The Man In The Wind by Sorenna Wise Read Free Book Online Page B

Part of her sincerely hoped that he would say no, so that he would never endure the pain on which she’d just been reflecting, but she was still a little bit sad for him when he did.
           “No.” A short interlude came up between them, and then he went on. “There was a woman once—” Here he stopped.
           She watched him expectantly. “A woman?”
           “Yeah.” Rai stared fixedly at the roof of the tent. “She was a Seer the king brought in from some other country. She didn’t believe he had a necromancer, so he got her to the castle and made me demonstrate for her. She tried to seduce me that night.”
           Iris chewed her lip. “Did you let her?”
           He gave her a dry look. “Serberos found her out before she got too far. He thought she was planning to kidnap me. But I think she thought that if we slept together it would give her the same abilities I had. That’s not how it works, by the way.”
           She was amused by how quickly he had added the last sentence. “I take it that wasn’t the only time you’ve gotten that proposition.”
           “That was the only time someone ever actually tried, but no. You’d be surprised at what some people are into.” He shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know much about those things. I was young when he killed me. I never went through any of that.”
           “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.” The girl twisted a lock of hair around her index finger. “You want to assume that people are a certain way, but it’s never—or rarely—true.”
           “I think that’s universal,” Rai said, his voice tinged with bitterness. She took his hand and squeezed it.
          
    ---
     
           The troop of Seers joined the king on his overlook. They circled around him like sentries, fur-lined white cloaks billowing. The leader was a wizened, ancient woman whose frail frame was lost in her robes. She stood at Serberos’ right hand, her almighty gaze scouring the snowfields below.
           “What news?” the magnate asked. He had little faith that she would come up with anything useful. It was no secret that the Seers’ gift was most useful with regard to past events, not future ones. They passed off this inadequacy by claiming that the future was shifting, ever changeable, and that there was no way to accurately predict any given scenario without instantly changing it. Among the more serious spiritual dignitaries, the Seers had largely been scorned for what was commonly seen as an admission of weakness, but Serberos’ faith in them remained strong. If anyone could tell him precisely what had happened, it was them.
           Or so he thought.
           The Priestess, as she was called, or Moma Eden, shook her head. “I’m sorry, my liege,” she murmured. “Today…we cannot aid you.” The king turned to her in shock.
           “What is the meaning of this?!” he implored.
           “It’s the sorcerer,” she said. “You must know that a power as great as his comes with an even stronger psychic field. It is impenetrable to us. Even me.”
           “What about the other?” he asked, exasperated. Moma Eden took a second to dwell on it.
           “She is a thief,” she said. “She had come to steal from your treasure room, and instead she found the boy. She followed footprints in the dust.”
           Serberos swore under his breath. “I’d rather she’d taken all the gold in the vaults.” The Priestess did not reply. “No matter. She is but a human being. They will find her, and then I shall add her to my immortal legion of warriors. The thief will serve her time.”
           “Perhaps it is so,” Moma said softly. Other thoughts had already taken precedence over the king’s missing necromancer. A dark and imminent eventuality rolled around her mind, slipping just out of her grasp every time she felt she was