Taliesin Ascendant (The Children and the Blood) Read Online Free PDF

its heart. She shifted on the seat, trying to get a better view. A chain-link fence topped with barbed wire protected the property, and behind the barrier, a field of scrub grass stretched for almost half a mile to a hodgepodge of concrete and aluminum-sided buildings. A pair of decaying security booths huddled by the fence, one inside the property and one out, and weathered signs flanked the gate, declaring in sun-bleached letters that the buildings beyond were condemned.
    The cars pulled to a stop, and a wizard climbed from the first sedan to walk over to the security booth. At a small keypad mounted on the wall, he punched in a code and sent a small burst of magic into the device, and then headed back to the car as the gate rolled aside.
    Ashe’s brow drew down in alarm. For the barest blink of an eye, the air seemed to shiver and, though she hadn’t noticed any fog, the view ahead suddenly became infinitesimally less hazy than before.
    As though detecting her confusion, Cornelius glanced back with a cautioning look. Frustration rose in her and, as if seeing that too, his expression took on an edge of insistent request.
    She looked away.
    The cars pulled through the opening and rumbled down the path. Warehouses closed in around them, each gaping doorway revealing only shadows. At the end of the gravel track, the monolith of the factory waited, its white-painted walls chipping with age.
    On the warehouse rooftops, wizards stepped into view, their gazes tracking the sedans.
    Ashe glanced to Cornelius, but the man simply ignored them and then twitched his fingers to the automatic window controls when several more wizards emerged from behind the buildings to block the road. Weaponless, the men still managed to appear threatening as they walked toward the cars. Looking briefly into the first vehicle, they continued to the second, and then stopped when they spotted her in the back.
    “Who–”
    “You will let us pass,” Cornelius interrupted calmly.
    Snapping his mouth shut, the man’s gaze went to Cornelius, and then he jerked his head in a stiff bow. Stepping back, he waved a hand and immediately, the wizards cleared the road.
    Cornelius rolled up the window. “Go,” he said to the driver.
    His eyes locked on the path, the driver did as he was told.
    Beyond the warehouses, an ocean of a parking lot surrounded the immense factory. Heavily overgrown and cracking, the concrete nevertheless showed faint remnants of orange lines where the parking spaces had once been. In spots halfway across the sprawl, the sedans came to a stop. Cornelius climbed from the vehicle and then turned, pulling her door open.
    He glanced to the driver as Ashe got out of the car. “Go make certain the council is ready,” he ordered.
    The man’s eyes flicked from Cornelius to her and back again. Without a trace of expression, he nodded and then turned, striding toward the factory and motioning for the other wizards to accompany him.
    Cornelius watched them go, waiting till they’d entered the massive building before glancing down at her. “Remember,” he said, his voice barely breaking the stillness of the parking lot. “No sign. No reaction to anything.” He paused. “Please.”
    Her brow drew down warily, but she gave a tiny nod.
    Echoing the motion more firmly, he started for the building.
    Spanning the width of several city blocks, at its heart the factory easily stood ten stories high. Smoke stacks towered from its core, dwarfing the shorter buildings edging the complex. Broken windows stared blindly from the entire height of the building, while the surviving glass reflected the gray sky. Weathered railings bordered the slope to a handicapped entrance, and at the metal door, Cornelius paused, glancing back again. Briefly, he studied her face, and then without a word, he pulled the door open and then held it so she could precede him inside.
    Heavily, the door swung shut behind them, cutting off the dull sunlight. Deep shadows filled