Taming the Elements: Elwin Escari Chronicles: Volume 1 Read Online Free PDF Page A

clutched a red dragon. Such symbols were bad omens or scrawled on the doors of the condemned houses of plague victims. This was not the Solsec family crest, but he could not mistake his childhood friend. Bain rested a casual hand upon the hilt of a scimitar.
    “Bain,” Alcoa said. “I thought—”
    “You thought I was dead,” Bain said.
    Thirod had sent Bain into an unwelcoming land in search for artifacts of power. All these years, he had thought his friend dead. Bain, his closest friend, was alive! Thirod released the power he held and felt the Air push back into the room.
    With arms wide open, he approached Bain. “I had given up hope.”
    Bain took a step backward and raised a hand to halt Thirod’s approach. “There are events, which we need to discuss.”
    “Yes,” Alcoa said, gesturing toward the balcony, “perhaps we should sit.”
    “I prefer to stand for the moment.” Bain’s smile held no mirth.
    Something didn’t feel right. Then a thought occurred to Alcoa. “How did you get past the guards and my wards? Even in times of peace, they are always in place. I can still feel the Elemental wards in tact.”
    Bain smiled. “I have learned many things over the past seven years.”
    “Why have you only just come to me? And like this?” Alcoa said. “Where have you been?”
    “I found something valuable on my last mission.”
    Found something? Bain had been alive all these years. Still searching. Why had he not sent word? He opened his mouth to voice his questions, but Bain continued before he could form the words.
    “Something that we have sought our entire lives to find.”
    “You found an artifact of power,” Thirod said, “something from before the Shadow Wars?”
    “I have found that and more.” Bain’s dark eyes glittered in the light of the fireworks.
    Could it be? Could he have found the Orb of Inra? Something like that would ensure the success of his kingdom for the rest of time. Not even the Awakening could be a match against such an artifact.
    When it was clear Bain would say no more, Alcoa said, “All this time I have mourned you for dead. You must allow me to welcome you properly. Please let us sit.”
    Bain took a few steps further into the room and stared at Thirod for several moments. “I have found Abaddon’s castle in a land unclaimed by any. The castle bears my crest, and I have come to declare those lands the nation of Bain.”
    “What?”
    He had not drank that much wine, but his mouth felt dry and his tongue thick. Nothing seemed to make sense to him. What was he hearing? Bain and he were cousins. Of an age with one another, they had grown up as brothers. Bain and he had been trained together in the Elements by Jhona Solsec, Bain’s brother.
    Bain hadn’t aged a day. The face before him looked the same as the day he had left. But who was this man? An image of a friend he had given up for dead, now declaring himself a nation?
    “This is not the proper venue, my friend. We are celebrating p—”
    “Celebrating what?” Bain did not raise his voice, but his tone was cold as iron. “Our kind are dying. All the while, you let these fools, the so-called Guardians of Life, snuff out the powers of the Elements. Fanatics, who would as soon destroy any gifted as save them, hunt our kind, and you let the vermin nest in your very castle. What is there to celebrate?”
    Thirod’s mouth worked, but nothing came from his lips. No thoughts seemed to hold. No one had spoken to him like this in years. Not since … No one had addressed King Alcoa in such an informal manner since the day Bain left. From any other person in his kingdom, Thirod Alcoa would have never allowed such blatant insolence.
    “Bain,” Alcoa said in a calm voice, “the Guardians of Life hunt down Death bound and those who violate the Laws of Power, and they ensure our survival. That is their purpose. Nothing more. Their sect is almost as old as my nation and the Sacred Order. As old as the Shadow Wars. I