A Dream of Mortals (Book #15 in the Sorcerer's Ring) Read Online Free PDF Page B

expecting the capital to be hers. She was anxious to sit on the throne
already.
    But Volusia watched in surprise and dismay as
the green orbs of light bounced off the capital walls harmlessly, then
disappeared in bright flashes of light. She could not understand: they were
ineffectual.
    Volusia looked over at Vokin, and he looked baffled,
too.
    The Empire commander, high above, snickered down.
    “You are not the only one with sorcery,” he
said. “These capital walls can be toppled by no magic—they have stood the test
of time for thousands of years, have warded off barbarians, entire armies
greater than yours. There is no magic than can topple them—only human hands.”
    He grinned wide.
    “So you see,” he added, “you’ve walked into the
same mistake as so many other would-be conquerors before you. You’ve relied on
sorcery in approaching this capital—and now you will pay the price.”
    Up and down the parapets horns sounded, and Volusia
looked over and was shocked to see an army of soldiers lining the horizon. They
filled the skyline with black, hundreds of thousands of them, a vast army, greater
even than the men she had behind her. They clearly had all been waiting beyond
the wall, on the far side of the capital city, in the desert, for the command
of the Empire commander. She had not just walked into another battle—this would
be an outright war.
    Another horn sounded, and suddenly, the massive
golden doors before her began to open. They open wider and wider, and as they
did there came a great battle cry, as thousands more Empire soldiers emerged,
charging right for them.
    At the same time, the hundreds of thousands of
soldiers on the horizon charged, too, splitting their forces around the Empire
city and charging them from both sides.
    Volusia stood her ground, raised a single fist
high, then brought it down.
    Behind her, her army let out a great battle cry
as they rushed forward to meet the Empire men.
    Volusia knew this would be the battle that decided
the fate of the capital—the very fate of the Empire. Her sorcerers had let her
down—but her soldiers would not. After all, she could be more brutal than any
other man, and she did not need sorcery for that.
    She saw the men coming at her, and she stood
her ground, relishing the chance to kill or be killed.

CHAPTER SIX
     
     
    Gwendolyn opened her eyes as she felt a jolt and
a bump on her head, and she looked all about, disoriented. She saw she was
lying on her side, on a hard wooden platform, and the world was moving about
her. There came a whining, and she felt something wet on her cheek. She looked over
to see Krohn, curling up beside her, licking her—and her heart leapt with joy.
Krohn looked sickly, famished, exhausted—yet he was alive. That was all that
mattered. He, too, had survived.
    Gwen licked her lips and realized they were not
as dry as before; she was relieved she could even lick them, as before her
tongue had been too swollen to even move. She felt a trickle of cold water
enter her mouth, and she looked up out of the corner of her eye to see one of
those desert nomads standing over her, holding a sack over her. She licked at
it greedily, again and again, until he pulled it away.
    As he pulled his hand away, Gwen reached up and
grabbed his wrist, and she pulled it toward Krohn. At first the nomad seemed
baffled, but then he realized, and he reached over and poured some of the water
into Krohn’s mouth. Gwen felt relieved as she watched Krohn lap up the water,
drinking as he lay there, panting, beside her.
    Gwen felt another jolt on her head, another
bump as the platform shook, and she looked out at the world, turned sideways,
and saw nothing but sky before her, clouds passing by. She felt her body rising
up, higher and higher into the air with each and every jolt, and she could not
understand what was happening, where she was. She did not have the strength to sit
up, but she was able to crane her neck enough to see that she was