Forging the Darksword Read Online Free PDF Page A

the child, sensing a deep sorrow in his father’s voice that he longed to ease. “I will be happy, I promise. But why won’t you be here? Where are you going?”
    “I am not going anywhere, at least not for a little while,” his father said, smiling again and ruffling the fair hair. “In fact, it will be you that leaves me. But, that will not be for a time yet, so do not worry. Look—” He pointed suddenly at four winged men, who could be seen flying over the treetops, bearing two large, golden disks between them. The wizard stood up, setting the little boy down again upon the boulder. “Now, stay here, Saryon. I must cast the enchantment upon the seeds—”
    “I know what you’re going to do!” Saryon cried, standing up upon the rock so that he see better. The winged men flew closer, their golden disks shining like youthful suns bringing another dawn to earth. “Let me help!” the boy pleaded eagerly, reaching out his hand to his father. “Let me transfer the magic to you as Mother does.”
    Again the shadow darkened the wizard’s face but it vanished almost instantly as he looked down upon his small catalyst. “Very well,” he said, though he knew the boy was too young to perform the complicated task of sensing for the magic and opening a conduit to him. It would take the child many years of study to attain the art. Years in which his father would no longer have a part of his own son’s life. Seeing the small face looking up at him eagerly, the wizard checked a sigh. Reaching out his hand, he took hold of his son’s hand in his and solemnly pretended to accept the Gift of Life.
    A person born in Thimhallan is born to his or her place and station in life, something not uncommon in a feudal society. A duke is generally born a duke, for example, just as a peasant is generally born a peasant.
    Thimhallan had its noble families, who had ruled for generations. It had its peasants. What made Thimhallan unique was that certain of its people had their place and station determined for them—not by society—but by the inborn knowledge of one of the Mysteries of Life.
    There are Nine Mysteries. Eight of them deal with Life or Magic, for, in the world of Thimhallan, Life
is
Magic. Everything that exists in this land exists either by the will of the Almin, who placed it here before even the ancients arrived, or has since been either “shaped, formed, summoned, or conjured,” these being the four Laws of Nature. These Laws are controlled through at least one of eight of the Mysteries: Time, Spirit, Air, Fire, Earth, Water, Shadow, and Life. Of these Mysteries, only the first five currently survive in the land. Two—the Mysteries of Time and of Spirit—were lost during the Iron Wars. With them vanished forever the knowledge possessed by the ancients—the ability to divine the future, the ability to build the Corridors, and the ability to communicate with those who had passed from this life into the Beyond.
    As for the last Mystery, the Ninth Mystery, it is practiced, but only by those who walk in darkness. Believed by most to have been the cause of the destructive Iron Wars, the Mystery was banished from the land. Its Sorcerers were sent Beyond, their tools and deadly engines destroyed. The Ninth Mystery is the forbidden mystery. Known as Death, its other name is Technology.
    When a child is born in Thimhallan, he or she is given a series of tests to discover the particular mystery in which that child is most skilled. This determines the child’s future role in Life.
    The tests might indicate, for example, that the child is skilled in the Mystery of Air. If he is from the lower castes, he will become one of the
Kan-Hanar
, whose duties include the maintenance of the Corridors that provide the swiftest means of travel within Thimhallan, and the supervision of all commerce within and among the cities of the land. The child of a noble family with this skill will almost certainly ascend to the rank of arch magus and