The Ways of Mages: Two Worlds Read Online Free

the once smooth stone. The screams and howling intensified .“ We need to get out of here. Quickly . ” 
    Ari té sagged against the beautiful red head who was the only one who cared about her in this crazy world.  She wanted to stay right where she was and cry and rage against the wrongness of the world. To do that, would be to die. She could do nothing. Her country would fall, but what could she do now to stop it? What could an eight year old do?  Her country was already crumbling, the great pillars swaying. A debatably wise saying that was either her greatest failing or perhaps her greatest wisdom: know when to leave to fight another day.
    Holding onto her frien d’ s hand, Ari té touched her fathe r’ s brow and gathered her power. Jewel was far more powerful than she, but even at eight years of age Ari té had more control of her magics and so she led the way. The pressure in the room spiked, and vanished. The room was empty of both the living and the dead.
    It became. It was neither living nor dead. It was both.
    The roiling lights and shadows swirled together. Shadow surrounded the light like the night surrounded the stars. The magics condensed in the middle of the stone table. A child, dirtied and bleeding appeared. It cried as the Niram i’ s Palace was torn asunder. It cried as fire consumed the lush land. It cried as stone simply vanished. It cried as rivers ran with more blood than water. It cried as thousands died quickly of blade, tooth, claw, and magic. It cried as thousands died slowly of hunger and disease. It cried as the very earth screamed.
    The sundered land shattered yet again.
     
    ***
    Present da y… Pershara
    Captain T’ nere swore loudly. He swore loudly all the time now.  Far from aiding him, Altana had laughed at him when he had asked for help getting his orders amended. 
    “ Fool !” she had spat .“ Do you think I care where your general sends you? Be thankful I may yet have need of you or I’ d bind you over to the dark master himself just for wasting my time . ”
    Some thanks he got for capturing the leader of the Grimedian Knights, he thought. He and his men had marched south for the better part of two weeks.  They had made miserable time.  The weather had been foul. Half the men were sick with dysentery, the other half were in as foul a mood as he because of the unending rain, mud, and hail.
    They were still a week out from the Isle of Grinley when T’ nere received his first bit of outside news in weeks. He was in his leaky field tent trying to ignore the irritatin g“ pit-pa t” of water dripping from his ceiling to his floor when a messenger arrived at the door flap.
    “ WHAT !” He barked at the rain drenched foot soldier.  The man handed him an oiled message pouch. Saluted and backed out as quickly as he had come in.
    The message read thus:
    We were advised of the full situation yesterday. We understand you allowed yourself to be forced into leaving the main group on a foo l’ s errand. Unsure why it took you two weeks to contact us regarding the situation or why you did n’ t abandon your orders when the nature of those orders became clear. We assume you will be prepared to justify your delay when reporting to the King in person next week.
    T ’ nere swore again. There was virtually no way he could get his men to Pershara in a wee k’ s time.  Salvo was making it plain that unless T’ nere was already well on his way to the capital city, or was willing to run his men into the ground to get there; he would finish he career at the end of a rope or in a dungeon.
    T ’ nere opened the flap of his tent and barked orders to break a camp that had been setup less than an hour ago. He gritted his teeth again. It would be a long run.
    ***
    Mud, Mud and more mud! It seemed all Sergeant Tolivier saw any more was mud. Well, his poor deceased mother had told him, had n’ t she ?“ Ya walks with pigs and ya gits to walk in shite and mud .” She had said, she