Ahriman: Sorcerer by John French Read Free Book Online Page A

nothing, as though she was a fallen flower lifted by a breeze, she floated into the air. The web of chains clinked, and the masked attendants tensed.
    Iobel waited, half watching with her eyes, half feeling the invisible tide of the warp spiral through the chamber. It pulled at her thoughts. Sweat began to bead Iobel’s forehead, and ran into her eyes. Heat was spreading through her flesh. A taste of lightning and metal ran across her tongue.
    Izdubar was silent and utterly still, his eyes focused on the seer. The silence extended beat by beat.
    The seer spoke.
    +Ah-zek-mag-nus-oh-there-wyrd-make-kall-is-ta-er-is…+
    It was a whisper at first, a low murmur of sound that rose out of the waiting quiet, overlapping and echoing. Iobel strained to hear, and then realised that she was hearing the same sounds twice, once with her mind and once with her ears.
    +…cam-illes-hi-vani-ah-muz-emekh-he-ru-me-aph-ael-au-ri-es-fu-er-za-ra-mse-h-ett…+
    The sound rose, rolling along with a rising rhythm. Beside her, Erionas had closed his eyes, light glowing through his eyelids.
    ‘Names,’ mouthed Erionas to himself, his head nodding in time with the wash of syllables.
    +…hor-kos-haa-kon-oulf-ca-r-me-n-ta-gz-rel…+
    Iobel knew the names. They were names she had found in dried scraps of lore, in what remained of a forgotten and secret history.
    +…ph-o-sis-t-k-ar-ha-th-or-maa-t-u-th-iz-aar-kha-lo-ph-is-a-sh-ur-kai-dj-ed-hor-jai-k-el-ka-ra-ja-hn-ru-tat…+
    The seer spoke the names in a continual flow without break or pause.
    +…ra-ho-tep-ph-ae-l-to-ron-au-ra-ma-g-ma-an-khu-an-en…+
    She frowned. She had heard this mind impression before, but each time the names were different, some added, some gone.
    +…Xiatsis Cottadaron Maroth Karoz Kadin Thidias Cadar Ohrmuzd Lemuel Gaumon Amon Magnus Tolbek Hagos Egion Helio Isidorus Mabius Ro Pentheus Nycteus Memunim Menkaura…+
    The seer was shouting now, spit flying up to meet the sunlight. The warp was singing, a chorus of whispers scratching against her will.
    +…Amon Zebul Ketuel Silvanus Yeshar Jehoel Midrash Arvenus Kiu Zabaia Siamak Artaxerxes Calitiedies Iskandar Khayon Ignis Sycld Grimur Sanakht–+
    The seer went silent. Her withered face twisted, creases forming and shifting around the empty sockets of her eyes. Her lips trembled as though she was trying to cry. She looked utterly terrified.
    ‘Nine suns,’ whimpered the seer, turning her head as though looking around her. ‘Nine suns above towers of silver and sapphire. It is here, it is all of us. It is burning. I am burning. It has fallen – the sun has fallen and the entire world is light.’ She paused and shook her head. ‘What have we done? Failure has no answer. There is dust, dust rising on the wind so that I cannot see. The eyes of the dead are all around me… Is this the redemption you sought?’
    The seer hung her head, her shoulders shaking.
    ‘The swirl of stars. A figure burned onto the horizon. I am fate come round at last. I see lines of choice vanish into darkness, and I cannot see their ends. The broken king remade. Vortices of destruction that scream the names of those who created them. The netherborn scavenging the remains of worlds split open like soft fruit.’ The seer stopped suddenly, her breath coming heavy, fuming with cold in the shaft of sunlight. Frost was spreading across her face from her mouth. ‘They rise,’ she breathed. ‘The dreams of enslaved worlds scream. The storm calls them. It stands on the horizon. It is the void defined by fire.’ The seer breathed out the last word, swayed, and her head lolled to her chest. Ice had crusted her robe now, and crawled across her skin.
    ‘And what is the storm’s name?’ said Izdubar. His voice was low, but its sound made Iobel flinch.
    The seer did not answer.
    ‘Speak its name,’ said Izdubar, and the command cracked like a whip.
    ‘Ahriman,’ gasped the seer. ‘Ahriman.’ She was shaking, the web of chains holding her creaking and