Read Online Blood of the Emperor by Tracy Hickman - Free Book Online

far as we can determine and according to the report itself, there was only one survivor,” Arikasi said, his voice echoing along the columns and into the black distance.
    “Impossible!” Liau sneered. “Two Imperial Legions and only a single warrior survived?”
    “His name is Tasjak Sha-Tsaria,” Arikasi said, reading from a scroll wrapped around a field baton. The head of the baton was tarnished and bent yet was still recognizable as that of a Legion commander. “He was a Cohort commander under General Ch’pakra of the Legions of the Northern Fist. His family is of the Fourth Estate with their House rooted in Shellsea.”
    “Sha-Tsaria?” Kyori asked. “I believe I know that family.”
    “You should,” Arikasi said impatiently. “That family is the masterof trade all along the Benis Coast. Tasjak was one of ours—a loyal member of the Modalis ranks. A group of gnome traders found him four days ago on the outskirts of Char.”
    “Char?” Kyori asked. “Where in the Void is Char?”
    “It’s a small town on the Northmarch Folds,” Arikasi explained, impatient to get on with his report. “It’s more than three hundred leagues south of where the battle took place. We believe that goblins from Nordesia were responsible for bringing him that far south. His eyes had been put out and both of his legs broken but he could still speak.”
    “We have a treaty with Nordesia!” Ch’dak said.
    “We
had
a treaty with the goblins,” Arikasi corrected. “They appear to have decided to side with the revolt.”
    “Never mind the dirty little creatures! Where are the Legions then?” Kyori demanded.
    “Gone,” Arikasi replied.
    “Gone? What do you mean
gone
?”
    “They were slaughtered,” Arikasi said. “Commander Tasjak was in the command tent directing the battle from the southern elevation looking down on a place called ‘Willow Vale’ which no doubt was what the locals called that depression in the sand we saw in the Battlebox. It was a classic Imperial position and initially worked predictably well against a mixed force of manticores, humans and assorted others. The battle was being executed just as we observed in the Battlebox that day and looked to be a decisive victory for the Emperor’s Legions. Then, again according to Tasjak’s testament, magic died.”
    “Died?” Kyori sputtered. “What do you mean
died
?”
    “The Aether failed completely is what I mean,” Arikasi grumbled. “It vanished from the Proxis and the war-mages alike all at once. It was as though it had been pulled back into the ground and had never been. It was bad enough that the spells of the war-mages could not be cast but the folds no longer functioned either. The manticorian line charged against the Imperial Legions and the Legions could not fall back quickly enough to defend themselves, nor could they use their fold markers to attack the rear lines. It was as though warfare had been thrown back to the barbarity of the ancients—and the barbarians destroyed us because of it. The manticores rolled up the valley like atide. General Ch’pakra tried to flee with his guardian Cohort under the command of Tasjak but the goblin armies joined in from the east and cut them off. After that, it was madness.”
    “I can hardly believe it,” Kyori sputtered. “Is it possible that these anarchist fanatics have found a way to rob us of the Aether? It’s the foundation of our Empire! Without it, we’re…we’re…”
    “Calm yourself, friend Kyori,” Shebin said, resting her long, elegant hand on the arm of the old Aether mage. “They are barbarians. What do they know of Aether?”
    “This is terrible,” Ch’dak said, shaking his head. “With the defeat of both Legions our northern borders are vulnerable.”
    “We can reposition some of the southern Legions but it will take time,” Sjei said but he knew that it would most likely take a few weeks. Furthermore there was the problem of the missing Legions and how that might