Soul Bonds Book 1 Circles of Light series by E.M. Sinclair Page B

intimation that Emla had been so careless, so foolish, as to lose one of the Weights entrusted to her keeping.
    Yet again, Rhaki started to go over his intricate plans to find that lost weight and to steal more from her, making his position finally unassailable. He leaned his head back on his chair and closed the dark eyes so deeply set in his gaunt face. No, no, he was far too exhausted for serious thought he told himself. He contemplated instead his dream of the future – a future in which he alone held the power of this world. The future in which Emla would have to beg him to spare the lives of her various creatures. He chuckled happily at the thought of a future in which all would tremble at the name of Rhaki and abase themselves before their Master.

Chapter Eight

    As Rhaki slept his exhaustion away, so Emla was wide-awake. She sat on a simple stone bench in her moonlit Garden. Tomorrow the young ones would be in her presence and she must study them and make the decision that could so easily mean their destruction.
    Emla was the One who spoke to all who would listen, and when the Linvaks from the Swamp Lands had made their approaches to her, she had been glad for the opportunity to help them from their darkness. She had ignored all those signs – the fact that her involuntary revulsion had not diminished the more she spoke with the Linvaks, rather the reverse. The fact that their servility never lessened; always they grovelled before her and agreed too quickly with all she said.
    Emla had told herself this was all because they had been neglected, had had no true guidance since their creation and subsequent escape into the world. She was forced to admit that that escape should have been seen as suspicious even then. But despite Jerak’s occasional discourses on the need for care, caution, and awareness of the dark side of the Balance, Emla had been engrossed in her work to the exclusion of all such warnings. And thus the Linvaks had been given the freedom of her House and Garden and had learned where the Sacred Balance was kept.
    A morning came when Emla’s maids told her the Linvaks had gone, vanished in the night. Emla had puzzled for a while as to both their unexpected arrival and now this equally unexpected departure. It was another day before she had cause to go to the Pavilion of the Sacred Balance. As soon as she entered and realised she had to tilt her head rather than be able to see the top weight at eye level, she knew. Six golden disks floated, a handspan apart, above the brilliant mosaic circle set into the floor. But the smallest, the seventh, was gone from the top of this floating column.
    Anger and despair had alternated in her during the first days following her discovery. Of course, she had sent guards in the direction of the Swamp Land immediately. They returned saying they had found no trace of Linvak on the paths and trails at all. And she could make no contact through mind speech. None had seen Linvaks pass, humans, sky-singers – no one at all.
    For the first time, Emla directed men to stand watch day and night around the Pavilion and herself set certain other wards that would warn of any creature approaching her House. ‘A bit late,’ she imagined Jerak grumbling, ‘but better late than never I suppose.’
    She had examined every book she possessed that made any mention of the Scales of Balance. She had concluded that the loss of the smallest Weight, although serious enough, could be held in check with careful effort on her part. If her vigilance were to slip now though, she would face a hard struggle to maintain the equilibrium.
    Emla had found among the books, and in some parchments written in Jerak’s own hand, obscure references to Dragons. She had at first believed her tired brain was reading things not really there but as she worried at the phrases, gradually some clues seemed to emerge. She admitted to herself that she could be clutching at clouds, but determined to follow the clues