Into a Dark Realm Read Online Free PDF

fine food since his mother had married Caleb and he had had the opportunity to sample better fare than he had known as a child.
    “I’ll work extra hard, trust me,” answered the stocky young man.
    “Well, I’m sure Talwin and his wife will find ample work for you.”
    “What of you, Father?” asked Caleb.
    “I have a journey I must make, a short one, but one long overdue. Tell your mother I’ll be home in another day or so, but not to wait for me; she should go to Kelewan and see what the Assembly is doing with the Talnoy.”
    They embraced, and Pug waved goodbye to the four of them, and vanished.
    Jommy shook his head and sucked in his breath. “Crikey, I’ll never get used to seeing people just vanish like that!”
    Caleb laughed. “You’ll get used to a lot of things before you’re done, my lad.” He pulled an orb out of his tunic and said, “We’re off home: then you three are going to Olasko!”
    Glancing at the door into the torture room, Tad said, “I’m glad we’re done with this part of it, that’s for certain.”
    Without another word, each put a hand on the next man’s shoulder, while Caleb activated the orb, and they vanished, as well.
     
    A vast presence was veiled in darkness, its form barely recognizable in the faint light emanating from a single lantern set within a sconce on the opposite wall.
    A voice spoke without sound: Welcome, Pug of Crydee.
    Pug smiled as he said aloud, “I haven’t been called that in years, m’lady.” He knew the presence required no honorific, and that the one he chose was barely appropriate, yet he felt the need to convey respect.
    “As you wish, magician,” said the deep voice. “Do you wish more light?”
    “That would be agreeable,” Pug replied.
    Suddenly the room was ablaze in light, as if the sun shone through glass walls. Pug glanced around, for he had not visited this chamber in years. It was a cavern, deep beneath the city of Sethanon, where Tomas had bested a conjuration of the Dragon Lord Drakin-Korin, and Pug and others had battled to seal a rift that threatened to destroy all of the Kingdom, if not the world of Midkemia.
    The being before him was the body of the great dragon Ryath, but the mind housed in it was that of an ancient being: the Oracle of Aal. In that epic struggle, the dragon had given everything in defeating a Lord of the Dread, and it had taken magic of unmatched power and skill to keep a spark of life in the body after the mind and spirit had fled, so that the Oracle could find a living host. The dragon’s natural scales had been obliterated and a makeshift solution had turned the creature into a being of unsurpassed magnificence. The great Dragon Lords’ treasure secreted below the city ages before had provided gems used to repair the damaged scales, forming a creature unmatched in majesty and power in this world, a great jeweled dragon. Light danced off the facets of thousands of stones and the creature seemed to glitter as if moving, even when she rested motionlessly.
    “The cycle of renewal has ended well?” asked Pug.
    “Yes,” answered the Oracle. “The cycle of years has passedand again I possess all my knowledge.” She sent out a mental call, and a dozen white-robed men entered the room. “These are my companions.”
    Pug nodded. These men had come to understand the nature of the great dragon of Sethanon, and had volunteered to give up their freedom in exchange for a lifespan many times normal, and the honor of serving a greater good.
    For the Oracle was more than a simple seer. She possessed the ability to see many possible outcomes that might result from a given choice, as well as alert those she trusted to the approach of grave danger. And she trusted no one in this world as much as she did Pug. Without his intervention, the last of the race of Aal—perhaps the eldest race in the universe—would have perished a century before. Pug inclined his head in greeting to the Oracle’s companions and they