Dance of Destinies (The Galactic Mage Series Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page B

ingredients all around. When formed into tiles and assembled together into a platform, the material could be transformed by transmutation magic into a box large enough to accommodate very large things. Objects and people could be teleported about in these boxes without troublesome accidents, and, in the particular case of the work in progress, spaceships could be sent across distances that were, prior to the advent of this magical device, impossible. A spaceship teleported in that way would not have its fusion core extinguished—as was the case when teleporting ships directly, “out of the box”—and it would not require a total restart of all the systems aboard. In the boxes operated by the Transportation Guild Service, Roberto’s own ship, the Glistening Lady , had gone back and forth between Prosperion and Earth a few times in what was little more than a blink in time. But without such a convenience provided by the TGS, a teleport by his friend Altin, unboxed teleportation, required a five-hour span of drifting helplessness while the ship was essentially rebooted from its very core. That time could be as much as several days for the fleet’s largest ships.
    And so it was that Altin, and now Tytamon, were building their own private version of the massive teleportation platforms that the TGS was building in choice locations across the galaxy. The existence of this private platform was not public record just yet, but given how politicized the whole galactic transportation topic had become over the last year, it had seemed prudent to pursue in reality what had started out as just a casual idea. The whole point of having one at Calico Castle was help in situations like the one in which Roberto, Altin, and Orli now found themselves. A situation that Tytamon picked up on right away.
    “Might I assume by the nature of your attire that my apprentice and his new bride are in some difficulty again?” Tytamon began as they approached. He said it with a nod toward Roberto’s spacesuit and the helmet in his hand.
    “Yeah, you can assume that. They’ve been taken aboard a spaceship at the alien dig site on Yellow Fire.”
    “Hmmm,” hummed the weathered old sorcerer. His thin lips pursed beneath the snowy whiteness of his mustache, though they were barely visible. “That does sound like them. How urgent is the danger? None of you seemed terribly concerned about the aliens when you took the tower back out there.”
    Roberto couldn’t help rolling his eyes. He’d just done this with Kettle. “How urgent does it need to be? They’re on a damn alien ship, stuck in some kind of alien snot ball, and now I can’t get either one of them up on the com.”
    “Hmmm,” hummed to ancient sorcerer again. He pulled gently on his long white beard as he thought about it.
    Roberto tried to be patient. He knew the man was a genius. He knew the man was the only wizard on the whole planet able to cast spells in all eight magic schools, at least that’s what Altin called them: schools. Tytamon was an Eight. The only one in Prosperion history, apparently. So, it seemed reasonable to let the man think. But, well, what was there to think about? They needed to do something.
    “Sir,” Roberto began, as politely as possible. “We need to get moving. Unless you think you can, you know, zip in there and zap some lightning, maybe a fireball or two, and then, well, get them out of there … it’s time to get to Citadel and get this rescue party moving.”
    “Given how things went the last two times Prosperions encountered a new race of beings, I should think we might take a bit more care this time, don’t you?”
    “Not when my best friend is frozen in some kind of jelly, and one of those giant spaghetti assholes tried to shoot me with … with a sonic blast or something.”
    “They tried to shoot you?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, that does change things a bit. You hadn’t mentioned that they shot at you, unprovoked.” His bushy white brows