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.Why did you even want them?“Dizzy.”“Don’t you fucking Dizzy me,” I shouted at him.“Take me to my master or I swear I will hurt you, here and now!”Cardonel moved so quickly I barely had a second to sense the magical blast before it slammed into my wards.Blue fire, sparking with evil alien intent, flared out in front of me, burning through protections.I pushed it away and released the spell on the transfigured Cold Iron, hoping that it would knock him out or render him powerless, as it had done for the Nameless Elf.Instead, Cardonel came striding through the fire, utterly unaffected.He no longer looked human.I could see long claws stretching out of his hands and his face was something horrible, warped by magic.“I have no vulnerability to Cold Iron,” he said, his words hissing in my mind.Like the full-blood elves, he was telepathic, at least to some degree.“My mother may have weakened me with her impure human blood, but she gave me a power that even my father didn’t enjoy.”He pointed a long finger and clicked his fingers.There was a blue-white flash of light and the world went away.I felt, just for a long moment, as if I were drowning in inky darkness, as if my life was draining out of me.I heard voices all around me, calling out, although I couldn’t tell if they were warning me or welcoming me.I saw an angel, with wings spread wide, looking down with an expression of absolute sadness.There was a pale woman, wearing a silver ankh around her neck, standing ahead of me.She lifted her hand and waved.And then I was back in my body.“Welcome back to the world of the living,” Cardonel said.“I never meant to injure you.”I scowled at him.While I’d been out, he’d stripped me of everything from clothes to magical artefacts, leaving them piled up at the other end of the room.He’d cuffed me to a wooden chair, so thoroughly that it was almost completely impossible to move.The cuffs were made of silver, making it harder to use my magic, although my head was scrambled so badly that using any magic might have been horrendously dangerous.If I’d thought it would rebound on him, I’d have taken the risk, but there was no way to be certain.“Bastard,” I said, harshly.“What are you going to do with me?”“Well,” Cardonel drawled.He reached out with one hand and stroked my right breast.“I’m sure we could find some way to pass the time.”I recoiled.“You’d have to force me,” I snarled.“I bet you get all your women that way.”He paced away from me, peering down at my clothes and then at a timepiece he had in his hand.“You’ll be pleased to know that we don’t intend to do anything to you,” he said, darkly.“You’re not important to us.Once the New Age has dawned, you will be released and you will be welcome to join us or find your own place within it.Until then, I’m afraid that we are going to have to keep you here.” His voice became mocking.“I’m sorry for any inconvenience.”“I’m sure you are,” I sneered.This wasn’t good.I was naked, unable to move and completely at his mercy.I understood why he’d stripped me, far too well.Magic was often as dependent upon symbolism as much as anything else and being naked signified helplessness.The cuffs not only ensured that I couldn’t move, but also that my ability to use magic – when my head finally cleared – was limited.Cardonel had put me into a position where a great deal of magical inertia would make it difficult to escape.“How long are you going to keep me here?”“The New Age will dawn at midnight tonight,” Cardonel said.He shrugged dispassionately.“It was never meant to be so soon, but your master was getting alarmingly close to the truth and he might have been able to rally the Thirteen to act in their own defence.The Great Powers of the Universe would certainly have acted to prevent the dawn of the New Age if the Thirteen refused and they might well have destroyed much of the world in the process.”“The New Age,” I repeated.I concentrated on looking helpless.Like his father’s people, Cardonel had a tendency to be overconfident and gloat; I’d seen that while he’d been playing cards.If I asked the right questions, he might explain everything.“What are you going to do?”Cardonel leered at me.“Everything will change,” he said.“There will be a new age of magic, where wonders will once again be common and we will rise to new heights.”“You plan to destroy the Thirteen,” I said, slowly.“I don’t think that that would bring about a new age of magic.”“My plan is far greater than that,” Cardonel said.He leaned closer.“What is the greatest difference between humanity and the elves?”“One is made of matter, the other is made of magic,” I answered.It was hardly a hard question.“What do you intend to do about it?”My mockery, as I had hoped, spurred him onwards.“The source of magic lies in a dimension very far from our own, and yet – for the right kind of person – right next door,” Cardonel proclaimed.I realised, suddenly, that he was giving a political speech rather than anything else.“We can tap that magic and, properly filtered, use it to rise to a new level of being, a new form of magical creature [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Why did you even want them?