Veil of the Dragon (Prophecy of the Evarun) by Tom Barczak Read Free Book Online

Sundengal free, forcing his way through the gap where the Remnant fell. The husk collapsed into the river behind him, the bright scrape of steel still resounding. To the legionnaires on either side of him, he paid no heed. 
     
    Blue light from Al-Aaron’s blade drifted upon Magus’ silver mask. “Come with me,” Magus whispered.
     
    Chaelus stood alone in the torch lit darkness of his throne room.
     
    “You will not hide from me, Dragon!” he screamed.
     
    Magus stepped out from the edge of shadows behind the throne. He traced his hand along its crest. “For long you trusted my council. For long I protected you from your enemies. Don’t turn away from me now.” Magus stepped down from the dais. “ Leave the child knight, and come back with me.”
     
    “It’s from you that he saved me,” Chaelus replied.
     
    “And I see that you’re better for your rest. Perhaps even better knowing many of the truths he’s told you, many of which I’ve protected you from all this time.” Magus turned away. “But still it’s alone that Baelus sits upon your throne. I don’t know how long he can suffer the wait of your return. Already there are so many who stand against him.”
     
    “Only because you poison him just as you did me, just as you did to our father, just as you do to me again now.”
     
    Magus held out his hand. His whisper descended. “But you could save him, and in doing so save everything, if you would just return with me.”
     
    Chaelus closed his eyes. Fire burned upon his brow. He opened them to the brightness of a noonday sun, and another memory summoned against him.
     
    The war sky had faded. The fires had gone and the smoke had yielded at last. But the whisper of Magus continued. “Let this be your rightful day.”
     
    Sunlight glinted off shield, helm, spear and bridle upon the ridge above him. His Guard waited there, radiant. Their stone faces worn smooth by the pride of their feats, of the test that lay behind them and of their faith in their liege as well. The once white ruins of his father’s House rose above them, the blackened stone and timber of the great tower now reclaimed. Now he could rebuild what his brother and his father had both so miserably lost. 
     
    Chaelus spurred Idyliss to meet them. It was a new day. The bodies of the dead could stay behind him.
     
    Al-Aaron’s grip upon his arm brought him back. 
     
    “Walk,” Al-Aaron urged. The strength of his voice still persisted beneath its tremor. With his voice, the weight of the river and the morning light returned. 
     
    The Remnants’ shield wall had withdrawn but it still waited before Chaelus, motionless in the shadows upon the shore. They had not closed the gap where one of their number had fallen. Magus held his beast in check beyond the open portal.
     
    With a simple rush, Chaelus could end this with Magus impaled upon his blade. The whisper silenced and his kingdom returned to him. A new day.
     
    His hands trembled around Sundengal’s hilt.
     
    Al-Aaron stood beside him, his gossamer blade burning with blue fire. “Do as I say and we will pass through them. Or don’t, and all that you love will be lost.” 
     
    The voice of Magus sounded, thin and malevolent, as he led his mount into the shield wall’s gap. “Don’t think you can win this, child.”
     
    “We will pass by you.”
     
    “There will always be struggle with you,” Magus said. “Don’t think you can be freed of it.”
     
    “Perhaps, but there will be no struggle here. Not on this day.”
     
    Magus turned his silver face to Chaelus as he continued to speak to Al-Aaron. “You can’t escape, little prophet. Already your own end quickens. When it comes for you at last, you will know that I have him.”
     
    Al-Aaron lifted his sword before him. “Follow me, Chaelus. Don’t look back. Don’t give your attention to it.” Wrapped in a halo of blue, Al-Aaron pressed forward towards the gap and Magus beyond. 
     
    He paced