Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3) by Brian Wilkerson Read Free Book Online Page B

frostbite. He could do it
during the summer months if he didn’t mind the attention.
    Kas...
    Such things must be done at a joust or in private: he
missed the last joust and Siron won't leave us alone. Not that I want to be
alone with him! It wouldn't be proper… You're okay, I mean, nobody believes I'd
compromise my chastity for you. No offense! It's just that you're my minion and
he's a prince and—I just called you a “minion,” didn't I?
    Eric wondered if their mental link was working right. Did
my bout of monsanity affect it? Kasile, a fiercely independent queen,
sounded like a lovesick schoolgirl. It flew in the face of everything he
remembered about her. Aside from a passionate make-out after the rescue in the
sewer, she never acted like this with Culmus. She's still a teenager, but
Lunas has ordercraft. I need to keep his claws out of her...Let's see, Captain
Quando, Basilard, Kas' team, the tricksters ...
    He spared a glance to Kallen and added her to the list.
Between her association with Tasio, her work with mana mutation, and her
experience as a monster, she was steeped in chaos. There was no one better when
mounting a defense against Order. She also had extensive knowledge of this
ordercrafter in particular.
    We can team up and split the meat. I mean, spoils. I
don’t care about the meat on Lunas’ bones, although he’s definitely well fed
and... Stop thinking like that!
    To Kasile, he thought, Do you want me to come by and
talk?
    About that. I'm glad you asked because I didn't know
how to bring it up. You don't have to come to the castle anymore.
    Say what?
    I've been thinking about what you said before leaving
for Ceiha and you're right. I can't demand that you drop everything whenever I
want to vent about something. It isn't fair to you and potentially dangerous,
considering what happened with the villainous Duke Selen. Anything we need to
discuss can be done with our link.
    A red flag flashed and a klaxon alarm blared in Eric's
mind. He decided to put his reunion with Annala on hold until he spoke with the
anti-ordercraft group. The more Kasile's words spun in his head, the more
territorial he became, and the more his thought process became less human. When
he spotted monsters ahead of them, he showed fangs instead of teeth.
    It was a pack of Xulfs; mammalian monsters the size of
dogs. They had five legs and fish fins that allowed them to fly on currents of
air. Their fur turned white for the winter, but Eric could still see them
because the fins stayed blue all year. Watching them eat snow and tree bark
made Eric remember the food lost due to the teleport.
    "Fishing time!"
    Snow flew behind him as he dashed toward the monsters. By
the time they noticed him, he impaled one on his spear and stunned another with
a mana bolt. He grabbed a third with his teeth. The rest scattered and Eric
crouched on all fours while he ripped the three apart.
    Kallen sighed. "I have a lot more work to do."
    She stood next to the humanoid creature gorging itself and
waited. After a minute or so, he suddenly became aware of himself. Hunched over
in the snow, covered in blood, and eating a corpse, he was behaving like a
monster. He jumped into the nearest snowbank to hide himself and the blood
dripping from him dyed it red.
    “Run away! I might eat you next!”
    “Eric,” Kallen said softly, “we talked about this.”
    “I lost control…I’m dangerous!”
    Kallen hummed a tune. It had a slow rhythm and gentle tone.
Then she began to sing,
     "Am I sapient or a monster? Hope or Despair? Where
have I come; where do I go? The Trickster grins. The Trickster grins. The
Trickster grins."
    "What's that?"
    "A nursery rhyme my foster mother taught me about the
River of Chaos, or as humans call it, the Universal Flow of Mana.”
    Plunging her arm into the snowbank, she pulled the human
boy out. Then she hugged him. Comfort flooded his mind as she spoke, “You are
what you choose to be. The Trickster will be amused either way.