Wind Rider Read Online Free

green, and
I felt them bore into me.
    The man smiled.
    “ Neffe .”
    I felt everyone around me freeze. The room was
silent except for the sound of laughter. The man was laughing at us.
    Are you so surprised? Did you really think I’d
just let you all pop out of there on your little mission? Come, join me,
Anders. We can be great together.
    I turned my head to look at my companions but
there were all frozen; I felt Kalle’s hand tightening
in my own, and Kara’s too.
    No!!!
    Elias!!!
    I needed energy — I felt my companions being
sapped, stuck in this cycle as the Dark Lord laughed and continued talking to
me.
    Come on. They are your past. They will soon be
ashes and dust. Come with me, to the land of the living, and leave the dead
behind.
    I felt my hands being squeezed, looked to my right
and left and saw Kalle’s eyes unfocused, Kara’s eyes
rolling in her sockets. It was now or never.
    And then I felt a small hand touch me, the hand
between the sword pommel and my waist, and a word erupted forth from my mouth.
Energy surged from the sword, and from the hand, and from the ground beneath me
and the word knocked me back against the wall behind me as it blasted into the
laughing face.
    SCHLIESSEN!
    The energy surged through me, and the gateway
turned into a tiny dot. But it did not vanish. Then it was growing again, the
size of a coin, of a fist. I felt a surge from the sword and wished I could
grab it, but my hands were squeezed by Kalle and Kara,
and then Elias spoke behind me:
    VERSCHWINDEN!
    There was a great boom. The fist sized gateway
simple ceased to be, in a flash of light and the smell of burnt sulfur. There
was a burn mark on the wall behind where the gateway had been, and all around
us the walls seemed cracked, dull, broken.
    Lifeless.
    Elias had sucked the life energy out of the very
stone and mortar around us.
    I found myself on the floor. Beside me were Elias,
Kara, and Kalle . Woltan was
behind us, against the wall. Next to him were Karsten and Cullen, shaking their heads and looking dazed. There was a short moment
when I was afraid to breathe; I looked around, hoping everywhere to see life
and consciousness.
    I did.
    They were all alive.
    Woltan stood up. “Is
everyone all right?” His eyes seemed to glaze over and I realized he was
looking at everyone’s auras. I did the same. Everyone looked normal, but weak.
All except Elias, who glowed a little stronger still than the last time I’d
looked at his aura. It took me a moment to realize that I was looking at rage.
    He killed my mother. He will pay.
    I found myself holding Elias. He was sobbing
softly and I didn’t know what to say, what to do, so I just held him. Then Kara
was there, and she found the words that I couldn’t and put her hands through
Elias’s hair, and I saw Elias’s aura soften a bit.
    If anyone would know the words, it was Kara.
    My uncle had killed her father too.
    I put my hand down to my sword and felt a jolt. Next
time, leave your sword hand free, or better yet, on me! You would have all been
dead had it not been for Elias, and my cousin in Kara’s blade! She told him
what to do, as Kara was paralyzed.
    OK.
    I let go of the blade. “I should have left my
sword hand free.”
    Woltan nodded. “We have
not been nearly careful enough. Hopefully today will start us on a new, better
path. I think that Kara and Kalle will agree with me
that it is not a good idea to use your Kriek gateways
right now.”
    I looked at them and they nodded. He is perhaps
one of us too, to our shame, and stronger than any of us.
    There was a moment of silent thought as we all
stood around. Then it was Elias who spoke. “I have spoken to the city and one
gate remains open, for those who can read the runes. I will walk through it,
and take with me those who would go.”
    Cullen spoke first. “He is just a boy yet more
connected to the ancient ways than any of us. If he says there is a gate, I
will follow him through it. If the old stories speak