The Twins Read Online Free PDF Page B

the drawstring, he took from it four small stones, one ruby red, one sapphire blue, the third a deep, deep green and the fourth as black as night. From his right hand, he removed the large gold signet ring he always wore on his index finger. It bore the seal of state, and had been passed from generation to generation, from leader to leader, during the ceremony of succession. Although the ceremony was public, the secret of the ring was conveyed in a very private ceremony, or rather, ritual at which only the privileged few were welcome. Pushing up his tunic, he carefully placed the ring on the tender belly of the boy.
    Reciting the words of power taught him that fateful night, Baladar concentrated on the rune carved into the ring. The carving abruptly came to life, and hovered over the adolescent child. Baladar took each of the four stones and placed them singly in a corner of the table. The rune image appeared to solidify about two feet above the boy, and as if tiny spiders had escaped from each corner of it to spin a web to the stones, solid looking lines reached out to each of the four corner gems. Upon touching the stone, the web like strings blazed with the full color of the gem to which it had attached itself.
    The wide-eyed yet unconscious boy was totally oblivious to the vivid colors swirling and sparking all around him. Baladar removed the warm disk from his cloak and placed it on the table just outside the sphere of power encircling him. As if the Lalas disk inhaled a full and deep breath, the colors began to twirl together and merge into one as they headed for the polished instrument. Baladar, beginning to feel the effects of these exertions on his person, sat himself down at the foot of the table. He gazed as intensely as he could at the disk.
    An image formed above it as if a miniature play was being enacted before his eyes. In a trance-like state, Baladar witnessed the last moments of Mira’s efforts. He felt the intense rush of sentiment and his body stiffened in response. He instinctively recognized the enormous sacrifice she had made and he perceived, as if he had been present in real time at the scene of this heroic deed, her great sorrow in the leave-taking, as well as the tremendous joy she experienced at the seeming success of her casting. Warm feelings of elation and relief washed over him as he experienced her final emotions.
    Without warning, Baladar recoiled from the sickening touch of evil. He felt the hot breath of the vicious enemy upon his face as he leapt out of the nearby trees. The darkened skin and muscular appearance he’d chosen that day only enhanced his unholy aura. His long, pointed fingers grasped with a lustful and desperate urgency at the boy. Baladar witnessed the boy’s disappearance and he saw the agony on the distorted face of the Evil One as he recognized that the boy was gone from his reach. He swayed in his seat as the flood of anger permeated his soul and the sickening sensations infiltrated his consciousness. Girding his mind, he shielded himself from the emotional onslaught and continued to observe the final moments of the casting.
    The hordes of animal-like beings swarmed out from the nearby trees and surrounded the Evil One, though not too closely, in considerable fear of his wrath. They were accustomed to his arbitrary lashing out, and none wished to be too near if he was not successful. As Colton dar Agonthea, one of the most reluctantly uttered names of legend, realized that he had lost the boy, his mouth, dripping with venomous saliva, opened in a constricted circle and he let out a wail of agony that hurt Baladar’s ears.
    Baladar realized that Mira was more successful than she had ever dreamed she could have been at her life work. There was no sense of a trail and no trace of a direction. The boy was so safely and solidly cast by Mira that no other man or god could have done better. Colton struck repeatedly at the stone statue that was once Mira, and disregarding the