Call of the Raven Read Online Free PDF Page B

around his irises
appeared on the very night of Grant’s call. Over time, as his magic
grew, Asher learned that not only were the black rings sensitive to
his moods, he could change the color from black to an angry red
with just a single thought. As Linn squirmed under his stare, he
manipulated the rings to show her just how he felt about the
current subject matter.
    “Stop that,” Linn demanded, quickly standing.
“Why must you bully to get your point across? I hear you Keeper
loud and clear. You have no intentions of—”
    Asher held up a finger to instantly silence
her. “I don’t bully and, when it comes to your cohorts, I
will listen to them but not until Ari is here!” Asher threw in the
last when he saw Linn look at him with that, ever present, look of
annoyance on her face. “Ari is the liaison to the Union after all,
and he keeps all information that he’s collected in his briefcase
which never leaves his side.”
    “All right,” Linn stood. “I guess that will
have to do, for now.” She started for the door.
    “Linn,” he called and waited for her to face
him, “most know that I am not as strong when the moon is in such a
cycle. If by chance your partners were planning to use this time
against me, then I want you to know something. I am still very much in control.”
    “Yes Asher,” she said reaching for the
doorknob, “but the question is, of what are you in control of?”
    Once Linn was gone, Asher returned to his
room. Standing before the dresser he thumbed the medallion that lay
draped across the antique wooden chest. His bed chamber was full of
all sorts of similar heirlooms dating centuries back.
    The paintings on the wall were original oils
by renowned artists which depicted the lives of the Keepers before
him. But they held little interest to him. Asher hated the
paintings and everything within the room, especially the medallion.
For him they were nothing more than reminders of what he was…a
doomed vessel.
    Asher’s only hope was that control lied within his own destiny.
    Hearing a noise in the adjoining room and
fearing that one of the logs had rolled out of the fire, he went
through the closet that connected his bedroom to the office. His
eyes caught movement and saw that it was the swivel chair behind
his desk, rotating to the right, as though somebody had bumped into
it. Someone had been there all right. Oddly though, the scent
didn’t match the musty smell of the rat that he had become
accustomed to.
    And yet who else could it be?
    “Mouse traps, that’s what I need, and big
ones by the looks of it.” He stepped into the room and, just as he
did, something struck him on the back of the head. Pain pierced
through his brain as he went down on his knees and fell forward.
Unable to stop himself, his face hit the carpet. The last image
Asher saw before closing his eyes was a pair of black boots as they
ran past him toward the door.

 
     
     
     
     

Chapter Three
     
    Uprising
     
     
    Ari’s head hurt but otherwise he felt
fine. In dog form he circled and lay down on the patch of straw the
fowlers had thrown down for a bed. They didn’t seem to care what
form he was in as long as he was tied up. Besides, he guessed they
didn’t find a Labrador especially threatening. The only reason he
even preferred his animal form at all was because the room was
cold, and those that kept him didn’t find the need to build a fire.
They hadn’t really treated him that unkind though.
    The cabin consisted of two rooms, one where
the poker playing fowlers gathered around a table and the one where
he was being kept. This room was nothing more than a big square
with several metal chairs stacked against the wall, and a wood
podium at the very end. It reminded him of something that a
preacher would stand behind while he delivered the Sunday
sermon.
    Thinking about what the room was possibly
used for frightened Ari. He had only just begun to learn of an
uprising of Raven worshipping magic-users