Survivors: Book 4 Circles of Light series Read Online Free PDF

exquisitely
beautiful face stared straight into Seela’s. The company stepped
back, trying to see the figure more clearly.
    It glowed a dull gold
in the strange light of the Dome and tiny scales were engraved on
all the exposed areas of skin. It wore a real robe of white cloth,
belted with a scarf of blue. The robe was sleeveless and slit
backed, the figure’s wings furled closed at his back.
    Farn edged closer to
Tika and from the corner of her eye she saw that Storm was pressed
to Navan’s shoulder too. Silently and slowly they moved round one
side of the vast Dome, staring at statue after statue: all winged,
all scaled, all robed. There seemed to be equal numbers of males
and females – but as they neared the opposite side of the Dome from
the archway, the company halted and could only gape.
    The female statue had
her head lowered but her hands half raised – all the previous
figures held their hands clasped before them or relaxed at their
sides. And this female’s wings were half extended, rising above her
head and fanning out around her body. Tika drew a deep breath and
looked away from the overwhelming statue to the other half of the
Dome. More statues lined the walls right back to the archway
through which the company had entered. Sket stood beside her,
clearly uncomfortable.
    Apart from those
motionless figures the Dome was a huge empty space. She looked back
to speak to the Keeper and realised he was no longer with them. She
opened her mouth, and snapped it shut as a soft hiss echoed around
them. Hands went to swords and Dragon eyes began to whirr. An
immense section in the centre of the floor slid away somehow and
the hissing changed to a low hum. Something rose from the hole.
Confused minds assumed it to be another form of statuary or
artefact as it continued to rise until, with a soft click, the
floor was in place again and on it stood -?
    It was grey blue, three
times Gan’s height and smoothly rounded at one end, tapering at the
other. There was another hum and click and a circle irised open
just behind the rounded end. A man stepped out and walked a few
steps towards them.
    He smiled. ‘I am
Kertiss,’ he said softly.
    A young sounding male
voice chimed over his. ‘And I am Star Singer. I welcome you at
last.’
     
     
     

Chapter
Three
     
    Tika stared at the man,
straight into his pale grey eyes. She knew he was attempting to
probe her mind and instinctively she slammed a shield round her
thoughts. His smile widened.
    ‘You need have no fear
of me, but will you not tell me your names?’
    Without hesitation,
Tika gave their names, and only their names. She made no reference
to any rank, or title, or to where they came from. Brin had moved
to flank Tika and Farn and the man half turned to stare up at the
crimson Dragon.
    ‘I had no idea you were
quite so large,’ he said.
    A trace of smoke wisped
from Brin’s nose but his mind voice was calm.
    ‘I should tell you
Kertiss, you should not believe that we fear you. That would be a
mistaken belief.’
    Kertiss laughed, teeth
flashing in his dark face. He replied to Brin’s comment but Tika
paid no attention to his words: she watched Gan, out of Kertiss’s
line of sight. Gan was jiggling at his cloak and then an orange
Kephi landed between his boots. She streaked into the hole in the
strange object whence Kertiss had emerged. So the Survivor Khosa
said they could trust was within that thing, Tika
thought.
    Kertiss turned from
Brin as Seela moved. In the silent Dome her great feet made the
merest whisper, matched by the slither of her tail over the paved
floor. She reared erect at the rounded end of the object, her eyes
a blaze of lavender and violet prisms. The upper part of that
rounded end of what appeared to be blue grey stone suddenly cleared
to become – windows? The young male voice began to sing, no words
to his song but joyful notes and melodies, filling them all with a
sense of delight.
    ‘Enough Singer,’
snapped Kertiss, his smile