Upland Outlaws Read Online Free Page A

was starting to sweat again, his face locked in a meaningless smile. Obviously Signifer Ylo knew some curious secrets, although this might be the same one that had upset him earlier. Young Ylo had seen a vision of a beautiful woman. Impress Eshiala was clenching mental teeth, also … Oh? Who would ever be a sorcerer?
    They were both young. She was a beautiful princess, he was a handsome hero-there was only one secret they might share. Rap sighed and put the matter out of his mind. He couldn’t solve all the problems of the world, and he certainly was not going to pry into this one with Shandie present.
    The imperor had ended his tale. “So I think I saw your son,” he added. “I feel that I should apologize, somehow, but of course it was by no choice of mine. “
    “You did see Gath,” Rap admitted, “and he saw you! It may even have been the same night, but it doesn’t matter whether it was or not. He had a brief vision of a soldier; we didn’t realize it was you until about a month ago, or I would have come sooner. I fear I should have come a year ago, for I was warned then that the end of the millennium was brewing trouble. “
    “Warned by whom?” Sagorn demanded, white eyebrows perking up like a dog’s ears.
    “A God.” Rap spoke offhandedly, just to annoy him. “I’m not sure which God They were-one doesn’t think to shoot questions when Gods appear. I thought that the end of the millennium was awhile off, but I seem to have interpreted the date too literally. A year or two either way … When did the War of the Five Warlocks begin?”
    “Around 2000. ” Acopulo was not certain, though, and he had left himself open to another thrust from the old jotunn. “The Festival of Healing, 2003, was when Ulien’quith fled the capital,” Sagorn snapped. He was excited, and that was encouraging. The old sage was not easily persuaded, and if he accepted that the coming year 3000 was important, then something in his endless studies of ancient lore had led him to that belief. “You are right, your Majesty. A year or two either way does not matter. “
    “But the millennium itself does!” Rap agreed. “The pixies disappeared in the War of the Five Warlocks. Now his Majesty has seen a pixie. That seems to fit, somehow, doesn’t it? Every sorcerer from the wardens on down seems to have disappearedI detect almost no occult power in use anywhere. I sense a terrible evil overhanging the world. Warlock Raspnex’s warnings of chaos and the fall of the Protocol-those may fit, also, although I am far from ready to trust the dwarf. Any dwarf.”
    The great pending evil was rooted in Dwanish, and therefore dwarvish in origin. Not knowing that, the mundanes frowned disbelievingly and began to argue. Rap started to explain and was distracted by farsight. Downstairs in the kitchen, a dirty rag hanging on a nail had started to move in a breeze that had not been blowing until now.
    He felt the hair on his scalp prickle. The shutters had been forced, and two massive hands were gripping one of the bars that blocked the window. The owner of those hands was still outside, and hence shielded from him, but their size and their gray color were unmistakably dwarvish.
    The bar bent like a rope and was removed. Its neighbor followed, a moment later. The hands grabbed the stiles of the opening; a large head appeared, and massive shoulders. Raspnex squirmed into the room, and the ambience shivered as he used power to complete his acrobatic entrance and land on his feet.
    He found Rap at once, and recoiled in shock. For a moment the ambience was shadowed by images of thick stone walls. “I come in peace, your Majesty!”
    Raspnex believed that Rap was still his better at sorcery, but there were no secrets in the ambience.
    Trapped!
    “Then you are welcome, ” Rap said. “You are in no danger from me, Warlock. “
    The warden of the north was squat and broad, in the manner of dwarves. However he might look to a mundane, in the