Wizards’ Worlds Read Online Free

Kill—strike
     behind the shoulder. Or, better still, draw your steel across his throat. He is but
     a man! He is the enemy—kill!”
    Tanree swayed, her body might be answering to the flow of a current. Without her will
     her hand arose, blade ready, the distance between her and the Falconer closed. She
     could easily do this, blood would indeed flow. Jonkara would be free of the bonds
     laid upon her by the meddling of fools.
    “Strike!”
    Tanree saw her hand move. Then that other will within her flared for a last valiant
     effort.
    “I am Tanree!” A feeble cry against a potent spell. “There is no power here before
     whom Sulcar bows!”
    The Falconer whirled, looked to her. No fear in his eyes, only cold hate. The bird
     on his shoulder spread wings, screamed. Tanree could not be sure—was there indeed
     a curl of red about its feet, anchoring it to its human perch?
    “She-devil!” he flung at her. Abandoning his fight for the sword, he raised his hand
     as if to strike Tanree across the face. Out of the air came a curl of tenuous red,
     to catch about his upraised wrist, so, even though he fought furiously, he was held
     prisoner.

    “Strike quickly!” The demand came with mind-bruising force.
    “I do not kill!” Finger by finger Tanree forced her hand to open. The blade fell,
     to clang on the stone floor.
    “ Fool!” The power sent swift punishing pain into her head. Crying out, Tanree staggered.
     Her outflung hand fell upon that same sword the Falconer had sought to loosen. It
     turned, came into her hold swiftly and easily.
    “Kill!”
    That current of hate and power filled her. Her flesh tingled, there was heat within
     her as if she blazed like an oil-dipped feast torch.
    “Kill!”
    She could not control the stone sword. Both of her hands closed about its cold hilt.
     She raised it. The man before her did not move, seek in any way to dodge the threat
     she offered. Only his eyes were alive now—no fear in them, only a hate as hot as what
     filled her.
    Fight—she must fight as she had the waves of the storm lashed sea. She was herself,
     Tanree—Sulcar—no tool for something evil which should long since have gone into the
     Middle Dark.
    “Kill!”
    With the greatest effort she made her body move, drawing upon that will within her
     which the other could not master. The sword fell.
    Stone struck stone—or was that true? Once more the air rippled, life overrode ancient
     death for a fraction of time between two beats of the heart, two breaths. The sword
     had jarred against Jonkara.
    “Fool—” a fading cry.
    There was no sword hilt in her hands, only powder sifting between her fingers. And
     no sparks of life in those red eyes either. From where the stone sword had struck
     full on the image’s shoulder cracks opened. The figure crumbled, fell. Nor did what
     Jonkara had been vanish alone. Allthose others were breaking too, becoming dust which set Tanree coughing, raising
     her hands to protect her eyes.
    Evil had ebbed. The chamber was cold, empty of what had waited here. A hand caught
     her shoulder, pulling at her.
    “Out!” This voice was human. “Out—Salzarat falls!”
    Rubbing at her smarting eyes, Tanree allowed him to lead her. There were crashing
     sounds, a rumbling. She cringed as a huge block landed nearby. They fled, dodging
     and twisting. Until at last they were under the open sky, still coughing, tears streaming
     from their eyes, their faces smeared with gray grit.
    Fresh wind, carrying with it the clean savor of the sea, lapped about them. Tanree
     crouched on a mat of dead grass through which the first green spears of spring pushed.
     So close to her that their shoulders touched was the Falconer. His bird was gone.
    They shared a small rise Tanree did not remember climbing. What lay below, between
     them and the sea cliff’s edge, was a tumble of stone so shattered no one now could
     define wall or passage. Her companion turned his head to look directly into