Lor Mandela - Destruction from Twins Read Online Free PDF Page A

sneered, ripping down the portrait and hurling it
across the room. It smashed into bits against the hard stone
wall.
    Without another word, she glided back across
the room and out into the dimly lit, tree-lined halls. Quietly, she
made her way through the corridors; the lower branches of the trees
swayed gently as her cloak billowed through them. After floating
down two long hallways, she came to a wide tunnel—the only part of
Trysta Palace that wasn’t tree-lined. At the end of the tunnel,
shimmering in the few glints of moonlight coming through the clear
glass ceiling above stood an ornate gold door. Anika took a deep
breath and glanced nervously around. Confident that she was alone,
she started toward the door and was within just a few feet of it
when, without warning, it swung open and Lantalia appeared in the
doorway.
    “Lantalia?” she breathed restlessly, “I, uh
. . . I . . . .” she stammered.
    Lantalia was surprised to see her, too.
“Anika? “What’s going on? Is everything okay? What are you doing
here?”
    “What do you mean?” Anika snipped. “I can’t
even come to see my own sister?”
    Lantalia eyed her suspiciously. Just seconds
before, she had a strange feeling—a sort of premonition. Something
didn’t seem right. Her new vritesse powers made her sensitive to
such things. She sensed that someone was coming to harm her; it was
disturbing indeed for her to open the door and find her own sister
standing there.
    “Aren’t you going to ask me in?” Anika
pried.
    “Um, yes . . . of course. Please come in,”
Lantalia responded, eyeing Anika in a way that she had never seen
before. It was a look of superiority—and of suspicion. In the few
short hours since her calling, Lantalia had already become stronger
and more in tune. “What can I do for you, Anika?”
    Anika knew she’d have to be careful. She
couldn’t risk Lantalia reading her intentions. Fortunately for her,
one of the many powers she possessed was the ability to lock her
mind from outside influence. Normally, a mind block wouldn’t work
with the vritesse, but since Lantalia’s powers weren’t fully
established it was worth a try.
    “I couldn’t sleep, Tali,” she explained. “I
have something to ask you.”
    Lantalia’s expression softened—indicating
that the mind lock was working. “What is it?” She asked. She
glanced at the journal Anika had forgotten she was clutching in her
arms. “And what’s that?”
    “Oh . . . um . . . this is?” she stuttered.
“It’s just our great-grandmother’s old journal.” She looked down at
the book and an idea popped into her head.
    With a new sense of confidence in her voice,
she continued, “I was flipping through it earlier, Tali.
Grandmother wrote about receiving her powers . . . that’s what I
wanted to ask you.” She paused and smiled at her own cleverness.
“What was it like when you opened the box? I mean, it must have
been so incredible!”
    Lantalia did exactly what
Anika hoped she would. She walked across the room, picked up the
small silver box, and brought it over to show her. “It was incredible. I can’t
describe it. It was a feeling of absolute power and control.” She
handed the diminutive box to her sister. “It isn’t much,” she
observed, “but there’s more to it than you see.”
    “Especially when it contains the powers,
huh?”
    “The powers are only part of it,” Lantalia
whispered. It’s alive.”
    “The box?”
    “Shhhhh,” she scolded. “This doesn’t leave
this room, Ani!”
    Anika lowered her voice to appease her
sister. “So you’re saying that this box is a living thing?”
    She was having extreme
difficulty holding on to her mind lock. Lantalia’s powers were
trying to penetrate it—and now, the opportunity of a lifetime had
just been literally handed to her. I don’t
have to steal the box, she thought, I just have to clone its soul!
    She turned her back to
Lantalia, and pretending to examine the box, clanked it