The Mirrored City Read Online Free

society. Just because we haven’t mastered the art of magic, it shouldn’t consign us to a lifetime of fighting other people’s battles. Our progenitors were great wizards. Perhaps we can be one day as well.”
    Maddox slurred, “Your people’s creators made that impossible. You have to dream to be able to use theurgy. This is a secret no one knows—”
    “I’ve heard of dreaming,” she said. “Strange hallucinations that occur during sleep? That’s where magic comes from?”
    Maddox shrugged. “The Guides appeared to the First Mages in dreams. That’s how this whole thing got started. It’s the only way they could communicate.”
    Jada stroked her chin. “A girl in my barracks growing up screamed in the middle of the night for no reason. She flailed under her bed sheets as if fighting for her life, but nothing was there. The next week, she was pulled out of my unit and reassigned. I have no idea what happened to her. But if what you’re saying is true—”
    “Oh, I’m just getting started,” Maddox said.
    “If you drink any more, you’re going to die.”
    “Yeah, it’s not a big deal,” Maddox said. “I just don’t want to go home tonight.”
    Their conversation continued although the details were becoming blurry. Maddox found himself nodding off at random points, and eventually a dreamless darkness swallowed him.

    Titus woke Maddox by shaking his shoulder. “Time to go, buddy.”
    Maddox still felt buzzed, and the grogginess made his head feel heavy. “Aw, fuck. What time is it?”
    “Well past close.” Titus helped Maddox out of his chair and walked him to the door. The place was empty.
    He walked out into the night air and looked up at the stars over the alleyway. The lights in most of the shops and the residences above them were dark.
    The moon was at half fullness, a cluster of twinkling lights barely visible in her waning umbra.
    He staggered to one of the alcoves embedded in the wall. A small statuette of a blond man with a fishtail riding a golden wave beckoned with a trident. They had a god for everything in Dessim. The god of urination was considered to give good luck to those who peed on him in a public street. Maddox yanked his trousers down and let loose.
    He braced his arm against the alley for stability as he felt the enormous rush of relief.
    “Hey, buddy.” A dark-haired youth in a sleeveless shirt emerged from the shadows. He was tawny and toned, with a perfect jaw and ice blue eyes. “Are you okay?”
    Maddox rubbed his face, realizing he was three sheets to the wind. “I just need to die before I pass out so I don’t wake up with a hangover.”
    “You need to sleep it off.”
    The youth grabbed Maddox’s arm to steady him. The young man had the desperate look of a street hustler and was just a few years younger than Maddox’s twenty-five summers.
    “You’re cute, but I’m still too loaded to fuck,” Maddox slurred as he was led down an alleyway.
    The youth asked, “Do you have a place we can sleep tonight? I just need somewhere I can stay for one night. I’ll make sure you get home safe.”
    “We’re renting a villa on Embassy row, but I don’t wanna go back there. Just leave me in the alley. I’ll be fine.”
    “I can’t leave you here,” the young man said. “I’m not a street thug. At least let me walk you to an inn. There’s one around the corner. We could share a room. I don’t mind sleeping on the floor—I just can’t be out here.”
    Maddox grabbed the boy’s cheek. “What’s your name?”
    “Lawrence.”
    Maddox laughed. “I used to be a man named Lawrence.”
    “You’re drunk.”
    “You should have seen me earlier.”
    Lawrence shivered. Maddox felt the chill as well, and it awakened his senses slightly. A bulky cloaked figure was staggering down the end of the alleyway. It was seven feet tall and as wide as two men, shifting to and fro clumsily. Three shrouded heads on the shoulders seemed to sniff at the air.
    “Get behind