The Shadow Realm (The Age of Dawn Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

had Juzo, Grimbald, survivors and new volunteers to help, but the ultimate responsibility was hers. Nyset carried the burden the day she declared herself Arch Wizard after the Tower fell. It was strapped to her back like an iron block, threatening to drown her if she slipped from the treacherous path. She had to be strong for everyone else. Humanity needed to see a hero and so did she.
    She saw the way people looked at her. They looked to her the way you saw a lone candle in the dark. She was their last glimmer of hope. When their eyes were bold enough to find hers, they seemed to be waiting for words of encouragement, but none came from her lips.
    The stone walls around the gates were crumbling. Between the gates were wide archer’s towers, dense with arrow-slit windows. As long as their enemies came through the front gate, they might have a fighting chance. Mortar slipped from between the stones with a hard rap from the guard’s spear butt. The archer’s towers had remained vacant until the Tower fell. Now they bristled with guards. Nyset was glad they were starting to feel the fear. The Silver Tower was only three miles away, still merrily burning and sending a dark plume into the sky. She heard a sword pulled from a scabbard and the screech of a hawk as she drew closer.
    “Sorry, Arch Wizard, thought I heard something,” a guard called out over the parapet, one hand held over his eyes, the other gripping a long sword. He was staring into the sky, seeing the hawk lazily swirling on the boiling air. “Something wrong m’lady, er Arch Wizard?” the guard seemed to remember what that title meant and stiffened his back.
    “Oh, no. Just the wind.” She sniffed and wiped the damp from the corners of her eyes. She left two dark blue dots of wet on her silks. The guard frowned down at her and sheathed his blade. He feigned at patrolling the wall, all the while keeping his eyes on her.
    She pulled her gelding up behind the guard chipping away at the wall with his spear, the mortar crumbling like old bread. She dismounted. “Planning to rebuild it after?” The guard turned his head mid-strike, peering over his shoulder at her. His jaw hung open when he saw her. She waited for him to say something, but his reddening cheeks did the speaking for him. “Did I stutter?”
    “Uh, no, no, Arch Wizard.”
    “What do you know of masonry?”
    The guard shrugged uncomfortably, armored shoulder plates clinking against his back-plate. “Know a little from my father,” he squeaked in a womanish voice.
    “Good. You’re going to get twenty of your friends and teach them what you know. You’ll lead the fortification of the walls here at the gates. If you have any questions, you can bring them to the master mason.”
    “But I—”
    “Do you question my authority?”
    “No.”
    Nyset was quivering under her robes, doing her best to keep it from creeping through her voice. She wanted to puke up the bile in her stomach, right there onto the rough cobbles and fall to the ground weeping. She wasn’t ready for this burden. She hoped the guards staring at her over the wall and through the arrow slits took her silence for foreboding, or rage. She finally spoke and other conversations had cut off around her. “Do you see what remains of the Silver Tower?” She stabbed her finger to the south at the sinuous smoke.
    “I was there,” she spat in his face. “I watched men split in half, beheaded, burning, screaming, pleading for mercy and yelling for their mothers.” She had to be strong. “The Death Spawn boiled over our walls, spitted wizards like Shroomlings on their spears.” She had to inject the fear into their bones. “They took everything from me!” They had to know their enemy. “And here you are, weakening our walls for our enemies,” she said softly. Someone coughed on the parapet.
    The man’s eyes were wide and he cleared his throat, his tongue working at his cheeks. “I’m sorry,” he said, hardly a whisper.