Nightlord: Orb by Garon Whited Read Free Book Online Page B

spirit of mine.  Several rings, the two plain ones being magical and the others jeweled, and an enchanted amulet of some sort rounded out the ensemble.  I could also feel the enchantment on an undergarment, but I didn’t take time to check my underwear.
    Movement in the mirror caught my eye.  I glanced to where the source of the reflection would have to be, but there was nothing. I was alone in the room.
    I examined the mirror more closely.  It was a slab of glass about an inch thick, maybe seven feet tall and three wide, polished to perfection.  It was backed with a layer of brilliant silver.
    Tort and a Thing were struggling inside it.  I could see it as though watching through a window, but with no trace of sound.  It was a hell of a fight.  My double was trying to approach the mirror from the other side, presumably to get out, but Tort was in the way and seemed intent on staying there.
    When a professional magician decides to block your way, it’s a serious obstacle.  Tort is an extremely serious magician.
    I went right up to the mirror and laid a hand on it.  It was warm to the touch.  I didn’t have a reflection of my own; it really was like looking in through a window.  The Thing—my Evil Twin—saw me.  His eyes widened and I saw him scream.  When he charged, Tort handed him some sort of lance through the torso.  It looked like fire and lightning hammered into a bar of destruction.  It went through his body and threw him back, pinning him to the far wall.  It remained there for several seconds, trailing long streamers of yellow and blue around him, cagelike.  Tort never bothered to turn around; she stayed focused.
    Okay, Boss.  Now you have to activate the spells on the mirror.
    “Why?  What do they do?”
    I dunno; I’m just the messenger.
    I examined the mirror with my magical vision and found the spells.  They were incredibly complicated and intricate; it would take hours to trace all their pathways and figure out how they worked.  On the other hand, it was easy to see how to activate them.  It was the equivalent of a few hundred miles of circuitry with a big “ON” button.
    “Are you sure about this?” I asked.
    Tort said she wouldn’t be able to hold him for long and you had to do it quickly , Firebrand assured me.  She really stressed that, Boss.
    I pushed the metaphysical button before Firebrand finished.  If Tort said to do it, and to hurry, then I would do it, and I would hurry.
    The mirror clouded over instantly with a silvery, opaque sheen, as though coated in silver on the front as well as on the back.  There followed a long, bright flash, blue-white, as though silent lightning scattered around the chamber for the space of several seconds.  I ducked by reflex and turned away, trying to avoid electrocution, but nothing touched me.  It wasn’t electricity; not a single hair rose at the blinding sparks.
    I blinked afterimages from my vision and saw the mirror had dimmed, tarnished into an ugly, inky black.  The silver continued to darken unnaturally as I watched.  The whole thing melted and softened, flowing thickly, viscously, as molten glass will.  The blackened silver darkened further, turning positively Stygian, spreading through the flowing glass as though diffusing through it.  The whole mass slumped down, pooled, and humped up into a dark, featureless ball.  It seemed to shrink in on itself, darkening further as it did so, finally stabilizing at about a foot in diameter before solidifying.  It was a deep, unnatural black by then—a black that looked black , even to eyes that see without light.
    It rolled across the floor, slowly, ringing as it went, until it came to rest against the wall.
    “Firebrand?”
    Yes, Boss?
    “Where’s Tort?”
    You better ask T’yl.  I just work here.
    “Firebrand…”
    Seriously, Boss.  I don’t know the spells involved or how any of it works.  I swear.  Tort said she had this rescue thing all planned out.  That’s