Queen of Song and Souls

Excerpt

Celieria ~ The Garreval
She was only nine years old, and she was going to die.
 
Lillis Baristani clung to her beloved friend, Earth master Kieran vel
Solande, and showered his throat with frightened tears.
 
Around them the world had gone mad. Magic, blades, and barbed sel'dor arrows
filled the air. Blood ran red on the ground. Below, at the base of the
Rhakis mountains, dozens of vile, snarling, monstrous wolf- beasts called
darrokken were charging up the slope towards the small, fleeing party while
the creatures' evil masters flung globe after globe of blue- white Mage Fire
to cut off all chance of escape.
 
What ever the Mage Fire touched disintegrated on contact . . . not dissolved
. . . simply disappeared. Entire chunks of the mountain evaporated in an
instant. The ground shifted and shook beneath Kieran's feet.
 
"Kieran!" his friend Kiel shouted, pointing uphill. "The mountain!" Another
frightful barrage of Mage Fire had dissolved half the peak above their
heads. The remaining rock and stone gave a rumbling shriek and collapsed,
sending a wall of dirt, stone, and wood rushing towards them.
 
"Hold tight, little one," Kieran whispered. Lillis tightened her arms around
his neck, pressing so close that her kitten, Snowfoot, mewed a protest and
squirmed in the sling tied round her neck. Kieran turned to raise both hands
and she felt the electric tingle of his gathering magic. It danced across
her skin like crackling sparks of green light. Inside her, Lillis's own
magic rose in response.
 
She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her face to his throat. Bright Lord,
please help Kieran, she prayed. I don't want him to die. Or Papa, Lorelle,
Kiel, or me either.
 
She felt the vibrations of Kieran's throat against her lips as he shouted
defiantly and flung out his weaves. The magic left him- and her, too- in a
great rush. Please, gods, please gods, please, gods.
 
Incredibly-or, perhaps, miraculously- the crumbling mountainside froze.
Lillis risked a glance up to confirm that they were not about to be crushed
fl at as a griddlecake, then squeezed her eyes shut again.
 
"Five- fold weaves, my brothers!" Kieran shouted. "Keep that scorching Mage
Fire off us!" Suddenly, he gave a grunt of pain, and Lillis felt him falter.
Her head lifted, and though the battle raging all around terrified her, she
forced her eyes open.
 
Kieran was arrow- shot. The sight of the ugly black, barbed metal arrow
puncturing his thigh made her belly lurch.
 
«Get down, Lillis,» his voice murmured in her mind. «Run to your father.
Kiel and I will hold them off.»
 
«But what about you?» It was the first time she'd ever spoken to him mind-
to- mind. «You're coming, too, aren't you?»
 
«In a chime . . . once Kiel and I deal with these Eld rultsharts.» From a
face too handsome to be mortal, his normally laughing blue eyes regarded her
with unsettling solemnity, and then she knew what he would not say.
 
From Queen of Song and Souls by C.L. Wilson
 
Copyright (c) 2009 by C.L. Wilson