Hostiles (The Galactic Mage series) by John Daulton Read Free Book Online Page A

tried to shape words through the echo of itself, a great grating coming out of a deep and enormous cave. It was so enormous it threw Altin to the ground, the vibrations coming in the form of an earthquake, a violent rumble that tossed him against the wall and jabbed him full of shallow puncture wounds, his back and arms stuck first by the tips of the many crystals jutting from the wall, and then his palms and knees when he hit the ground.
    What in nine hells?
    “Then I must die,” rumbled the mighty voice again, the words more articulate this time, as if once was enough practice for that.
    “No,” he said, scrambling to his feet, his mind awhirl. When did she learn to speak? Had she always known? More of the ruse, the lie? “You don’t need to die. No one has to die. Just call them back. I beg of you. There is no reason to kill them all.”
    “Not. Mine.” Once again Altin was thrown to the floor by the shaking. The resonance of the consonant sounds moved the ground half a span vertically. Blood dripped from Altin’s hands, and he could feel it running in several hot rivulets down his shins.
    “Then whose? Tell me that, and explain. Make me believe.” He didn’t want to hear it. He knew it would be a lie.
    “Not mine.” This time he caught himself against the wall, though his hands were minced more just the same. Her voice came from everywhere. It was terrifying, but not more so than Altin’s fear for Orli.
    “That’s not good enough.”
    “Not mine.” This time it barely rumbled beneath his feet. It came once more after that, only in his mind, gently, like a thing settling back into place. Then Blue Fire fell silent.
    Altin slumped against the wall. Exhausted. He looked at his palms, which gleamed wetly in the golden light coming from the walls around him. He could see, just visible as a faint line around the edge of his ring, the green pulse of the stone embedded in the silver. The stone she had given him. Blue Fire’s gift of heart stone, a bit of herself, a bit of the father’s gift, which was the dark green stone.
    Maybe he was wrong.
    He thought about the look on Doctor Singh’s face only a few moments before. The hate and sorrow. The total lack of trust.
    Maybe he was doing it too.
    Truth . The thought came into his mind on a wave of sadness.
    “Then who?” he repeated yet again. “Is there another one? Another Blue Fire?”
    No other Blue Fire.
    “Then it has to be you.”
    Not mine.
    Altin exhaled so long and so deeply it made him see stars. Or perhaps those were on account of utter fatigue. The emotions coming off Blue Fire had been so intense, they sapped his strength just as water takes the heat out of newly forged steel. It had to be her. There was no one else. She was either lying or there was something wrong with her and she didn’t realize what she was doing. Either way, it had to stop.
    “I wish I could believe you,” he said. “I want to. But I can’t. If you can stop them, if this is some game, or some feeding mechanism for you … just stop.”
    Not mine.
    “If Orli dies, so do you. Or I will die trying to finish you. That’s a promise.”
    Orli Love live. Blue Fire die. The thought was demure. A pleading surrender. A willing sacrifice.
    Altin shook his head trying to block her from his thoughts. He needed her out of his head long enough for him to think.
    He stooped and picked up Doctor Singh’s tablet from where it had fallen when he was first knocked to the ground. He stared at his reflection in the blank space of its glassy surface. His dumb face looking haggard and helpless. He had no idea how to make it work. He had no idea how to find her. The homing lizard hadn’t come back. For all his power, he could do nothing right now. Orli was flying toward certain death, certain death that would claim her if the certain death of the flight didn’t get her first. If it hadn’t gotten her already. And there was not one thing Altin could do about it but pray. And prayer was