Read Online Dark Throne, The by Raven Willow-Wood - Free Book Online

shaman
brotherhood.”
    "What matters more ?
Your shaman brotherhood? Or your desire to sit upon the throne,
pretender?"
    Calder slowly sank back down from the standing position
he'd taken earlier .
    For a moment, he simply sat there . The uncarved and knobbed stones and gems dug into
his spine and while it ought to have been the most uncomfortable
seat Calder could ever have perched his arse upon, it was the most
glorious. And worth fighting for.
    Ought he to lie ? Or
should he utter the truth?
    For a moment, he weighed his options and settled upon the
truth, for even with the truth, there was little Merrick could
do .
    "They are frequently of little use to the shaman, as such,
the layman is often unaware of the crystal orbs'
existence . Are they in your
ken, Merrick?"
    "Yes . I'm aware of
them. They're supposed to display visions, are they
not?"
    Calder couldn't help but smile at the facile
answer . "They are so much more
than that. They show visions of other dimensions.”
    "Other dimensions?" Beren squawked .
    "You lie, Calder .”
Merrick spat out and sank back into his seat with a
glare.
    "I do not lie, Merrick .” Eyes flashing, Calder bashed his fist upon the table's
surface once more. "I speak the truth. The crystal orbs show
visions of other dimensions when one of our own has visited
them.”
    "Are you trying to tell me that Fade, the rightful heir to the Dark Throne, is in
another dimension?" Merrick stood, his movement so abrupt that his
chair jerked backwards, teetered for a moment on its tipping point
and then crashed into the floor.
    "That is what I'm trying to tell you, yes,
Merrick .” Calder took pleasure
in Merrick's disconcertion.
    When Charek had died, the entire castle had been thrown
into disarray . No one had
suspected that Calder had added a potion to Charek's evening tipple
of Bormonsey ferment. The drink was a revolting mixture of berries,
fermented to produce an alcohol so strong that it knocked most men
out. Its flavor was strong enough to hide even the most noxious of
poisons, something Calder had taken great pleasure in adding to the
King's drink. Hubbin's dew. A perfect toxin as it simulated the
symptoms of an attack of the heart and left no residue within the
body for any pesky healer to find. . . . And where the king was
concerned, ten healers were brought in to determine and decide upon
the cause of death.
    Almost that very night, when Calder had been celebrating
his brother's death, he'd been removing all traces of Hubbin's dew
from his quarters and had noticed some action within the usually
transparent crystal orbs . Fade
had entered another realm and was being attacked by a woman wearing
very little. A strange covering over her quim and a thin slip over
her torso and tits. The room itself had been peculiar too, but
then, it would be. Parallel dimensions were similar in certain
ways, then completely diverse in others.
    It was nigh on impossible to return to one's own dimension
after having travelled to another, as such, Fade was as good as
dead . But since Charek's
death, nothing had been as easy as he'd first imagined. At the
time, he'd thought that Fade was in no way a contender for the
throne- those wings of his made him detested by almost every single
member of the kingdom. Even so, a portion of Hubbin's dew had been
winging its way to him, until Calder had seen that
vision.
    Dammit all, it would have been better if he had murdered
Fade . Now, they would simply
wait for the man's return, because he still existed. And Calder
would not be presented with the throne, he would merely sit upon it
and act as for that bastard throwback.
    Glumness assailed him .
A life's work was in the drains and the only way he could think of
changing that was to murder Merrick and blackmail the rest of the
council. Something that was possible, but not for a good while yet.
If another prominent member of the upper echelons were to die of an
attack of the heart, then perhaps questions would arise. It was