Magi Saga 1: Epic Calling by Andrew Dobell Read Free Book Online Page B

moments.
    Nate, stood next to her looking over the landscape, he seemed slightly better dressed for the warmth, in his khaki combat trousers and white vest. A tall man and powerfully built, she supposed he might be handsome in a traditionally boring way. Chiselled jaw, strong cheek bones, short blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, he had a young Brad Pitt aura to him, intelligent and brooding.
    Tattoos wrapped around his body, muted colours in various blasphemous shapes covered nearly every inch of his torso, only stopping at his wrists and neck line. The tattoo’s depicted various traditionally unholy or horrific images, from the usual inverted holy symbols, like an upside down cross or pentacle through to pictures of demons, dragons, gorgons and other hellish creatures raping and torturing a variety of women, men and holy figures from scripture such as Jesus and Mohammad.
    The sunlight caught his body as Kez looked at him, framing him in a nimbus of golden light. He held the privileged position of Yasmin’s current favourite apprentice, and had done so for several years now.
    Kez looked back out at the camp and allowed her mind to open up, letting the flow of magical energy become visible to her. The currents were stronger where life had recently been, and also much stronger around one tent in particular. Kez surmised that it must have been Amy’s tent. Meanwhile, just beyond the tents, the Dead Magic Zone sat over the plateau, visible as a dome shaped area devoid of Magical energy, just as Kez expected.
    Amy should have reported back once every so often to update Yasmin, but she was days overdue now and a cursory Magical scrying showed that the camp seemed to be deserted, so Yasmin had sent Kez and Nate to have a look around.
    ‘Go and check out the tomb.’ Kez said flatly to Nate, ‘I’ll be in the camp.’ She walked forward and moved towards the tents, while Nate moved off in the direction of the tomb.
    As she moved down the dune, the sand cascaded along the slope before her with each step, the wind pulled at her black hair and ragged hood. She passed between the now rather sad looking shelters and camp equipment, sizing the area up, looking for any life at all. The silence made the whole thing into something like a ghost town, an abandoned settlement left suddenly and unexplainably several days ago.
    She pulled back the flap of the occasional tent, to look inside at the abandoned personal effects. Clothes, shaving equipment, cuddly toys, all just left to the desert.
    Outside Amy’s tent she paused a moment on the threshold to see Nate disappear over the nearby ridge heading to the tomb before she moved inside.
    The large tent held a bed, suitcase, table and chair, nothing too out of the ordinary really. On the large table, Amy had set out the finds of the dig, all laid out neatly and virtually untouched apart from a dusting of several days sand over everything. It looked almost as it should have done, apart from the glaring omission from the display. One piece was missing, the biggest of the lot, it had been set in the middle of the table and taken up the largest area with everything else arrayed around it. There were a few photos of it next to where it should have been, and some notes as well. Kez picked up one of the photos and let the sand fall from its surface.
    There in the square piece of paper she looked at the photo of the huge stone slab, about a foot in length on the longest side according to the measure placed next to it in the picture. Under the image, on the white strip of the Polaroid, Amy had written ‘The Artefact?’
    As far as Kez knew, she’d been the only person that Yasmin had told about the Artefact she suspected lay in the Tomb here and it’s Magical potential. Presumed lost centuries ago, to those in the know, this Artefact could change everything. But had it been found here?
    Looking at the notes, Kez began skimming through them. Amy had copied some of the carvings and made careful