Why didnt you take him to the temple of Killian or Sung? Healing is their domain.
Because my family made a pact with your mistress years ago, and she can choose not to take my brother. He is needed. It is not time yet.
When is it ever the time for those left behind? asked the old High Priest.
Magnus stepped closer to him and said, It is not his time yet!
When is his time? echoed a voice through the hall, and the boys instinctively clung to one another, for there was a cold note of hopelessness in it. Yet it also held a faint echo of reassurance, that left a feeling of certainty that all would be well in the end.
Magnus turned to look at the gigantic statue. When this world is safe, he answered.
For a moment, all the torches flickered and dimmed.
Magnus found himself within a vast hall, with a ceiling so high it was lost in darkness above, while the walls were so distant he could only see the one to his right; the other boundaries had vanished in the distance.
He stood amidst a chessboard of stone biers. Men, women, and children rested upon them, though many were empty. As he watched, he saw a woman sit up and dismount her bier in the distance, and then start to weave her way through the maze of stone.
An empty bier next to Magnus was suddenly occupied by a baby, no more than a few hours old. Magnus paused to wonder how this infant, who obviously had not survived for long after its birth, would manage the feat of climbing down and walking to meet the Goddess. Then he reminded himself that none of this was real. Magnus knew that he was seeing an illusion of the gods an image made so he could apply some reference and logic when dealing with a power far beyond his own. Magnus patience was thin at the best of times, now it was slighter than parchment. He waved his hand and said, Enough!
The hall vanished and he stood on top of a mountain, in another vast hall. It appeared to be fashioned from ivory and white marble. Columns supported a vast ceiling high above, but now Magnus could see the walls.
The hall opened on a vista of the distant mountain peaks, and the air was bitterly cold and thin. Magnus adjusted the air around his body so that he felt warm and could breathe easily. Outside, a sea of white clouds lingered just below the lower edge of the floor and he knew he stood in the Pavilion of the Gods, a place his parents had told him of. He smiled, for it was here they had first spoken together, and it seemed a reasonable choice for his meeting with the Goddess.
A figure in black robes sat alone on a simple marble bench. It was a young woman, and as Magnus approached, she pulled back her hood. Her skin was as white as the finest porcelain, yet her hair and eyes were black as onyx. Her lips were the colour of blood, and her voice was like an icy wind as she said, Your powers are prodigious for a mortals, Magnus. You may someday eclipse your father and mother in your mastery of magic. You also have far more arrogance than either of them.
I lack my fathers gift for patience and my mothers acceptance of expediency, said Magnus, with a defiant note in his voice. My brother is needed. You know that.
I know no such thing, answered the woman. Your father once came to me with his friend, the human who became Valheru, she said, standing.
Magnus was surprised to discover that she was taller than him. For some reason that annoyed him. With one thought, he stood taller than the Goddess.
The woman laughed. Vanity, too? She nodded. Your father then came to me a second time.
I know, said Magnus. He told us of your bargain.
Did he? She turned her back and walked away, as if studying the mountain peaks below. I remember no bargain. I do, however, remember giving him a choice.
I dont understand, said Magnus.
I know you dont. I do not know what your father has told you about what is coming, but I have no debt to you or your family, just an understanding which I struck with Pug years ago. Your brother stands with no exemption from fate; he lies at the entrance to my realm and I am under no obligation to refuse him. It is his time.
No, said a voice from behind Magnus.
He turned and saw a thin, frail old woman with skin like translucent bleached parchment stretched over ancient bones. Her hair was white and she wore a robe the colour of the snow on the distant peaks. Her robe and hair were arranged with ivory clasps and rings, and her feet were hidden by the hem of her robes. You may do as you wish, daughter, for you are ruler of your domain, but that is just the point: you may do as you wish.
I have an obligation to keep order, and dont call me daughter, old woman. You do not belong here.
I belong nowhere, it seems. She glanced at Magnus and smiled.
Magnus studied the old woman and said, Youre the witch from the village.
No, said the old woman. But I know her, as I know many others.
Magnus revealed confusion, for the two women were identical, save that the witch had iron-grey hair and her skin was like leather. Then who are you?
I am one who once was and one who will be, but now
She is no one, said Lims-Kragma.
