Read Branches of Time, The for Free Online Page B

all of that crap .
    Watching the boy leave the room, Obolil gave him another order: “Then come right back here.”
    Reluctantly, Ilis threw out everything that had been so carefully collected over decades of research and returned to his new master, moving towards the table Obolil had, in the meantime, taken a seat at.
    “Sit down!”
    Ilis obeyed.
    “Give me your hands.”
    Obolil took Ilis' hands. The boy had to stifle a wave of disgust. The old wizard's body, despite having had a few days to refresh and reenergize, was still frightening,
    His eyes were sunken in their dark sockets. His face, hands, wrists and every visible patch of skin was covered with scars. Only half of his right eyebrow remained. His fingernails were broken, split or completely missing. A segment of the pinky finger on his left hand was missing, just like his right earlobe. The wizard could not hold his body up straight. Even while seated, he slouched so badly that the top half of his chest was nearly parallel to the top of the table.
    “Ah, I disgust you, don't I? Look at what our dear king has done to me! And that's the man I now have to serve. The man who rules over both of us, and he won't think twice about doing the very same thing to you if you don't give him what he wants.” Obolil spoke in a very low and hoarse voice, interrupted frequently by short coughing fits.
    “As for me, boy, I may not be here for very long. So if you want a different fate, you better be able to learn quickly.”
    Obolil closed his eyes, although his left eyelid remained open. He breathed in heavily: the air seemed to hesitate before entering his lungs.
    “Do what I do. And stop staring at me with those frightened eyes.”
    “Yes, master.”
    Ilis bent his head down.
    A few seconds later, a powerful energy began to flow from his right to his left hand. The sensation caught the apprentice unprepared, and he moved as if to withdraw his hands.
    “You didn't even get to this level? Poor Aldin. He'd have been the last child in the world I would have ever chosen for an apprentice, if I hadn't screwed his mother!”
    The energy flowed with an even greater intensity. Ilis felt himself catapulted into a vortex of emotions which inspired, alternately, happiness, fear, pure terror and joy.
    “Surrender, boy. Don't try to resist.”
    Ilis tried to do as he was told but his body only stiffened further.
    “I told you to surrender!” Obolil yelled at him, panting. Ilis thought the wizard was almost about to faint, so he tried to put into practice everything he had learned over those years. He relaxed his muscles and mentally recited a few formulas, releasing as much resistance as he could. The vortex of energy reached an unparalleled intensity. Suddenly Ilis found himself watching himself from above.
    What in the...?
    You've never done this before? Obolil asked him.
    You can...
    Read your thoughts? Of course! But only when we're out of our bodies.
    Ilis felt himself getting sucked back down.
    No, don't be afraid. Fear prevents you from advancing.
    Master I...I don't feel ready.
    Nonsense! I'm the one who decides if you're ready or not.
    What do you want to do?
    Obolil's voice came through clear and strong, his words articulate. Ilis realized that he respected that voice.
    They tortured my body, but they could never touch my spirit.
    Ilis felt slightly ashamed.
    We need to try and work together so we can find more information. The island is the problem. Aldin could have spent the next few centuries digging around for precious minerals and still never have gotten anywhere. The barrier is fed by the rituals on the island.
    But master, we used all the energy we had to create a cataclysm that would exterminate all of the inhabitants of the island. The master...I mean, Aldin personally went there to make sure his operation was a success.
    Oh really? Let's have a look. Visualize yourself near the Tridis reef, on this side of the barrier.
    Ilis tried, though he had never seen that