Read First Comes The One Who Wanders for Free Online Page A

danger that awaited them in the darkness ahead. In her mind, she told herself she would contemplate Joshuas and his mysterious entrance into her life and why she was so willing to accept him when she had more time. Now, she needed to concentrate on getting her family to safety.
    As far as she knew, no one knew about this passageway. But many crafters had been alive since the days of Greyan and had wandered these halls when there was freer access to the School of Sky. It was possible that some of the crafters of Land knew about this escape from the city.
    "There's a flight of stairs," she spoke softly over her shoulder to Brenth and her mother as she began descending. "Then if you keep your hand on the right wall you'll feel a doorway. Go through that door."
    Brenth conveyed her message to Joshuas as he closed the door behind them. Leilas turned into the passageway and barely raised her hands in time to ward off the spell thrown in her direction. The fire flared up against her shield of magic and faded. Before she even thought, she spoke the spell of unshaping that she and Master Frey had practiced a thousand times and threw it in the direction of the attack. Shrieks rose up in the hallway, bouncing eerily off the walls and slowly fading as they moved along the corridor. Leilas almost gagged as she stepped over the pile of bones and skin. It was all that was left of her attackers. In their practice sessions, they'd never used living targets. For the first time in her life, Leilas had killed other human beings. All her life, she'd believed that not crossing that line made her different from her father, different from the Dredracians she fought against in the streets of Dirth. The death of the crafters had left a reverberation in the fabric of magic that enveloped Preterlandis. It wasn’t a feeling she liked and wasn’t one she wanted to repeat any time soon. It compounded the darkness that was threatening to overwhelm her. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the luxury of avoiding further confrontation. She had to think about the safety of her family. Later, when the danger was passed, she could think about what'd happened here and its repercussions.
    Focusing her senses as best she could through the darkness pushing in on her, she continued down the dark hall. Brenth stepped gingerly over the dead crafters. Queen Daina murmured a quiet blessing on what was left of the men on the floor. Joshuas conjured a small ball of light and studied the remains.
    "They were scouts." Leilas heard him speak in her mind. It was the first time he had used this method of communication. His voice seemed deeper, more musical in her head. It helped calm her strained nerves. "That means there will be more magiks and soldiers ahead. Is there another way?"
    "Through the Echoes," replied Leilas reluctantly. "It takes much longer and is far more dangerous." She didn't bother to explain that she wasn’t sure she could force herself to enter the Echoes again. She was having enough trouble holding the fear and panic at being in such an enclosed space at bay.
    "I'm not sure anything is more dangerous than an attack by half a dozen evil crafters intent on killing magiks. We'll take our chances in the Echoes."
    Leilas opened her mouth to argue then closed it again, her mother and her brother's safety was more important than any fears or dreads she might have concerning the Echoes. Trying to gather her shaken resolve, she reached out with her mind as she traversed the hall. It was a delicate balance to probe forward with her senses and not be discovered before she recognized the danger of the enemy approaching. She was tiring quickly from the unaccustomed effort, along with warding off the darkness swirling around her.
    When they reached an intersection in the hallway, Leilas turned left instead of continuing straight. She hesitated only a second before she plunged into the darkness that led to the Echoes.
    Within a hundred feet the hallway began to narrow.