Chaos Unleashed Read Online Free PDF

shoulder.
    “You are my daughter,” he added after a brief hesitation. “No matter what happens, never forget that.”
    And then he let his hand drop, pivoted on his cane, and quickly stomped off to disappear into the crowd. Stunned, Shalana watched him go in silence, trying to decide if she had caught a brief glimpse of a tear in his eye in the instant before he turned away.
    “I guess that’s his way of saying he’s proud of you,” Vaaler said softly once he was gone.
    “I guess so,” Shalana agreed.
    With a final look over the faces of her people—faces she might never see again—she gave the signal and she, Vaaler, and their chosen dozen set out into the snow.

“Pay attention, Cassandra.”
    Rexol’s voice was low but firm. The Chaos mage loomed over her, a little blond girl with emerald-green eyes dwarfed by his tall, lean frame. His dark skin and cloak made him appear little more than a shadow in the flickering light of the lone candle that lit the small, circular room. His long black hair was tied in uneven braids that draped haphazardly over his forehead and shoulders. Only his bright white teeth—filed to points—and his wide, wild eyes stood out in the gloom.
    “Look at the symbols on the floor,” he instructed, and Cassandra cast her eyes downward. At her feet, a series of circles of varying sizes overlapped each other. Inside each one was an unfamiliar rune.
    “You must learn to read the words of power before you can bend Chaos to your will.”
    Though she was only a child, Cassandra knew he wasn’t speaking the entire truth. The runes were only a mnemonic device; they helped create patterns of thought that allowed the mind to properly focus. But the true power to control Chaos came from within.
    “Don’t be so stubborn, child,” Rexol told her even though she hadn’t spoken her doubts aloud. “The Crown is too powerful to use without proper training. Let me help you.”
    “No!” Cassandra shouted, the sound of her own voice inside the dream snapping her awake.
    Cassandra’s blind eyes sprang open, an instinctive reflex that served no real purpose. The world of her dream quickly fell away as her supernatural awareness filled in the missing pieces of her surroundings. She was tucked under the covers of a small bed, her legs splinted and bandaged. A low fire burned in one corner of the room, a single desk and writing table stood in another. The Crown lay on the mattress beside her, hidden from view by the plain sack she had carried it in since fleeing the Monastery.
    The only door to her chamber was closed, though in her mind’s eye she could clearly see Methodis, the bookish healer who was caring for her, puttering around in the apothecary that stood on the other side. He moved with purposeful calm, checking the inventory of vials and jars that lined the many shelves.
    He’s going to steal the Crown!
Rexol’s voice warned her, speaking inside her head.
    Cassandra ignored him. Had Methodis truly wanted the Talisman, he could have easily taken it when he first found her, unconscious in the rubble at the center of the earthquake Rexol had caused when the mad wizard had tried to possess her body to escape his imprisonment inside the Crown.
    I saved you,
Rexol protested.
I was the one who turned the Crawling Twins against each other. If not for me, they would have ripped you to shreds.
    “And then you almost wiped Callastan off the map when the Crown overwhelmed you,” Cassandra whispered, abandoning her efforts to ignore him.
    But you are stronger than me,
Rexol countered.
I understand Chaos in ways the Order never could. I can teach you how to master your power. And the Crown.
    Instead of continuing the argument, Cassandra thought back on her dream. It wasn’t a memory—not a real one, at least. The Order had saved her from Rexol when she was only six, but in the dream she had been older; nine or ten at least. And in the dream she still had her brilliant emerald eyes rather than the