Maylin's Gate (Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

curtain like a slab of living marble.
    Baerinese soldiers gawked while exchanging looks of fear and awe. The line of invaders stretched for miles down the mountain road.
    He couldn't let them pass, but he wouldn't engage in wholesale slaughter either. If he could thwart their advance and show his strength, he could force them back. They would leave Meranthia's shores.
    He found the militiamen’s gray souls surrounding him. All brave men. He pulled on the well of power living in each man’s core and fed the spirit curtain with raw power.
    Devery Tyrell stood over his shoulder and stared at the crackling shield. "I believe the shield's strong enough to hold whatever charge they could mount."
    Sweat beaded his brow, and he glared over his shoulder. "It's not strong enough. The witch can melt through shields. You've experienced her touch firsthand."
    Devery's jaw muscles clenched and the shield knight offered a stiff nod. "Yes, Your Majesty."
    The shield thickened turning a deeper shade of blue. Streaks of white light swirled and flowed like melted wax near the curtain's surface.
    The witch's creatures stirred in the pass. A low groan came from the abominations nearest the shield. They trudged upslope toward the curtain.
    "That's it." He spoke in a low whisper. "Just a little closer."
    A streak of red and black flashed overhead and crested the curtain.
    He craned his neck skyward and tracked the creature's progress.
    A war bird, Connal Deveaux, gripped the flailing body of a baerinese soldier.
    His stomach twisted. He recognized the soldier. He came face to face with the creature in Porthleven months earlier. The witch had called the man General Demos. He tracked Connal's flight path lower, and adrenaline washed over him.
    The witch, Tara, sat atop a brown mare. Strands of deep auburn hair peaked out beneath the hood of Tara's gray woolen cloak. The witch gazed skyward tracking the bird's flight. Beneath a veil of thin shadows, Tara's shock-filled eyes came into view.
    Anger welled in his chest. What was his father thinking? He flicked his wrist and strengthened his father's spirit shield.
    General Demos flailed beneath Connal's grip. Demos hacked at Connal's shield. A shower of spirit energy rained down on the soldiers below.
    With an open palm, he channeled a detention shield and locked down the baerinese general.
    Connal climbed higher.
    Reptilian birds appeared from hidden crevices. Dozens of the creatures swarmed his father. Their rage-filled shrieks echoed across the canyon.
    The soldiers atop the flying lizards readied longbows and fired on Connal.
    Merric Pride had taught him one useful trick during the old tyrant's miserable life. He had used the same trick with stellar results during his ambush. He channeled spirit and bent the shield's light around his father and General Demos.
    Connal Deveaux and General Demos vanished into nothing.
    He glanced at the witch and found her gaze locked on his. Tara's face contorted into a mask of horror.
    "Ronan, the shield!" Devery said.
    Like an open faucet, he channeled a constant flow of the militiamen's soul energy into the curtain.
    The shield's surface seethed like an ocean in the face of a storm. Cords of white energy crackled and leaped outward from its midnight blue core.
    A nauseating buzz came from the ground near the curtain. Two-dozen smoldering ash piles lay where the witch's creatures stood moments ago.
    His heart hammered and sweat rolled down his face. He snapped his head toward the energy wall.
    A loud humming noise came from its surface like the disrupted hive of a million enraged hornets.
    "You've got to stop. You're killing them!" Devery stood paralyzed near the militiamen.
    He whirled and found the Meranthian soldiers on their knees.
    Three men shook with violent tremors, their eyes rolled back showing only white. Nine more men lay on their side shaking and frothing at the mouth like rabid dogs.
    The energy curtain vibrated. White energy lurched outward and