Stained Glass Monsters by Andrea Höst Read Free Book Online Page B

busy
kitchen.
    There were wards on the doors and
windows, but nothing which would notice her lifting herself onto
the roof. There she found pigeon-cotes and gently smoking chimneys
and a nice clear space at the front.
    Setting down the jar, she took a
paintbrush from her pocket and began marking a circle of sigils on
the dark stone. It was necessary to work quickly, before any part
dried, but was a simple method of ensuring that any sign of her
casting would evaporate soon after she'd gone through. The jar
sitting quietly in the corner of the roof would be much less
obvious than the usual chalk sigils. Satisfied that she'd drawn the
circle correctly, Rennyn absently murmured the names of the sigils
as she pushed power into them, and watched the world fade about
her.
    Last time, at the town north-east of
Sark – Finton it had been called – she had arrived close on the
incursion. Starting a full twelve hours beforehand in Asentyr meant
she had time to pause in the cool of the Eferum, to close her eyes
and allow the power to tingle through her, enjoying the conflicting
sensation of floating and being crushed. This, she'd often thought,
must be what it was like in the very depths of the ocean. Nothing
all around but cold blackness, supported by the water, wrenched at
by the tides.
    Since she wasn't here to summon, Rennyn
made no attempt to hold off the great force of power, but simply
let it flow through her, stealing warmth and teasing her thoughts
out in streamers which swept away and were lost on the currents.
She often used black ribbons in her casting purely because she'd
spent so much time in the Eferum it felt as if half her mind was
out there, spun into lost threads of thought.
    Turning, Rennyn oriented on the point
where the incursion would take place, allowing herself to see the
outline of the buildings and road and the fantastical trailing
pinpricks of light which were people. Already hours must have
passed. The trails of light died away of a sudden, until only the
occasional mote zoomed by. The curfew was in place. Soon, soon
now.
    She clasped the stone, making certain
the ring was firmly in place. It was coming, changing the tides
around her. A great wave of power, distorting the normal flows,
bellying out to touch the world beyond. Rennyn tightened her hand
and felt the stone slip and tug, vibrating with the force of the
Grand Summoning. She had–
    Rennyn gasped, a futile thing in a place
without breath, serving only to chill her lungs. Outside Finton she
had seen the three Eferum-Get as they escaped into the world. The
breach from the Eferum had been a sizeable width, increasing the
likelihood that something would be near enough to slip through.
This one was not much larger, but – no, the shadows which were
momentarily outlined by the breach hadn't been nearby. They'd been
brought to this point – pushed by – riding? – the wave of power
itself. And there were so many.
    Astonished and dismayed, Rennyn spoke
the trigger which would shift her to the far side of the veil.
She'd delayed last time, measuring the flow of the Eferum, and come
out many hours after the incursion. Even now, she would be returned
well after the moment of incursion, but she had to – had to–
    Coughing, skin goose-nabbed and
jittering, Rennyn staggered the few steps to the small wall which
edged the roof and looked out at the city. She could hear
screaming. Shouts. Something breaking. The third building down to
the right was in flames. A clutch of people stood before it, black
shapes dominated by the glimmer of the Montjuste Phoenix. And
everywhere moving shadows. Shadows with claws.
    Even these Summoning-produced incursions
should not involve more than a handful of Eferum-Get. They were
problematic because the breaches were large enough to allow through
other types of Eferum-Get than the more common Night Stalkers and
Life Stealers, those which excelled at slipping through the
smaller, natural breaches. This – this had been