The Way Into Darkness: Book Three of The Great Way Read Online Free PDF Page A

still human figure in a red robe.
    Tyr Twofin followed his gaze. “You asked me not to torture him, so I will not. Still, he’s a Finstel priest with secret knowledge of scholarly matters. A spy. He has received the treatment all spies receive.”
    Javien . Tejohn stared down at the figure. He seemed so small at this distance. Of course, if Tejohn had never been cured of his nearsightedness, he wouldn’t even have noticed him there. No one but his jailers would have known what happened to him.  
    Song knew, but for once, it didn’t seem like enough. When Tejohn had seen small children infected with The Blessing, Javien had stepped forward to do what had to be done. Great Way, why did this have to be his reward?  
    “But never mind that,” the old tyr said, and for a moment Tejohn was nearly overwhelmed with the urge to grab hold of the man and leap . Whether they hit the water or the rocks, it would at least be quick. “Do you see?”  
    Tejohn glanced at the two guards and suffered a moment of doubt. Both seemed poised to act, and his legs were still painful and weak. Could he act quickly enough?
    “Do you see?”
    Tejohn stepped to the rail and gazed down at the spot Tyr Twofin pointed toward. It was directly below them on the nearest part of the cliff wall but beneath the water.  
    A beam from the setting sun found a gap in the western range, and a shaft of light shone through the greenish waters. “There!” Tyr Twofin called, pointing vigorously.  
    Below them Tejohn could see something yellow and liquid within the lake water, lit by the brief shaft of light. It almost seemed to glow.  
    There was a portal down in the water below, and he was looking at it almost edge-on.  
    The serpent suddenly leaped from the water, stretching up the side of the cliff. Its head looked nothing like the spade-shaped skulls of the eels in the oceans. This beast had a long, narrow snout almost like the beak of a bird, and its mouth was ringed with stubby tentacles.  
    It caught hold of Javien’s corpse and tore it from the gibbet where he hung. At the same time it sank back with its prize, a second serpent appeared. This one was too late to snatch a meal, so it sank silently beneath the waves.  
    No, there was no chance those creatures lived in that lake. Tyr Twofin would have to empty the countryside of accused spies and assassins to feed them. The beasts were coming from someplace else.
    “You see, Tyr Treygar, the portal in Peradain is a trifling thing. It flickers in and out once a generation. Out of all the portals in this world, it is the least powerful. There are others that change constantly, or that never flicker or change at all. Why do you think there are saltwater streams in these mountains?”  
    “It never occurred to me to question it, my tyr.”  
    “Hmf. If only the serpents below could give Gifts instead of simply a family name. Still, you see what this means, don’t you?”  
    Tejohn had a vague idea of what Twofin was leading him toward, but he did not believe it. “I’m not sure I do.” I’m not sure I want to.
    “Where do you think the Evening People come from when they step through that portal?” the old man said, his smile almost a leer. “Some island off Indrega? Some mountain refuge beyond the Northern Barrier? Some other continent on the far side of the sea, where the people of Kal-Maddum can not go? Of course not! If they were out there somewhere, they would have come here. Never mind the dangers out on the seas! They have made carts that can travel high above the waves, high above the peaks! Do you doubt that they could have landed on these shores decades ago and begun to conquer?”  
    “If they had a will to conquer, my tyr, they might have.”  
    Tyr Twofin waved that objection off. “All things conquer. All things grow and devour and take, when they can. Your Italga masters prove that. No, my tyr , the Evening People do not visit us between Festivals, because they do not