The Edge of Chaos Read Online Free PDF Page A

door, acutely aware of the empty hall. She lingered for moment, silent and listening. All her life she’d had the ability to be quiet and unobserved. As a child, before … before the accident with her aunt that had left her an orphan, she’d honed the skill to be present without being noticed. Drawing attention often led to pain.
    From the other side of the heavy wooden door, Gregor spoke again. “I am committed to the well-being of all pilgrims to the Plaguewrought Land who seek exposure to spellplague.”
    “Yes. Yes, of course,” said the other. “We also have our ideals—similar to yours, in fact. Do you think you can help?”
    “Perhaps if you gave me more details about the ritual—” Gregor began*
    “The ritual is vast and complex,” Vraith said. “And I am not about to reveal the secrets of it. However, I can tell you that the key component involves weaving the life threads of
    sentient creatures together and igniting this new pattern with spellplague from the border veil.
    “The pilgrims I use are volunteers, of course, and selected based on their health and vigor. The ritual magic weaves the threads of their souls into a combined entity— a tapestry that matches the mesh of the border veil. So far, none of the volunteers have survived long enough to finish the weave.
    “Brother Gregor, our plan requires that these volunteers survive this ordeal. I’ve heard rumors that you are passing out a potion to pilgrims seeking exposure to the blue fire. These rumors say the potion guarantees their survival.”
    “Well, the elixir doesn’t guarantee anyone will survive.” Slanya could hear the excitement in Gregor’s voice. “But pilgrims do survive exposure longer. I can show you my charts if you’d like. The results of my latest trials have been phenomenal.”
    “No, that won’t be necessary. I’ll trust you.” Vraith’s voice grew smooth. “So how can we obtain some of this magic elixir?”
    “This ritual of yours,” Gregor asked, “it doesn’t kill the pilgrims, does it?”
    “No, no. Although during the ritual, the volunteers’ exposure to the blue fire is prolonged-If they can survive that, they can survive the ritual.”
    “And,” Gregor continued, “the purpose of this ritual is…?”
    “Imagine being able to create barriers to the plaguelands,” Vraith said. “Imagine if we could replicate something like the border veil anywhere we wanted. We could contain the storms and the outbreaks …” Her voice trailed off, and there was a scuffling of feet from the room beyond.
    Slanya’s eyes had adjusted, and the corridor was much brighter now. She felt more conspicuous, more vulnerable in the open hallway. If somebody were to come in ..
    Calm down, she told herself. Breathe. She took a moment to center herself, anchor her body and mind together.
    “You make a powerful argument,” Gregor said.
    “Excellent! If this next ritual proves successful,” Vraith said, “we will need thousands more doses. The festival is a few days away. Can you provide that many?”
    The festival? Slanya considered for a moment. Vraith must be referring to the Festival of Blue Fire. Thousands of pilgrims were gathering in and around Ormpetarr that tenday to participate. It was one of the reasons the numbers of sick and dead had increased.
    Gregor said, “I will need more reagents to produce that much. But I’m already working on getting more.”
    “How long will it take?” Vraith’s benevolent tone gave way to one of commanding urgency. “If the next test works, I’ll want the elixir ready to distribute.”
    “Several days at least,” Gregor said. “One of the ingredients is very difficult to acquire.”
    “Get started right away. This is critical.” The sharpness in Vraith’s voice made Slanya wince.
    When Gregor spoke again, there was a warning in his tone. “Let me do my job and you do yours. I am provisionally committed, because this ritual of yours seems to be the key to containing