“Dizzy.”“Don’t you fucking Dizzy me,” I shouted at him.“Take me to my master or I swear I will hurt you, here and now!”Cardonel moved so quickly I barely had a second to sense the magical blast before it slammed into my wards.Blue fire, sparking with evil alien intent, flared out in front of me, burning through protections.I pushed it away and released the spell on the transfigured Cold Iron, hoping that it would knock him out or render him powerless, as it had done for the Nameless Elf.Instead, Cardonel came striding through the fire, utterly unaffected.He no longer looked human.I could see long claws stretching out of his hands and his face was something horrible, warped by magic.“I have no vulnerability to Cold Iron,” he said, his words hissing in my mind.Like the full-blood elves, he was telepathic, at least to some degree.“My mother may have weakened me with her impure human blood, but she gave me a power that even my father didn’t enjoy.”He pointed a long finger and clicked his fingers.There was a blue-white flash of light and the world went away.I felt, just for a long moment, as if I were drowning in inky darkness, as if my life was draining out of me.I heard voices all around me, calling out, although I couldn’t tell if they were warning me or welcoming me.I saw an angel, with wings spread wide, looking down with an expression of absolute sadness.There was a pale woman, wearing a silver ankh around her neck, standing ahead of me.She lifted her hand and waved.And then I was back in my body.“Welcome back to the world of the living,” Cardonel said.“I never meant to injure you.”I scowled at him.While I’d been out, he’d stripped me of everything from clothes to magical artefacts, leaving them piled up at the other end of the room.He’d cuffed me to a wooden chair, so thoroughly that it was almost completely impossible to move.The cuffs were made of silver, making it harder to use my magic, although my head was scrambled so badly that using any magic might have been horrendously dangerous.If I’d thought it would rebound on him, I’d have taken the risk, but there was no way to be certain.“Bastard,” I said, harshly.“What are you going to do with me?”“Well,” Cardonel drawled.He reached out with one hand and stroked my right breast.“I’m sure we could find some way to pass the time.”I recoiled.“You’d have to force me,” I snarled.“I bet you get all your women that way.”He paced away from me, peering down at my clothes and then at a timepiece he had in his hand.“You’ll be pleased to know that we don’t intend to do anything to you,” he said, darkly.“You’re not important to us.Once the New Age has dawned, you will be released and you will be welcome to join us or find your own place within it.Until then, I’m afraid that we are going to have to keep you here.” His voice became mocking.“I’m sorry for any inconvenience.”“I’m sure you are,” I sneered.This wasn’t good.I was naked, unable to move and completely at his mercy.I understood why he’d stripped me, far too well.Magic was often as dependent upon symbolism as much as anything else and being naked signified helplessness.The cuffs not only ensured that I couldn’t move, but also that my ability to use magic – when my head finally cleared – was limited.Cardonel had put me into a position where a great deal of magical inertia would make it difficult to escape.“How long are you going to keep me here?”“The New Age will dawn at midnight tonight,” Cardonel said.He shrugged dispassionately.“It was never meant to be so soon, but your master was getting alarmingly close to the truth and he might have been able to rally the Thirteen to act in their own defence.The Great Powers of the Universe would certainly have acted to prevent the dawn of the New Age if the Thirteen refused and they might well have destroyed much of the world in the process.”“The New Age,” I repeated.I concentrated on looking helpless.Like his father’s people, Cardonel had a tendency to be overconfident and gloat; I’d seen that while he’d been playing cards.If I asked the right questions, he might explain everything.“What are you going to do?”Cardonel leered at me.“Everything will change,” he said.“There will be a new age of magic, where wonders will once again be common and we will rise to new heights.”“You plan to destroy the Thirteen,” I said, slowly.“I don’t think that that would bring about a new age of magic.”“My plan is far greater than that,” Cardonel said.He leaned closer.“What is the greatest difference between humanity and the elves?”“One is made of matter, the other is made of magic,” I answered.It was hardly a hard question.“What do you intend to do about it?”My mockery, as I had hoped, spurred him onwards.“The source of magic lies in a dimension very far from our own, and yet – for the right kind of person – right next door,” Cardonel proclaimed.I realised, suddenly, that he was giving a political speech rather than anything else.“We can tap that magic and, properly filtered, use it to rise to a new level of being, a new form of magical creature [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]