A Rule of Queens (Book #13 in the Sorcerer's Ring) by Morgan Rice Read Free Book Online Page B

tides were a portal to the Land of Spirits.”
    Thor looked at Reece, wondering.
    “Old wives’ tales and fairytales,” O’Connor
said. “There is no portal to the Land of Spirits. It was sealed off centuries
ago, before our fathers walked the earth.”
    Reece shrugged, and they all fell silent as they
turned and stared out at the seas. Thor examined the fast-moving waters, and he
wondered: Where on earth were they being lead?
    *
    Thor sat alone, at the edge of the boat,
staring into the waters as he had been for hours, the cold spray hitting him in
the face. Numb to the world, he barely felt it. Thor wanted to be in action, to
be hoisting sails, rowing—anything—but there was nothing for any them to do now.
The Northern tides were taking them where they would, and all they could do was
sit idly by and watch the currents, their boat rolling in the long waves, and
wonder where they would end up. They were in the hands of the fates now.
    As Thor sat there, studying the horizon,
wondering where the sea would end, he felt himself drifting into nothingness,
numb from the cold and the wind, lost in the monotony of the deep silence that hung
over all of them. The seabirds that had at first circled them had disappeared
long ago, and as the silence deepened, as the sky fell darker and darker, Thor
felt as if they were sailing into nothingness, into the very ends of the earth.
    It was hours later, as the last light of day
was falling, that Thor sat upright, spotting something on the horizon. At first
he was certain it was an illusion; but as the currents became stronger, the
shape became more distinct. It was real.
    Thor sat up straight, for the first time in
hours, then rose to his feet. He stood there, boat swaying, hands on his hips,
looking out.
    “Is it real?” came a voice.
    Thor looked over to see Reece stepping forward
beside him. Elden, Indra, and the rest soon joined them, all staring out in
wonder.
    “An island?” O’Connor wondered aloud.
    “Looks like a cave,” Matus said.
    As they approached, Thor began to see the
outline of it, and he saw that it was indeed a cave. It was a massive cave, an
outcropping of rock that rose up from the sea, emerging here, in the midst of a
cruel and endless ocean, rising hundreds of feet high, the opening shaped in a
big arch. It looked like a giant mouth, ready to swallow all the world.
    And the currents were taking their boat right
toward it.
    Thor stared at in wonder, and he knew it could
only be one thing: the entrance to the Land of the Spirits.

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
     
    Darius walked slowly down the dirt path, Loti
by his side, the air filled with the tension of their silence. Neither had said
a word since their encounter with the taskmaster and his men, and Darius’s mind
swarmed with a million thoughts as he walked beside her, accompanying her back
to their village. Darius wanted to drape an arm around her, to tell her how grateful
he was that she was alive, that she had saved him as he had saved her, how
determined he was to never let her leave his side again. He wanted to see her
eyes filled with joy and relief, he wanted to hear her say how much it meant to
her that he had risked his life for her—or at the very least, that she was
happy to see him.
    Yet as they walked in the deep, awkward
silence, Loti said nothing, would not even look at him. She had not said a word
to him since he had caused the avalanche, had not even met his eyes. Darius’s
heart pounded, wondering what she was thinking. She had witnessed him summoning
his power, had witnessed the avalanche. In its wake, she had given him a
horrified look, and had not looked at him again since.
    Perhaps, Darius thought, in her view, he had
broken the sacred taboo of her people in drawing on magic, the one thing her
people looked down upon more than anything. Perhaps she was afraid of him; or
even worse, perhaps she no longer loved him. Perhaps she thought of him as some
sort of freak.
    Darius felt his heart