Kastori Tribulations (The Kastori Chronicles Book 3) by Stephen Allan Read Free Book Online Page A

So ursus for breakfast it is.
    He chuckled quietly, wanting to maintain the peaceful silence the early morning brought Anatolus.
    Typhos wished he could teleport to the woods and save time—and, while he thought about it, have stronger red magic—but such a dream, he knew, required him to actually take his next class seriously. Guess I have to have a weakness. Make me easier to relate to.
    He instead walked down at an accelerating rate as he left the Kastori outpost and could afford to make more noise. He walked about a hundred feet into the forest and climbed one of the trees he had used for pranks in the past. He ascended about fifty feet and closed his eyes, trying to sense for an ursus in the area.
    But Typhos struggled. Every time he tried to clear his mind to sense for his breakfast in the area, he thought about the day ahead. Hanna or, more unfortunately, his father’s illness kept crashing his mind. Wish I could just instantly create the spell instead of having to sit here and think about it.
    Finally, after about a dozen minutes of struggling, with his last thought consisting of how he and Hanna would take the council by storm after their silly politics kept him out, he gave up trying to stay single-minded on his task. Typhos let his mind wander, thinking about everything he could, hoping it would eventually wipe itself out and allow him to cast his spell.
    After a couple of minutes, it became apparent he would need to let his mind wander for quite some time. He thought about traveling to new worlds and spreading the reign of the Kastori to as many places as possible. He thought about learning powers that no Kastori knew just through sheer studying and the power he had. Why not? New power leads to new magic. For just a flash, he saw images of three planets in his mind—one brown, one white, and one green. I’ve never seen those before. Weird.
    Typhos didn’t think much of it, though, as he imagined taking over the council. He thought first of doing it the correct way and celebrating the moment when the other six council members would appoint him chief. Maybe his mother could even resign and let him take over, continuing the unusual method that his father had used.
    He shifted to a more gruesome scene, wherein he took the council by force. He had flashes of two images—one consisted of him holding a man upside down, flames all over him, and a bony hand before his eyes on the man’s head. My own? A second image appeared where he held out a sword, and saw a woman that looked like… like his mother, but aged decades, on the ground before him. He wore a mask but had such power that he could see through it as if in the real world.
    The images only flickered in his mind, not long enough to be certain of anything but present enough to narrow the possibilities down.
    “Come on man, now you gotta focus,” he said out loud, realizing letting his mind race had only enabled it to run a marathon of thoughts.
    He closed his eyes and told himself to focus for five seconds. It worked—he could sense dozens of aviants in the trees, a couple of arachnias scurrying about, and about five precora grazing a hundred yards away. He did not see any ursus.
    He turned and looked up at the one other place he knew ursus resided—Mount Ardor. Plus they’re stronger there. Which may not be the safest thing for me, but screw it, it’s my birthday. And I’m Typhos, not some average Kastori. Danger doesn’t really apply to me.
    Slowly, he descended the branches, taking his time as he pleased. He jumped from the final step, holding his hands out as if accepting raucous applause from his friends.
    He reached the mountainous range without much trouble, though he always kept his head on a swivel. He came to the first path and closed his eyes for sensing purposes. A couple of miles away, he picked up the weak presence of an ursus. Is my magic bad or… Nah. Let’s go find out. Your magic can’t be that bad. Your weakness is still a