The Familiars: Secrets of the Crown Read Online Free PDF Page A

She closed her eyes, concentrated, and then started her incantation.
    “Agorus, hear my call and speak once more,” she chanted to the sky. She tossed the powder into the air and intoned: “ Mortis communicatum! ”
    Nothing happened for so long that Aldwyn thought Skylar’s spell must have been unsuccessful. But then a bluish mist began to form in the air and curl round the stone. It grew more and more solid, and Aldwyn saw a faintly glowing figure emerge from it. As the spirit became more concrete, Aldwyn was taken aback: what had taken shape in front of him was not a man, but – a beaver!
    “I knew it,” said Feynam. “There is no way a bird could cast such a powerful spell!”
    “I’m sorry,” said Skylar to the four-legged creature. “I was trying to commune with someone else.”
    The beaver looked at her, exasperated.
    “You mean to tell me you’ve woken me for nothing?” he said. “I was in the middle of the most peaceful sleep.”
    “Perhaps you can still help. Is there a man who lingers by this stone in the Tomorrowlife?” asked Skylar. “A famed architect who goes by the name Agorus.”
    “Now you’ve got me confused,” said the beaver. “Are you looking for a man or for Agorus?”
    “They’re one and the same,” said Feynam, growing impatient.
    “Then you’re out of luck,” replied the beaver. “It’s a shame too. If you had been here looking for a beaver named Agorus, you would have found him.”
    The group stared back at him in disbelief. He smiled and gave a little wave.
    “ You are the famed architect Agorus?” asked Feynam.
    Aldwyn had known at once that it was true, recognising that yet again they had made a wrong, very human, assumption – that man was responsible for the greatness of Vastia’s past rather than animals.
    “You’re a beaver,” exclaimed a startled Gilbert, giving voice to the surprise that could be read on everybody’s face.
    “Well, I should hope so,” said Agorus. “That’s how I left this life, and that’s how I’ve stayed. Although if reincarnation were a possibility, I always wondered what it would be like to come back as a gazelle – a handsome, elegant creature indeed. Now tell me, blue bird, how many years have passed since the Turn? Two, three?”
    “A little over four thousand,” said Skylar.
    “Huh. Time goes fast in the Tomorrowlife. It seems like just yesterday I was overseeing the team of Farsand lifting-spiders who built the Shifting Fortress. I’m sure you noticed their insignia carved into the stone.” Agorus gestured to the circle on the cornerstone with the eight lines sticking out of it. “Amazing creatures. Ten times the size of regular spiders, with webbing strong enough to carry a boulder. But none of it would have been possible without my meticulous design. And the Fortress – what a miracle of engineering it was, if I do say so myself! Walls as strong as steel, a casting tower that could spread magic from Liveod’s Canyon to the southern tip of the ever-flowing Enaj, and a teleportation globe buried into the glass floor, randomly spinning so the Fortress never appeared in the same place twice, making it impossible to ever lay siege to it.”
    “We come with a question in dire need of an answer,” interrupted Skylar. “Is there another way to summon the Shifting Fortress beside the wooden bracelet?”
    “Wooden bracelet?” asked Agorus. “I’m not sure what a wooden bracelet has to do with the Shifting Fortress.”
    “My bracelet,” said Queen Loranella. “It was a relic possessed by my great-grandfather, the king. I retrieved it from the Sunken Palace during the Dead Army Uprising.”
    “You speak of a history I am unaware of. Back in my day, the Shifting Fortress was not summoned by some wooden trinket. There was meant to be only one way to bring forth the mighty tower. Seek the Crown of the Snow Leopard! That is how the First Phylum intended it.”
    “Please, slow down,” said Skylar. “First Phylum,