Dreams of Fire and Gods 2: Fire by James Erich Read Free Book Online Page B

dryly, but Sael caught a twinkle of humor in his eyes. “I’ve been attempting to get that seed to sprout since midday. But the accursed thing simply sits there, mocking me.”
Sprout? If this was Taaweh magic, it was certainly alien to anything Sael had learned during his apprenticeship. Not even the ömem could force a tree to grow. But Sael had seen with his own eyes the forest springing up from Harleh Plain during the battle.
“Unlearn the old ways,” the Taaweh woman said softly. “Do not try to force the energy to do your bidding. Simply guide it.”
Geilin closed his eyes and breathed deeply for several breaths, his shoulders relaxing. Then he opened his eyes slightly, yet still keeping them narrow and unfocused, as if he were in some sort of a trance. He gazed down at the seed.
For a long time, nothing appeared to be happening. The room was silent apart from Geilin’s somewhat labored breathing and Sael’s own even breaths. If the Taaweh breathed at all, Sael couldn’t hear it.
Then the kanun seed rocked just a bit. A moment later it slowly rolled to one side, and Sael was surprised to see what had moved it was a tiny green shoot that had pushed its way through a crack in the shell. Geilin barely moved, his eyelids flickering only slightly as the shoot began to elongate, but Sael felt his hair standing on end. It wasn’t so much from fear as the feeling that he was witnessing something miraculous. Even the Taaweh woman was smiling in encouragement.
Then something seemed to go horribly wrong. Geilin screamed and grasped his head with his hands, collapsing to his knees in apparent agony. The kanun seed exploded—or rather, green tendrils erupted out of it, splaying out in all directions and writhing like green serpents. The tendrils sprouted leaves and slithered across the floor so rapidly that Sael had to jump up onto Geilin’s bed to get away from them. They began to thicken and branch out until Sael feared they would fill the entire chamber.
But the Taaweh calmly extended her arm over the writhing mass, and the plant grew still. After a moment, it retreated until it was no more than a seed with a single sprout growing up out of it, just a few inches tall with a couple of leaves at the tip.
Sael jumped down from the bed and rushed to Master Geilin’s side. The old man was gasping for breath, his face buried in quivering hands as he knelt on the stone floor. The tattoo on his scalp had completely disappeared.
“Master Geilin?”
Slowly, as if recovering from a stunning blow, Geilin lowered his hands. His eyes seemed to stare blankly into space, and for a moment Sael was concerned the wizard had gone blind. But then Geilin’s eyes focused and he looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time. “Something… something broke.”
The Taaweh stepped forward, smiling. “Your bond to the Stronni has been severed.”
“I feel… better.”
“You should rest now, iinyeh . Sleep. Your body has been through a considerable amount of trauma.”
Geilin extended a hand and Sael took it, helping the old man to his feet. As Geilin straightened up, Sael could see the color had come back to his cheeks and his eyes seemed clear and sharp. Truthfully, he looked weary but healthier than he had for several days.
“Perhaps you’re right,” Geilin replied after a deep breath. “I feel as if I could sleep for a very long time.”
    K
OREH stood at the edge of an enormous chasm so vast he could barely make out the other side. It was nothing more than a swathe of blackness against a dark-gray overcast sky. The Eye of Druma was almost completely closed, making the night dark, and the cloud cover made the chance of discovery extremely small. It was only this that prevented Koreh from panicking at the thought that he was now deep in the realm of the Stronni. To the south, the enormous Pontu Wall of the Stronni snaked its way through the mountains all the way to the ocean in the west. It was so high that no human was