The Way Into Darkness: Book Three of The Great Way by Harry Connolly Read Free Book Online Page A

Listened. Ask. Of. Me. A. Boon.”
    “Thank you.” Cazia lowered her face to the ground. “Friends of mine have travelled far to a place called Tempest Pass.” She thought back to the maps she’d studied in the Scholars’ Tower when everyone thought the doors were tightly locked. “It’s in the hills at the most northern and western part of the Sweeps. I’m hoping to talk to a man named Tejohn Treygar there, or at least hear news of him.”  
    “I. Cannot.”
    Cazia almost protested, but she bit her lip. Belterzhimi had been entirely explicit: no bargaining and no nagging. “I’m sorry.”  
    “It. Is. I. Who. Am. Sorry,” Kelvijinian said. “My. Awareness. Reaches. To. Every. Part. Of. The. Southern. Shore. And. Beneath. The. Ice. Of. The. Snowy. Caps. I. Can. Tell. You. The. Shape. And. Weight. Of. Every. Object. At. The. Muddy. Bottom. Of. The. Straim. But. I. Cannot. Stretch. Myself. Into. The. Far. Western. End. Of. The. Sweeps. There. Is. Poison. For. Me. There.”  
    Cazia gasped at the word “poison.” What could Ghoron Italga be doing in his secluded tower that would be toxic to a being like Kelvijinian? “It was silly of me to ask.”  
    “Ask. A. Different. Boon.”  
    Well, if you insist. “I need a piece of crystal. Not a precious gem; it doesn’t have to be valuable. I just need a small crystalline stone to make a gift for someone I love.”  
    “This. Request. Is. More. Common. And. Easily. Granted.” Three pieces of clear quartz pushed through the ground like a flower stalk. “Will. These. Do?”
    Cazia laid one on her damaged hand and ran her good hand across it. It was bigger than most of the crystals she’d worked with in the Scholars’ Tower, nearly as long as her little finger, and as she ran through the first few mental exercises to cast a translation spell, she could sense that the size would make the spell easier. “Oh, yes, thank you!”
    “I. Will. Search. For. ‘Treygar.’ To. Deliver. A. Message. If. You. Wish.”
    “Thank you, Kelvijinian. Tell him ‘Cazia is coming with help,’ please. You have really been terrifically kind to me.”
    “Until. You. Asked. I. Had. Forgotten. The. Long. Ago. War. I. Have. Seen. Fighting. In. The. West. But. Did. Not. Remember. How. Much. It. Is. Like. The. War. That. Drove. Me. From. My. Home. Also. You. Asked. Me. Of. My. Life. That. Is. A. Rare. Thing. Thank. You. Now. I. Must. Rest.”
    Cazia stood and slipped the crystals into a skirt pocket. “Thank you again.” She bowed and started toward the campfire she had shared with Ivy and Kinz.  
    Belterzhimi had been watching her, apparently, and walked to intercept her. “Please join me and Ivy,” Cazia said before he could speak. “I’d like to discuss something important before we head to Goldgrass Hill. I assume that’s where we’re going next.”  
    “You are correct,” Belterzhimi said. “You spoke with him for quite a long time.”
    “Surprised by that, are you?   That’s why you made me wait until the end of the day, when you knew he would be tired--maybe too tired to speak to me.”  
    “Kelvijinian does not grow tired,” Belterzhimi corrected. His dour, handsome face looked disapproving, and Cazia thought that some woman somewhere would be happy to claim him as her own, but it could never be her, even if he were not so terribly old . There was too much distance between them. “How could he rule the land otherwise? It is just this avatar.”  
    Apparently, it wasn’t just the Durdric who invented their own rules about their god. Good thing Cazia’s people did not do that. “Fine. The avatar would be too tired to talk to me. I risk my life to bring your cousin here when I ought to be heading west, but I’m still being offered contempt and thin gruel.”  
    Belterzhimi stopped walking suddenly, and Cazia was so surprised that she stopped, too. He bowed stiffly. “I have behaved like a rat in the pantry, taking without giving back. I