Read Broken World Book Two - StarSword for Free Online Page B

swelled and filled with the
manifestation of Shissar. A thick wet mist swirled around them, and
the distant booming of surf mixed with the hiss of rain and the
tinkle of running brooks. The faint roaring of a river in flood or
a waterfall gushing its torrents onto rocks below joined the usual
Shissar sounds. The manifestation was so powerful that Talsy could
hardly breathe, the air thick with moisture.
    It vanished,
and a ring of frost, about fifty feet in diameter, formed on the
dead leaves, with the chosen and their fires at its centre. The
frost thickened, becoming a wall of snow, then that solidified into
ice and grew. The ice wall rose slowly, condensed from the air and
drawn from the stream, thickening and clouding as the pressure
increased. As the wall grew, the base thickened, spreading across
the fallen leaves in a freezing frontier. The process quickened,
and the wall narrowed towards the top, rising five, then seven
paces high.
    Chanter turned
to Talsy while it formed. "You both must ride, so don't fight with
Kieran, all right?"
    The Mujar
smiled at her disarmingly, stilling the protest that sprang onto
her tongue. Had she aired it, she would have seemed as selfish as
the rest of the people, and quelled her immediate dislike for the
idea, nodding. Chanter's smile broadened into a white grin, then he
bent to press his palms to the ground. The icy grip of Dolana
clamped down, and she held her breath until it released her. The
huge black stallion with blazing silver-blue eyes tossed his head
and pawed the ground.
    Talsy turned to
Kieran. "I'll ride in front."
    He shrugged.
"Then I must mount first."
    Talsy gestured
to the waiting Mujar, and the warrior hesitated before using the
stallion's raised foreleg to mount. She scrambled up before him,
unpleasantly aware of him close behind her, his arms encircling her
to grip Chanter's mane. Holding on to it herself, she glanced back
at the ice wall as the stallion moved off. It had grown to over
twelve paces high now, and still continued to form. She wondered
how tall it would be before the Mujar considered the chosen safe.
Or was it for their peace of mind that he made it so lofty?
    The stallion
quickened his pace, and she concentrated on holding on and staying
as far away from Kieran as she could. Soon they travelled at a
gallop, the earth blurring beneath the horse's hooves, the trees
whipping past. From the white-knuckled grip Kieran had on Chanter's
mane, she deduced that he did not know how safe they were aboard
the stallion's back, and was not about to enlighten him.
    By late
afternoon, they entered a dark, twisted forest like the one near
Jishan. The Mujar's hooves flew unchecked over treacherous ground
clogged with twisted roots. After passing through many miles of
distorted trees, silent but for the drumming of the stallion's
hooves, they entered an area razed by fire. Blackened stumps and
twisted, burnt trees rose from a thick carpet of grey ash that flew
up in a cloud behind them. Talsy gazed around in horror at the
acres of ravaged land, blackened and dead, that Truemen had killed.
The treetops had been burnt away, leaving a forest of twisted
trunks, like lost sentinels in a grey sea of ash. Chanter slowed as
the trunks thinned to reveal a stretch of open, grassy land ahead.
Beyond that was the blighted city, surrounded by its web of earth
blood.
    The stallion
stopped several feet from the nearest black path, and Talsy slid
from his back, followed by Kieran. From the grim set of the
warrior's face and the hard glint in his eyes, he did not like the
city dwellers' deeds any more than she did. Chanter transformed,
and gazed at the city for a moment before he turned to her.
    "Remember what
I told you. Bring me the seer and what chosen he or she can gather,
then we'll decide what to do."
    She nodded, and
the Mujar looked at Kieran. "Put aside your differences. You must
protect her at all costs, for she's the chosen one. I hesitate to
send her into such danger, but you