Dark Realm: Book 5 Circles of Light series by E.M. Sinclair Page A

Karmazen Palace.
    There was no light but
a strange phosphorescent glow from the polished stone floor. Lerran
moved confidently towards one wall. The glow grew around her,
creeping higher up the wall. A huge shape emerged from that wall, a
carved body – legs, neck, half protruding from the black stone. The
neck stretched along and curved down to a long face which seemed
nearly out of the stone. One side of the face was clear and the
great eye slowly blinked open.
    Lerran stretched to
touch the face, gently stroking the pearly grey surface. The eye
shone in a multitude of colours, flickering and changing until it
settled to a deep buttery gold.
    ‘Lerran.’ The voice was
soft but vibrated through the chamber. Lerran could feel the voice
through her feet, the tone shivering up through her whole
body.
    ‘Dabray,’ she replied
as softly.
    ‘I heard what you plan.
It is the only option but I fear greatly for Favrian and Peshan.
Theirs is the most perilous task of all.’
    Lerran leaned against
the wall, her hand continuing to caress the half exposed face above
her.
    ‘You must make them
both swear, to you personally Lerran, that they will try to
retrieve the hostages in the Splintered Kingdom and no more. If
they fail to find those poor creatures they must return here at
once.’
    ‘I will do as you say,’
Lerran whispered.
    ‘You must,’ the deep
voice repeated. ‘What lives within the Splintered Kingdom could
track its way right to this world through either Favrian or
Peshan.’
    Lerran stiffened.
‘Should I send two others?’ she asked, then answered her own
question. ‘No. Two full bloods must go. They will be needed to open
the gateways. And their power will afford some protection for
themselves and for Shea and Gossamer Tewk.’
    ‘You have chosen well
Lerran. I would have made the same choice. Take four tokens – each
of them must carry one.’
    There was a faint
clatter as of stone on stone by Lerran’s feet. ‘I had a powerful
sense that the child should go Dabray. The Dark is strong in her.
It is also strong in Gossamer Tewk although I would wish for more
time to open her mind to what she can be.’
    A silence fell and drew
out. Finally Dabray spoke again. ‘Send Gossamer to me at darkfall.
I would speak with her, alone.’ Another pause. ‘Visit me soon
Lerran. Our separation gets no easier even after all these
ages.’
    Lerran pressed closer
to the great body embedded in the stone. Willing her tears back,
she stepped away. She stooped to pick up four flat disks from the
floor. The luminescence began to fade. She took another step
backwards, her gaze still fixed to that beautiful face, that
glittering eye. Tucking the disks into a corner of her shawl she
slowly brought her hands up, palm to palm.
    ‘Dark bless you and
keep you, dearest husband.’
    Lerran popped into
existence in her high room once more. She groped blindly towards a
chair and slumped into it. She covered her face with her hands on
which the rings glittered. Facets sent crazy patterns of crimson,
azure, emerald, purple skittering across the wall. The First
Daughter drew shuddering breaths and finally lowered her hands.
Tears streaked her face but her eyes shone with a steady deep
golden light.
    The decision they’d
taken so very long ago did in truth seem harder with the passing of
time. But they had chosen this path, knowing some of what was to
come. Already the creature whose construct was the Splintered
Kingdom, had been discovered, hovering so close to this world of
theirs. His attempt to infiltrate Drogoya, the land far to the
north, had been made too early. But it had achieved the release of
great wickedness that would serve to strengthen the creature.
Dabray had suggested the creature was meddling in too many
different places, his power splintered as was his Kingdom. And
therein, said Dabray, lay their hope.
    First Daughter Lerran
was not convinced.
     
     
     

Chapter
Six
     
    Hag twisted and tumbled
through her own strange