Shadow Mage (Blacklight Chronicles) Read Online Free PDF Page A

branches you’ve gathered. Leave the north-facing side open.”
    Talis grunted, but grabbed the sticks and started assembling a four-cornered pyramid. He tied the top with some vines, and placed the branches snug against the three sides. After he finished, he stood and inspected his work.
    “Interesting construction…a pyramid.” Mistress Cavares circled his creation, and bent down to peer inside. “Yes, this will work. Now place the rune in the absolute center of your trap… No, you’ll need a stick to measure precisely. Go get one.”
    He could tell from her eyes that she was serious, so he held his sigh until he reached the forest’s edge. Why did she always have to be so exact in everything? He thought this would be a fun outing in the swamplands, but instead it was just another one of her lessons .  
    But then he noticed something. From his vantage point he realized that the placement of the trap was also precise. It was exactly in the center of the meadow. Now he was really curious. What was she up to?
    When he found a stick straight enough to measure lengths, he raced back to the trap.
    “That will do.” Mistress Cavares motioned Talis towards his construction.
    Talis measured the trap twice, trying his best to locate the center. “Can I place the rune now?”
    Mistress Cavares wagged her head back and forth. “We must ask the wind first.” She gazed at the sky, pressed her fingertips against her temples, and started chanting strange words in a staccato rhythm. Soon a dust-devil formed in the sky. The air smelled suddenly of spring blossoms and rain. The grey whirlwind moved slowly towards them, and finally settled over the trap.  
    The corners of Mistress Cavares’s mouth curled up into a smile. “See? The wind listened to wisdom. And we, mortal servants of the gods, obey. Now you must sing praises to the gods.”
    “Sing?” Talis frowned, and glanced around as if expecting an audience. “Which gods?”
    “All of them, foolish one. Do you want to make a god jealous? Start a war? Sing, boy, sing!”
    Talis felt himself wither at her piercing stare. He cleared his throat and raised his eyes to the heavens. He remembered songs his mother had sung to him as a child, songs of love, songs of revenge, songs of the gods. His voice was clear and strong as he sang the words. He sang every song he knew, not missing any of the gods.  
    When he finished, a feeling of calm and strength possessed him. The storm had melted away and the meadow was strangely quiet. Shadows that had once belonged to trees on the forest’s edge began stretching towards the trap from all corners. Talis stepped back in fear as the unnatural shadows moved closer and closer, bending in angles that defied the path of light. Defied the laws of nature. This couldn’t be happening.
    Mistress Cavares cackled softly as she stretched her hands towards the trap. Was she a dark sorcerer? Talis glanced nervously at the deep magenta mist forming in the air around her fingertips. Then swirls of that mist shot out in streams towards the empty nest of the trap he had built. An inky-blackness consumed the center of his construction, blacker moment by moment as the shadows poured inside.  
    The world was going insane. The trees around the meadow bent at odd angles, twisted and were made to bow low by some strange force. The trap glowed around the outside with that same magenta mist. Talis could hear a moaning sound like from the mouth of a slave bearing a crushing burden.  
    “Dare you venture forward and place the rune?” Mistress Cavares was standing as if she had lost all sight. Her eyes had flipped upwards so only the whites showed.  
    Talis wanted to run and leave this madness, but he didn’t know if he could escape unharmed. The air sparked with electricity as if he was standing atop a hill being assaulted by lightning. The gods were here. Dark and light, trickster and healer.
    “If you flee, the gods will slay you.” Mistress Cavares