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.Tris staggered, his strength fading from the wormroot and the warm rush of blood that oozed from his side.Instinctively, Tris brought his full power to bear on the sword, drawing on the wavering blue life thread within him, holding on as the pommel of the sword became searingly hot.Suddenly the blade broke free.Tris poured all of his will and strength and magic into the sword's downward motion, cleaving Arontala from shoulder to hip through the heart.An inhuman shriek tore from Arontala's throat.The mage's body burst into flame.Mageslayer began to melt and Tris dropped the pommel, his hands burned and red.The fire was gone as quickly as it came, leaving a cindered corpse and blackened, twisted sword.Bells began to toll the midnight hour.One.two.three.Hundreds of shadows swirled in a whirlwind around Arontala's corpse.Spectral visages gathered in the darkness around Arontala's spirit open-mouthed and angry, their gaping eyes and toothy jaws eager for vengeance.This time the Formless One came as a vortex, a maelstrom that plunged down into infinity beneath Arontala's charred body.Tris felt the pull of its winds and heard its roar.A gust of power raged from the heart of the abyss, seizing Arontala's soul in its inexorable grasp and drawing it into the darkness.The last thing Tris glimpsed was the abyss, folding in upon itself.Then it snapped shut and disappeared into thin air.Tris struggled to stay conscious.He dropped to his knees, his shielding wavering without Mageslayer's power.He saw the spirits stream from the shattered globe, swirling thickly as heavy fog descended around him.The spirits washed over him, grateful for release, brushing against his mind.By Vahanian's gasp, Tris knew that the spirits were visible beyond his mage sight.Kiara caught her breath sharply as the Orb lost its hold on her and her own shields snapped into place.From the still-glowing shards of the Orb came a spirit of red flame so bright Tris had to shield his eyes and dampen his mage sight.The Obsidian King rose from the splintered glass.Tris could sense its triumph in release, its anger at being denied its chosen vehicle, its desperation to find a host.He knew that the spirit must have a mage's body to inhabit or die.Tris remembered the vision of the dark sending, of what it would mean should he be taken.He sent all his waning power into his wardings, resolved not to permit that vision to come to pass.The Obsidian King's power slammed against Tris's shielding.It was a bet, Tris knew, as to which of them was the closest to death.Tris threw all of his power into his shields, resolved to die rather than be possessed.He drew power from the blue glow of his own life thread, though it flickered dangerously; he knew that the Obsidian King was weakening fast.Tris could feel the Obsidian King's panic.Just when Tris thought that his opponent was at the breaking point, the Obsidian King streaked toward Kiara.Weakened from her ordeal within the Orb, Kiara's shields buckled and dissolved.Tris could hear her soul cry out as the invader forced himself into her mind."I.am.back!" a voice rasped from Kiara's body, a mixture of wonder and hideous satisfaction molding her features into a visage not quite her own.Four.five.six.The bells continued their mournful toll, announcing that all had been lost.Tris staggered as he summoned his power for a final salvo.The struggle with Arontala had drained him badly.Without Mageslayer, the wormroot's poison went unabated.In moments his power would be beyond his control.Blood loss made him lightheaded.He knew that the blue thread of his own life energy was dimming.He looked at Kiara, her face twisted by the spirit that possessed her body, her eyes desperate, and he remembered the torment Alaine and Lemuel endured when their bodies had been seized against their will.The vision of his own possible fate foretold by the dark sending, of a blank-eyed and crippled shell twisted to the will of the Obsidian King, made up his mind.He knew that there was only one way to free Kiara.You must do what I could not, because you have what I did not.Bava K'aa's words rang in Tris's mind and he clove toward Kiara, snatching up her fallen spelled dagger.The spell to separate a spirit from the body from the hidden journal of the Obsidian King was clear in his mind [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]