Hemlock And The Wizard Tower (Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

raced through his mind over and over again, inspiring an intense feeling of curiosity in him which overshadowed his other feelings of anger, fear and concern.
    The Wizard concentrated for a moment , and then he extended his hand past each of the clamoring skulls.  As he did so, their eyes went dark and their shrieking subsided.  When all was quiet again, the Wizard paused and his body tensed, as if he was confronted by a sudden doubt or fear.  But his body gradually relaxed over the course of several seconds , and then he strode out of the room with a confident gait .
    …
    With a final glance at her surroundings, Hemlock began to methodically climb the circular staircase .  She sensed in it a magical force kept in check by a delicate control .  The nature of the force was pure aggression surrounded by and contained by a boundary of civility .
    As she reached the first small hand mounted on the stair railing, she heard the strange metallic grating sound , as the fist abruptly began to glow and then opened up into a restrictive gesture, with fingers extended and palm jutting forward. 
    This hand was cast with a furry appearance– like that of a hairy ape.  The hairs were rendered with some detail in the iron and as she halted and turned her attention to the hand , she saw a small fanged mouth appear in the middle of the palm. 
    The little mouth spoke the first riddle, which she answered with the same response that she had heard the Gnome use, using an audible but very hushed voice .  She figured that an audible answer was probably a requirement of the process .  After she spoke the answer, the hand clenched back into a fist , and she took this as a signal that she could continue to climb .
    The secon d hand was a human looking hand.  T he same sequence of events occurred as had with the first hand , and she answered the second riddle correctly .
    Hemlock desperately hoped that no one was in the room above and able to hear her speaking the answers to the riddles .   But she couldn’t figure out any alternative to proceeding as she had seen the Gnome do before her.
    As she resumed climbing and approached the third hand , she struggled to catch a glimpse of the upper room in order to try to see if anyone was observing her .  Despite her stealth , her footfalls were making a faint metallic clunk on the stairs as she climbed, and this concerned her greatly .  Beyond that sound and the pulsating rhythm of the machine , she didn’t hear anything else–including from the upper room.  But she did notice another light, orange hued and otherworldly, which seemed to pulsate in time with the rhythm of the machine below, emanat ing from the room above. 
    She reached the third riddle .  Again, she cringed as the strange voice from the third metallic hand asked the question and she tried to provide the answer as silently as possible.   With that done, she reluctantly started her climb up toward the fourth hand, and her adrenaline surged in anticipation of whether she would be able to think quickly enough to figure out the answer .
    …
    She and Safreon had been relaxing one day in their favorite tavern , when he had unexpectedly started telling her about the wizards.
    "The ale has loosened my tongue…  You’ve been wanting to know about the history of the wizards.  Now I’ll tell you, but be patient, for it’s not a short tale."
    " Every one has heard the tale of the B ridge of Ninety-Nine Tears and kn ows that the wizards are not to be meddled with .  In fact , passive obedience is how most folk try to deal with them– if ever an occasion arises where they must be dealt with . "
    Safreon had then explained to her that there was a strange plant called Oberon which was said to grow on the highest peaks of the Witch Crags, a mysterious region to the west of the C ity. 
    " The Witch Crags are supposedly the place where despondent souls go to try to die.  Apparently, as the lore goes , some people just c a n’t