Madwand (Illustrated) Read Online Free PDF

drug to block it all out, perhaps. His mind drifted again . . . 
    The movement. Now a familiar thing. The fear was gone. There was only anticipation within the rapid and disjointed series of images by which he moved. There was the Gate, and . . . 
    It stopped. Everything stopped. He was frozen before the image of the partly opened Gate. It was fading, insubstantial, going away, and there was a hand upon his shoulder. He wanted to cry out, but only for a moment.
    “It’s all right now,” came a whisper, and the hand left him.
    Pol tried to turn his head, to sit up. He found that he could not stir. A large man, his face more than half-hidden in the shadow of his cowl, was rising from a kneeling position beside him, passing through his field of vision. Pol thought that he glimpsed part of a pale moustache and—impossibly—a shining, capped tooth.
    “Then why can’t I move?” he whispered through clenched teeth.
    “It was far easier for me to lay a general spell upon this entire camp than to be selective about it. Then I needed but arouse you and leave the others unconscious. The paralysis is, unfortunately, a part of it.”
    Pol suspected that this was a lie but saw no way to test it.
    “I saw that your sleep was troubled. I decided to grant you some relief.”
    “How can you see that a man’s sleep is troubled?”
    “I am something of a specialist in that matter which confronts you.”
    “That being . . . ?”
    “Did your dream not involve a large door?”
    Pol was silent for a moment. Then, “Yes,” he said. “It did. How could you know this unless you induced it yourself?”
    “I did not cause your dream. I did not even come here for purposes of releasing you from it.”
    “What, then?”
    “You journey to Belken.”
    “You seem to know everything . . . ”
    “Do not be impertinent. As our interests may be conjoined, I am trying to help you. I understand more than you do about some of the forces which are influencing you. You make a serious mistake, wandering about the world announcing yourself at this point in your career. Now, I have just taken great pains to remove the memory of your name and origin from the minds of Ibal and everyone in his party. In the morning, he will only recall you as a Madwand traveling to Belken. Even your appearance will be a confusion to him. If he should ask your name again, have another one ready, and use it in Belken, also. Rondoval still has its enemies.”
    “I gathered something of this with the attempt on my life.”
    “When was this? Where?”
    “A little over a week ago. Back home.”
    “I was not aware of this. Then it has begun. You should be safe for a time, if you remain incognito. I am going to rinse your hair with a chemical I have here, to conceal that white streak. It is too distinctive. And then we must hide your dragonmark.”
    “How?”
    “A relatively simple matter. How do you see manifestations of the Powers when you are working a spell?”
    Pol felt moisture upon his scalp.
    “Usually as colored strands—threads, strings, cords.”
    “Interesting. Very well, then. You can imagine me as wrapping your forearm with flesh-colored strands—so closely as to entirely mask the mark. It will in no way interfere with your workings. When you wish to uncover it you need but go through an unwrapping ritual.”
    Pol felt his arm taken, raised.
    “Who are you?” he asked. “How do you know all these things?”
    “I am the sorcerer who should never have been, and mine is a peculiar link with your House.”
    “We are related?”
    “No. Not even friends.”
    “Then why are you helping me?”
    “I feel that your continued existence may serve me. There. Your arm is nicely disguised.”
    “If you really wish to protect me from something, you might do well to tell me somewhat about it.”
    “I do not deem that the most fitting course of action. First, nothing may happen to you, in which case I would have exposed you to information I’d