Read The Sorcerer's Bane for Free Online Page B

of her in surprise. “There are two dozen people laying here murdered. They’ve been drained of their blood upon this very floor, girl!”
    Nadja flattened her lips and heaved a sigh. “But one should not jump to conclusions.”
    Gruum blew out his lips and stalked off. The girl followed him, asking questions and making bright comments. Gruum wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries, and answered her only in grunts. He left the servants’ quarter with its horrors behind and located Therian in the armory. There he had gathered a company of guardsmen, just as Nadja had said. The soldiers gave Gruum hard-eyed stares.
    “Milord,” Gruum said, “I have much to report.”
    “Can it not wait until after I’ve completed my day’s task?”
    “My reports involve the same.”
    Therian finally turned to Gruum and Nadja, who waved at her father with pink fingers. He flicked his eyes between the two of them. His mouth was a flat line of disapproval. “Tell me quickly.”
    Gruum told the King of the priests circling their pool in the Necropolis, the unknown thing the priestesses constructed, and the mysterious frozen shrine in the laundry.
    “A shrine in the laundry?” snorted Therian. He tugged black gloves upon his hands and fastened his sword belt around his waist. “That is your emergency?”
    “Nadja and I found something,” Gruum began, glancing down at his side toward Nadja…but he paused. The girl had vanished. He looked around behind himself. She was nowhere in sight.
    “Speak quickly, man!” Therian commanded. “What did you find?”
    “A score of dead, milord,” Gruum stammered, “their drained bodies lay at the foot of the Black Dragon’s image.”
    “And what of it? I lifted the ban on sorcery. Clearly, a cabal went too far, but to damn every priestess for the actions of a few seems a trifle unfair, doesn’t it? One should not come to rash conclusions.”
    “Aren’t you acting rashly now, sire?” Gruum asked. His uplifted hands indicated the throng of armed men around them.
    Therian lashed out and grabbed Gruum by the hair. His hand was strong and quick. Gruum’s hand strayed reflexively to his dagger, but a dozen guardsmen advanced a step around him, making his hand freeze. He rested a hand on the pommel of his dagger, but did not dare draw it.
    “What do you mean by that statement, loyal Gruum?” Therian asked, still holding him by the hair.
    “You march to punish the Red Order,” Gruum said, trying to keep the rage out of his voice. So tight was Therian’s grip that Gruum could not look up at his King. He could only glare at the stained flagstones of the armory as he spoke. He felt humiliated, but he did not struggle, as he knew his life hung by a thread.
    Therian spoke harshly into his ear. “You said yourself the priests have dug a channel to the sea beneath Corium.”
    “They tell me they seek to stop the Black Order. They say the priestesses are building Corium’s doom beneath us.”
    Therian released Gruum’s hair. Everyone in the room relaxed a fraction.
    “Would you have me burn them both out, then?” the King asked.
    Gruum thought about it. Finally, he nodded. “Both, or none at all.”
    Therian laughed. It was a strange, cold sound. Gruum had rarely heard the King’s laughter so fully expelled. “You are a fountain of wisdom and the world’s greatest fool rolled up into one, barbarian! Never do you cease to surprise me!”
    Gruum smiled weakly. “Happy to please, milord.”
    Therian nodded after a moment’s thought. “All right. Let us march not to one temple or another. Let us march down to the Necropolis. Let us see for ourselves what it is that occurs beneath our ancient streets. Depending on circumstances there, we’ll burn out one set of zealots—or both.”

-9-

    Therian and Gruum led hundreds of guardsmen in blue livery down into the center of the Necropolis, taking a route known as the central stairway, which began with the city sewers. The guardsmen had not