Sac'a'rith by Vincent Trigili Read Free Book Online

in Korshalemia. I suppose you should have it now,” I said.
    “Korshalemia? How long did he live there?” she asked.
    “I’m not sure. The stories I heard were unclear about his coming and going, but best guess is fifteen to twenty years,” I said.
    “He never mentioned that. He must have awoken long before I did,” she said quietly. Raquel knelt by the chest and slowly moved her hand across the intricate carvings on its top and side. It was made of some local wood from the forest in Korshalemia and the writing and symbols were a mystery to me.
    It had two large metal hinges that I assumed were hand-forged, as Korshalemia didn’t have any machines to make them. The chest was held shut by a large latch in the front with a loop in it for a lock, although it had never been locked.
    Inside the chest was everything I could find that would fit inside. Narcion’s house was slated to be destroyed and at the time I had hoped to find him alive, so I’d tried to save what I could of his personal belongings. I had no idea what was important to him, so I had had to guess. Now that the chest was passing into his widow’s possession, I worried that I might have chosen poorly.
    I sighed deeply. There was no going back. “I’ll leave you to it.”
    “No, wait.” She rose and walked over to the curtain.
    This depicted a wonderful and hauntingly realistic forest scene. I never found out which forest was depicted, or why he had chosen this one. It was beautifully made from completely natural fibers and seemed to be one large continuous print. It was large enough to cover the entire wall from floor to ceiling. Even having done some sewing, I could not begin to guess how long it would take to weave something like this by hand, as I was sure this one had been woven; perhaps years or even decades.
    She pulled it aside, revealing the gate. “This is how I found you.”
    “What?” I asked.
    “You didn’t lock the gate after you used it last. Anyone with the dimensional line, like myself and Shira, can track an unlocked gate wherever it goes.”
    I looked over at the rune-covered ring in the wall. It was a large stone affair; far too big to have fitted through the door to the room, its presence therefore a complete mystery. The ring was unbroken and there seemed to be no way to take it apart. It was massive enough to allow two Zalionians walking shoulder to shoulder to pass through without ducking. When we had activated it it created a doorway to another realm, Korashalemia, where we found Ragnar, Narcion’s house and all the items that were in the chest.
    I had used it to search for Narcion when we had thought he had been captured but hadn’t given it any thought since then. “How do I lock it?”
    She placed her hand over the rune at the topmost part of the ring and said a command word. The center of the ring briefly pulsed with azure light. “Only the Sac’a’rith can operate this gate,” she said.
    “That’s why Crivreen couldn’t?” I asked.
    “Yes, and the reason I pulled you in here alone. Crivreen and Ragnar are not Sac’a’rith, as you and I are,” she said.
    “What do you mean?” I queried. Narcion had often talked about the noble order of the Sac’a’rith and insisted I was the first of a new generation, a rebirth of the order; but he’d never told me what the Sac’a’rith were, or what I was supposed to do after his death.
    “Just as one has to be born a magus, one has to be born a Sac’a’rith,” she said.
    “But Narcion invited me in and said that the others could join one day, too,” I said.
    “Narcion wasn’t a member of the order,” she said. “That invitation wasn’t valid. You and I are the only living members of the order of the Sac’a’rith that I know of. I accepted your nomination when Narcion offered it to you, so you are a member, full and true.”
    I sat down on Narcion’s bed and tried to get my mind around it. “Then he lied to me?”
    “No, not intentionally. Narcion