Necromancer Falling: Book Two of The Mukhtaar Chronicles Read Online Free PDF

him the tools he needs to forge them.
    Zorian began the long trek back to his quarters.

CHAPTER THREE

    1 The Power, seeing his gift tainted by Chaos, cast his breath into the multiverse and created the great realms of Air, Ground, Fire, and Water. 2 His breath formed the air, his substance formed the ground, his spirit formed the fire, and his blood formed the water.
    - The Mukhtaar Chronicles, attributed to the prophet Habakku
    Origines Multiversi, Emergentiae 2:1-2

    Nicolas woke to the sound of Kaitlyn crying out.
    Moonlight poured in through the large window at the foot of the bed, casting everything in shades of blue. The gems in the wall-sized map of the Three Kingdoms shimmered like stars on the wall next to him.
    Nicolas sat up, but Kaitlyn was still asleep.
    “Kait,” Nicolas said, putting a hand on her cheek. She was bathed in sweat.
    Kaitlyn groaned and turned away.
    “Kait,” Nicolas said. “Wake up. It’s just a dream.”
    “Archmage, are you all right?” a deep voice said from the other side of his chamber doors.
    “Kait!”
    Kaitlyn stirred and grabbed Nicolas’s hand.
    The chamber door burst open, sweeping the dark room with golden torch light.
    “Archmage!” a large man with a sword said from the doorway. His voice sounded like it reverberated in a fifty-gallon drum.
    “I’m okay,” Nicolas said.
    “Forgive me, Archmage,” The man said. “When you didn’t answer, I…I didn’t—”
    “It’s fine. She was dreaming.”
    “Cool ren faire,” Kaitlyn said. “I want a henna tattoo.” She rolled over and laid her head back down.
    “We’re okay,” Nicolas said. “What’s your name?”
    The towering man drew back. “Archmage?”
    “Gonna be confusing if we’re both called Archmage , don’t you think?”
    “Uh…Diggins, Archmage. Hartwood Diggins, sergeant-at-Diggins. I mean arms ! Sergeant-at-arms! I’m Diggins, not arms.” Diggins took a deep breath. “Hartwood sergeant—”
    “Yeah, we covered that, Sergeant Diggins. You can be…as you were ?”
    “Archmage?”
    “At ease?”
    “But I’m not at attention.”
    “Look, I have some things to learn around here. What I’m trying to say is, would you mind if I went back to sleep for now?”
    “Oh! Certainly.” Diggins turned to leave, but stopped. “Dismissed, Archmage.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “The word you were looking for. Dismissed . Say that and we’ll get the point.”
    “I prefer to ask politely. Will that work too?”
    Diggins shrugged. “I suppose it will, Archmage.”
    Diggins closed the door behind him, casting the room into moonlight once more.
    “ What do you have to ask politely?” Kaitlyn asked.
    “You’re awake? You scared me for a minute.”
    “How?”
    “Well…it’s nothing,” Nicolas said.
    “What aren’t you telling me?”
    “It’s nothing. Just—”
    “Nicolas Murray.”
    Nicolas grabbed the back of his neck. He was sure it was nothing. Hell, she’d stepped through a portal to a different world earlier today. But there was no way she was going to go back to sleep now.
    Not when she’d called him Nicolas Murray .
    Nicolas picked up the Shrillers and Adda board from the nightstand and carefully placed it on the mattress between them, standing three of the adda pieces up when they toppled over. Whenever Kait felt anxious or sick, board games always seemed to cheer her up. He’d spent an hour or so teaching her the basics earlier in the evening.
    Kaitlyn sat up and glanced at the board.
    “You screamed,” Nicolas said. “You’ve never done that before. I’m not gonna lie. You scared the bejeezus out of me. Your turn, I think.”
    Kaitlyn placed two shriller pieces on the board and counted to five, then removed them.
    Nicolas pursed his lips.
    “I remember having some kind of dream,” Kaitlyn said. “It was odd, but every time I remember something specific about it, it slips away.”
    “Well, I’m sure everything’s fine.”
    Nicolas moved the larger adda pieces until they