ogre invasion reached Ashura’s temple. Without
warning a vendor's cart arched through the air and came crashing down in the
middle of the crowd killing several of the already injured people.
    A
moment later the ogre that hurled the cart was in sight and almost on top of
the crowd before anyone could react. Byrn drew his sword and pointed it at the
hulking monster. The blade shook at the tip as he realized he was all that
stood, literally, between these people and death, but he pushed his fear down
and stood resolutely.
    No, that's not what
happened. That is not real,