Crystal Throne (Book 1) by D.W. Jackson Page B

desirable traits over the past few years.”
    “I will,” Thad promised. “As soon as we have saved the world.”
    “I could care less about the world,” Maria said angrily. “I would gladly watch the world burn around me as long as I knew that my family was safe.”
    “I could easily agree with you,” Thad said as a tear rolled down his face. “The problem is our son doesn’t see it the same way and if I have any hope of bringing him back home then I will have to watch over him though I don’t really know what I can do.”
    “You will do everything you have to, Thaddeus Torin, and more,” Maria declared.
    “I am surprised that you haven’t visited me before this. I thought that after our first nightly visit I would be seeing you every night.”
    Maria let out a soft sigh. “I wish that I could, but it is hard to reach you. I don’t know where you are, but each night I search for you and I must fight through a fog to even get a hint of you. When I do find you it leaves me tired and I wake as if I had not slept for a week.”
    “Don’t push yourself,” Thad said as the darkness started to close back in on him. “This place is dangerous and I don’t know how it might affect you and your gift.”
    “I will, but I won’t stop searching for you every night,” Maria said as the darkness claimed him.
    When Thad woke, he looked around to see that everyone else was already preparing for the coming day. “Why didn’t you wake me earlier,” Thad said, and he rose from his pallet on the hard ground.
    “We don’t need as much sleep as you,” Humanius said. “We do need to get going soon though, more of the scions are already on their way. We might be able to stay ahead of them if we move fast and keep moving.”
    “Then we better get going,” Thad said as he quickly put away his blanket and pulled a few loafs of bread from his pack. As he broke off a piece and stuffed it in his mouth he was happy that he had made the pack when he was younger. It was one of the few things that seemed to be there each time he needed it.
    Instead of heading back into the plains, they took an offshoot that skirted the edge of the town. They kept the buildings to their right as they followed the road. At first Thad thought it was because it was the easiest route, but the more he thought about it the more he understood the real reason. The scions were following them and at least this way they would be able to see them more easily than if they were completely surrounded by buildings. It would do them little good if they found themselves wandering into a mist of a large group of scions.
    Thad couldn’t help himself from looking over his shoulder every now and then. Humanius said that more scions were already on their trail and Thad couldn’t help but feel as if something was watching him, though he wasn’t sure if it was the scions or the voice the scions had spoken of.
    “What was the voice?” Thad asked himself as he walked slowly behind the others.
    I believe it is the voice of the ether. The consciousness of the magical energy that has been gathered here. It is the same voice that called to you and nearly pulled you out of your own skin not that long ago.
    “Can you hear it?” Thad asked Thuraman. The staff had been oddly silent as of late. Most of the time Thuraman hounded him every step of the way; telling him his every mistake, real and imagined. Thad berated himself for not noticing the staff’s silence earlier. He had learned long ago that nothing out of place that happened was without cause and he knew better than to ignore those signs.
    Yes I can hear the voice, though I block it as best as I can.
    “What does it say?” Thad asked, his mind whirling with possibilities.
    I do not know…I don’t want to know. I am afraid that if I listen to the words…Really listen then it will take me like a thief in the night. I might not be able to lose my body to the crystal, but as I told you many times before, I can