The Awakening Read Online Free PDF

under the circumstances. Margot was right; he did not know who his friends were. But surely, they did not reside in Pardatha. And perhaps not in Talamar either.
    After all , he thought, I did what I had to do, having been insulted so blatantly in that foreign court so many months ago. And to have arrived home from the long and tedious journey on the very same day that my parents become trapped in the castle’s study and burn to death before my very eyes. Where was Fobush then? Why did he not save them? And have they no sympathy for a grieving son? Only Margot. She is the only one who respects me , he sighed, and closed his heavy eyelids once more, barely able to remain awake he was just so tired.

Chapter Four

    Crimson fire streaked from his fingers in violent bursts, igniting all in its path. He swayed, trance-like from left to right, and unleashed red ribbons of death indiscriminately in all directions. As if in response, the parched soil erupted near and far, spewing viscous streams of seething fluid which clung to every object that they touched, disintegrating the lot almost instantaneously. Not a living thing lingered upon the plains of desolation surrounding his former home. What little still remained standing of Castle Sedahar was glowing a deep crimson in the twilight hours, silhouetted vividly against the setting sun. Afire from within and without, he watched with a wicked satisfaction as it slowly crumbled upon itself, reduced to nothing more than a great pile of molten sand, sanguine and without form.
    Colton dar Agonthea stood upon a small precipice and lashed out with demonic purpose. He was determined to continue until nothing lingered that would be remotely recognizable in his former home. He wished the memories to be extinguished forever and he would not cease until his evil soul was sated. The skies were heavy with death and the stench of it assaulted the very fiber of life that yet abided deep within the soil of this forsaken place. His arms flew from side to side, his long fingers were outstretched and pulsating as he hurled his red and raging fire at whatever entered his field of vision. The heavens churned in response, the earth trembled and what little water still ran or gathered in tepid pools upon this plain of quietus, turned to steam and dissipated into the air, already thick with the debris of his fury.
    He would continue his tirade unabated well into the early morning hours of that terrible day. His furor was unbridled and it would not be satiated by the mere destruction of Sedahar. Never before had he been so humiliated. His armies watched him fail and they ran away, surely with the memories of his defeat etched upon their minds’ eyes. They were all cowards. And their understanding of his desires, of his advocacy, was minimal. Dissolution was his goal, his craving and need, and they were merely pawns in his plan. He required them nevertheless, and now he would need to recruit once more and to train and arm and create, and worst of all, again suffer the associations that would be demanded of him if he hoped to find the boy and kill him.
    His power was enormous, surely far greater than that of any other man or woman. Yet still, he could not defeat his opponents by himself and the frustration that this knowledge caused him was almost unbearable. The trees still wielded their might and the earth responded to them in spite of everything. The heir was yet alive somewhere, waiting to be trained and brought to his full power. And worst of all, the First surely perceived his approach. Colton always sensed the presence of this, the greatest of the trees, upon the planet, shielded by a darkening he could not pierce. He felt its power and he could almost see the purity of the Gem, pulsating and emanating from within its heart. There was an unexplainable tie binding the two of them together. They felt one another from within and he would locate it yet. He was destined to destroy the wellspring of power that