Yes, said the old woman, and suddenly she was gone. But her next words hung in the air. You may do as you wish.
For a moment, neither Magnus or the Goddess spoke, then the Goddess of Death said, Very well. I refuse your brother entrance to my realm. His judgment shall await another time; take him to your island.
Who was that? asked Magnus.
One who was, said the Goddess, then with a flicker of expression that suggested turbulent emotions, she added, and perhaps, as she says, one who will be again one day, and with a wave of her hand she took the two of them back to the temple. Everyone stood frozen in time, likes flies caught in amber, and the Goddess said, Ask Nakor or your father about echoes. Then suddenly she was gone, and everyone around Magnus began moving.
With a groan, Caleb opened his eyes. He blinked, then said weakly, Brother?
The Goddess answered your prayer, said the high priest, bowing his head. The other priests followed his example and also bowed.
Come, said Magnus to the boys as he picked his brother up from the floor. Calebs eyes closed and he fell unconscious again, his head resting against his brothers shoulder. The boys stood close to Magnus and again felt a sensation of darkness followed by a moment of disorientation.
They stood near the ocean. Tad and Zane could smell the tang of sea salt in the night air. Tad pointed to the two moons in the sky and the boys knew that they were some miles northwest of McGrudders inn. Magnus said nothing as he walked towards a large, square building.
Copyright
HarperVoyager An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk
First published by HarperVoyager 2005
Copyright © Raymond E. Feist 2005
Cover Illustration © Nik Keevil
Raymond E. Feist asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication
Source ISBN: 9780007133765
Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2012 ISBN: 9780007370191
Version: 2018-12-05
For Andy and Rich,
long overdue thanks for stepping in and being there at the right time
Epigraph
Fate will bring together those a thousand miles apart; without fate, they will miss each other though they come face to face.
Chinese proverb
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Map
Prologue: Harbinger
Chapter One: Brothers
Chapter Two: Council
Chapter Three: Journey
Chapter Four: Dark Goddess
Chapter Five: Sorcerers Isle
Chapter Six: Apprentices
Chapter Seven: Ralan Bek
Chapter Eight: Homecoming
Chapter Nine: Kesh
Chapter Ten: Threat
Chapter Eleven: Conspiracy
Chapter Twelve: Discovery
Chapter Thirteen: Icons
Chapter Fourteen: Breakthrough
Chapter Fifteen: Deception
Chapter Sixteen: Waiting
Chapter Seventeen: Intelligence
Chapter Eighteen: Plans
Chapter Nineteen: Traps
Chapter Twenty: Varen
Chapter Twenty-One: Anticipation
Chapter Twenty-Two: Confrontation
Epilogue: Redux
Keep Reading
Continue the Adventure...
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Also by the Author
About the Publisher
Map
PROLOGUE
Harbinger
THE STORM HAD BROKEN.
Pug danced along the edge of the rocks, his feet finding scant purchase as he made his way among the tide pools. His dark eyes darted about as he peered into each pool under the cliff face, seeking the spiny creatures driven into the shallows by the recently passed storm.
His boyish muscles bunched under his light shirt as he shifted the sack of sandcrawlers, rockclaws, and crabs plucked from this water garden. The afternoon sun sent sparkles through the sea spray swirling around him, as the west wind blew his sun-streaked brown hair about. Pug set his sack down, checked to make sure it was securely tied, then squatted on a clear patch of sand. The sack was not quite full, but Pug relished the extra hour or so that he could relax. Megar the cook wouldnt trouble him about the time as long as the sack was almost full. Resting with his back against a large rock, Pug settled in to relax. He opened his eyes suddenly. He had fallen asleep, or at least he knew he had fallen asleep here once He sat up.
A cool wet spray struck him in the face. Without having closed his eyes, somehow time had passed. Fear rose up within his chest, and he knew he had stayed much too long. Westward, over the sea, dark thunderheads were forming above the black outline of the Six Sisters, the small islands on the horizon. The roiling, surging clouds, with rain trailing below like some sooty veil, heralded another of the sudden storms common to this part of the coast in early summer. The winds drove the clouds with unnatural fury and distant thunder grew louder by the moment.