The Kingdoms of Evil Read Online Free Page A
Istain sharply in the chest.
" What the gibber Kendrick! " Istain said, arms wind-milling as he teetered backward. " That striking hurt! "
"Good," Kendrick was advancing on Freetrick, his eyes shining with purpose and excitement, the whirring talisman around his neck straining forward on its chain. Freetrick was sure he could smell hot metal.
"Kendrick," Madene said, sharply enough to make Freetrick wince. "Stop it!"
"You don't take a closer look at Evil," Kendrick repeated, half to himself. " You destroy it. I destroy it. Like this. " The dark, deep-set eyes bored into Freetrick's. "Naobel," he said.
The talisman blazed with white fire and the envelope let loose an ear-splitting shriek. It tore itself from Freetrick's fingers and shot into the air.
"Holy struck-out gibberish!" Istain swore. "It really is from the Kingdoms of Evil."
The envelope hung above them, unsupported, in a writhing nimbus of black mist.
"I'm calling a Proctor." Zathara rummaged in her purse for her magic mirror.
"No need," Kendrick snarled. He held his talisman out."Naob---"
The envelope gave another mind-bending howl and streaked through the air toward Freetrick's face.
Freetrick cried out as the malevolent letter's slippery corners slapped against his neck and cheeks. He tried to call for help, but his mouth was blocked by paper. Blackness bloomed in his peripheral vision.
As one, the word-powered lights of the union flicked out.
Freetrick saw people running toward him from across the union. Istain was yelling, tattoos sparking. Zathara was out of sight, and Madene tugged at Kendrick, who was looking up at Freetrick with an expression of hate and elation.
Then Freetrick couldn't see his friends any more. The black cloud around him rippled.
And exploded upward.
A moment of nauseating acceleration, followed by a shattering crash, cold and dampness. Freetrick opened his eyes, caught a glimpse of a hole, a struck-out Freetrick-sized hole in the skylights of the student union roof, which was now impossibly under his feet.
Thunder crashed around Freetrick, and rain pelted against his skin. The envelope writhed over his face. It invaded his nostrils, slid across his eyes, covered his face, then his head, then his neck in paper-thin pseudopods.
And all the while he hung, suspended above the broken-through ceiling of the Eldritch College student union in the center of a whirling back hurricane. His limbs jerked with terrible forces as the storm spread outward, lightning arcing through the air, strangling power out of streetlights and dorm rooms.
Freetrick threw back his head, coated now with a new and evil skin, as inky blackness bloomed across his eyes. He screamed, and for a moment it seemed as if a thousand voices screamed with him. Centuries of agony and fear filled the space above the union, rising to a crescendo that strained the limits of the human mind.
The sky above Eldritch College exploded in blackness. The storm spun, and frenzied lightning cast a shadow upon the soil of the Rationalist Union. There was a trembling in the air and on the ground as if, even after three centuries of freedom, the nation of word-magic still recalled the touch of that darkness---the shadow of the Ultimate Fiend of the Kingdoms of Evil.
Chapter the Second
In which the Ultimate Fiend Receives an Unwelcome Visitor
Freetrick awoke in darkness.
He rolled over in his bed and tried to activate the lighting fixture in the ceiling. When nothing happened, Freetrick sat up. He tried the lights again, then gestured to open the blinds. Nothing.
Had the spell gone bad? What the hell time was it?
He fumbled around his bedside table for his magic mirror, found it, and scratched the activation code across it. The metal buzzed angrily under his fingers, and a queasy, reddish light shown from its surface.
Squinting, Freetrick brought the mirror closer to his face and the light resolved into words…
Your Malevolence Error … 644 King Feerborg, under
" What the gibber Kendrick! " Istain said, arms wind-milling as he teetered backward. " That striking hurt! "
"Good," Kendrick was advancing on Freetrick, his eyes shining with purpose and excitement, the whirring talisman around his neck straining forward on its chain. Freetrick was sure he could smell hot metal.
"Kendrick," Madene said, sharply enough to make Freetrick wince. "Stop it!"
"You don't take a closer look at Evil," Kendrick repeated, half to himself. " You destroy it. I destroy it. Like this. " The dark, deep-set eyes bored into Freetrick's. "Naobel," he said.
The talisman blazed with white fire and the envelope let loose an ear-splitting shriek. It tore itself from Freetrick's fingers and shot into the air.
"Holy struck-out gibberish!" Istain swore. "It really is from the Kingdoms of Evil."
The envelope hung above them, unsupported, in a writhing nimbus of black mist.
"I'm calling a Proctor." Zathara rummaged in her purse for her magic mirror.
"No need," Kendrick snarled. He held his talisman out."Naob---"
The envelope gave another mind-bending howl and streaked through the air toward Freetrick's face.
Freetrick cried out as the malevolent letter's slippery corners slapped against his neck and cheeks. He tried to call for help, but his mouth was blocked by paper. Blackness bloomed in his peripheral vision.
As one, the word-powered lights of the union flicked out.
Freetrick saw people running toward him from across the union. Istain was yelling, tattoos sparking. Zathara was out of sight, and Madene tugged at Kendrick, who was looking up at Freetrick with an expression of hate and elation.
Then Freetrick couldn't see his friends any more. The black cloud around him rippled.
And exploded upward.
A moment of nauseating acceleration, followed by a shattering crash, cold and dampness. Freetrick opened his eyes, caught a glimpse of a hole, a struck-out Freetrick-sized hole in the skylights of the student union roof, which was now impossibly under his feet.
Thunder crashed around Freetrick, and rain pelted against his skin. The envelope writhed over his face. It invaded his nostrils, slid across his eyes, covered his face, then his head, then his neck in paper-thin pseudopods.
And all the while he hung, suspended above the broken-through ceiling of the Eldritch College student union in the center of a whirling back hurricane. His limbs jerked with terrible forces as the storm spread outward, lightning arcing through the air, strangling power out of streetlights and dorm rooms.
Freetrick threw back his head, coated now with a new and evil skin, as inky blackness bloomed across his eyes. He screamed, and for a moment it seemed as if a thousand voices screamed with him. Centuries of agony and fear filled the space above the union, rising to a crescendo that strained the limits of the human mind.
The sky above Eldritch College exploded in blackness. The storm spun, and frenzied lightning cast a shadow upon the soil of the Rationalist Union. There was a trembling in the air and on the ground as if, even after three centuries of freedom, the nation of word-magic still recalled the touch of that darkness---the shadow of the Ultimate Fiend of the Kingdoms of Evil.
Chapter the Second
In which the Ultimate Fiend Receives an Unwelcome Visitor
Freetrick awoke in darkness.
He rolled over in his bed and tried to activate the lighting fixture in the ceiling. When nothing happened, Freetrick sat up. He tried the lights again, then gestured to open the blinds. Nothing.
Had the spell gone bad? What the hell time was it?
He fumbled around his bedside table for his magic mirror, found it, and scratched the activation code across it. The metal buzzed angrily under his fingers, and a queasy, reddish light shown from its surface.
Squinting, Freetrick brought the mirror closer to his face and the light resolved into words…
Your Malevolence Error … 644 King Feerborg, under
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