The Making of a Mage King: White Star by Anna L. Walls Read Free Book Online Page B

bushwhacked might be a better word to use, since their attackers seemed to appear out of the woodwork. Their assailants fought about as dirty as anything Sean had ever seen. Sean immediately teleported the girls back to camp for their safety, which was probably the biggest reason the fight ended.
    About that same moment, Sean recognized the younger man he had seen in the bar; he was calling his men off. Those who could, pulled back at his command, but despite the brief clash, there were some casualties. Two of his men had been killed. Swords tend to outreach daggers face-to-face, and Cordan and Sean were both good with a sword; they’d been able to keep their opponents from closing inside of their reach.
    Larry hadn’t been quite so lucky. He had been almost hamstrung before he could get his guard up and hadn’t been able to draw blood in return.
    “So, Dad said you looked like him, but he also said it was impossible.”
    “Looked like who, my father? Everyone keeps telling me that,” returned Sean as he fixed Larry’s knee. “They tell me that I look even more like my grandfather, those who knew him.”
    “Only the old king could send two people at once. What else can you do?” He didn’t realize that Sean had just healed Larry; all he saw was his helping him to his feet and leaning him against the wall.
    Sean stepped through the men and rested a hand on each one. He healed each of their wounds, though none of them had been life-threatening. One of them also had something wrong with his lungs. Sean was not a doctor, he had no idea what the problem was, but he detected it when he healed a cut on his forearm and was a couple steps past him before he realized it. He backed up and rested a hand on the man’s chest. By now, everyone was muttering and shifting, but none of them wavered or guarded against Sean’s touch.
    He cleared the man’s lungs and he took a deep breath in surprise. The man was suddenly the center of everyone’s attention. It looked like they were all waiting for him to start coughing, and when he didn’t, there was another wave of muttering. When Sean reached the man who had spoken and had healed the shallow cut he had across his chest, he said, “Does that answer your question well enough?”
    He studied Sean’s face then glanced across his men; his face held a hard expression that hid whatever went on behind his eyes. “I’ll let Dad decide. Come with me.” He waved his hand and the men filtered away as fast as they had appeared, then he led off down a narrow alley.
    This didn’t look too promising. Though the alley was deserted, and though the only man who had stayed with them was their guide, Sean didn’t feel comfortable sheathing his swords. He did, however, put one of them away so he could help Larry walk. His knee was healed, but it would be a while before it wouldn’t be tender anymore.
    The man led them to a dark door in the back of a building, then into a back room lit only by smoky oil lamps. He stopped them only far enough into the room to close the door behind them.
    Charles sat in one corner looking small and forlorn in the big wooden chair, and pacing in the middle of the room was the other man who had been sitting at that table. He stopped his pacing at their entrance and gave the three of them a long look. “Where are the others?”
    “They vanished,” replied their guide.
    The questioner looked directly at Sean. “You sent them away? Where?”
    “I did; they’re safe,” replied Sean.
    The man studied them a moment longer, then he turned to Charles. “Is that him?”
    “Yes,” said Charles. “If you had let me go, I could have brought him here and you wouldn’t have lost two of your men.”
    So, he had already received a report about the fight.
    The man sighed and started to pace again. He sighed again and said, “What am I supposed to do with you?”
    “Nothing,” said Sean. “A better question to ask would be: what am I going to do with you , Ruihano