Bastion of Darkness Read Online Free PDF Page B

than talons walking the ways of Aielle,” Brielle said quietly, but grimly, and her tone told Belexus of whom she was speaking. Again, that only added to the ranger’s frustration. He wanted to destroy the wraith of Hollis Mitchell more than he wanted anything in the world, even more than he wanted the love of Brielle. Mitchell had shattered Belexus’ world, had utterly destroyed his dearest friend, and through it all, the ranger had only been able to look on in horror. Nothing he could have done would have made a difference, would have bothered the wraith in any way, for his weapon, so solid and deadly to most of Aielle’s monsters, could not even scratch the undead wraith.
    Nor had the river brought any harm to Mitchell, Brielle had informed Belexus, and had told her brother, Rudy Glendower, the Silver Mage of Illuma, who was known by the name of Ardaz. For the fair witch of Avalon, with her senses so attuned to the natural world, had sensed the return, the sheer perversion, of the undead thing. She had sent out her eyes to search for her daughter, and had found instead the horrid wraith, staining the very ground with its every step.
    “Might that the beast will come to Avalon,” Brielle said after a long and uncomfortable silence. “I canno’ go out and destroy the thing, for to leave would be to leave behind the power I’m needing against it, but if it comes near to me wood …”
    She let the ominous threat hang there, but Belexus would not seize the thought and revel in it. He didn’t doubt her claim, but neither did he want to see thatbattle. “The wraith is mine to slay,” he announced coldly and determinedly.
    “Ye canno’,” the witch said calmly.
    “Then, by the Colonnae, I’ll die in trying!” the ranger growled, spinning back on her, his blue eyes flashing with fury.
    Brielle took a good measure of the man, this man, this prince of rangers. Always, Belexus had been the cool and calm leader of men, the warrior who had single-handedly rallied the Calvans to hold the Four Bridges against Thalasi’s assaults until reinforcements could arrive, the man who had saved the elves on the field of Mountaingate when he had put aside his own desires and used his body and that of his pegasus mount to clear the way for Arien Silverleaf, that the elf lord, fittingly, might be the one to slay wicked Ungden the Usurper, who had led his army north to destroy all of Arien’s people. Always, Belexus had been unselfish, purely giving, and unquestioning of the code of rangers, a pledge to a set of tenets and principles that worked for the betterment of the world, and not of the rangers.
    But now … now that Brielle had informed the man that the wraith was still about, that the wraith, with the weakening of magic in the last desperate battle, might well stand as the most powerful creature in all Aielle, Belexus had changed. Now his thoughts festered on poor dead Andovar, his rage becoming singular and all-consuming. His only smiles of late were ones of cruel glee, a grin that more resembled a grimace and that only appeared when he cut another talon down.
    Brielle, so gentle and wise, remained patient with him. In his anger, he had taken a vow that superseded all others, she realized; a vow that he would avenge the death of Andovar. With that seeming an impossibility, the ranger’s frustration continued to grow. Perhaps itwould pass as the darkness further retreated toward the Kored-dul, as time itself replaced those last bitter images of Andovar’s life with the memories of better times Belexus and Andovar had shared throughout the decades.
    Belexus gave a nod then, a curt bow, and walked away into the forest, preferring to be alone, and Brielle was left to wonder if this frustration would ever pass, if Belexus would ever truly recover from his inability to fulfill his vow.
    “He’s gone ugly,” the beautiful witch said to Calamus, and the pegasus, a creature far more intelligent than its equine frame would