Read Online First Rider's Call by Kristen Britain - Free Book Online Page B

very few of the delegation had survived. The night hid details—faces—but the tang of gore clung in her throat. When she reached the clearing, it was alight with the crystalline shine of muna’riel, the moonstones of the Eletians. The dead came into sharp focus.
    Between two shattered obelisks lay Bard. His eyes were closed and his expression peaceful. Silver light gleamed against the golden threads of the winged horse emblem on the sleeve so recently and meticulously mended by Ty. If not for the pool of blood beneath Bard’s mouth and nose, and the gaping hole in his back, she’d have thought him merely asleep.
    “Galadheon.” The silver light intensified to a blinding white as an Eletian joined her. “Follow.”
    Karigan stepped over Bard with quavering legs and trailed behind the Eletian. The great wave threatened to overwhelm her, but for now she held it back, if one young woman can hold back the ocean.
    The clearing was filled with others like Bard—defenders, servants, nobles, all dead, all with similar wounds as though some immense force had simply punched holes through their bodies. Some soldiers looked among the dead for survivors, but Karigan sensed they’d find none.
    The Eletian led her to the clearing’s center, to the cairn. Two soldiers supported Captain Ansible whose leg was deeply gashed and hastily bandaged. He seemed to be surveying the carnage, and Karigan thought her own expression must reflect his unfocused look of shock. Another Eletian stood next to him speaking quietly.
    “It was the force of the magic which warded this place that killed them. It was loosed when the unspeakable one left its tomb.”
    Captain Ansible murmured inaudibly.
    “We shall assist you as we can,” the Eletian replied.
    The captain nodded in acknowledgment. When his gaze fell upon Karigan, he said, “Rider, this Eletian wants to speak to you.” Then his eyes darted away and he muttered to himself, “Must send word to the king.” The two soldiers helped him limp away.
    The Eletian turned to Karigan with appraising eyes. “I am called Telagioth. I am ora-tien, leader of these tiendan. ”
    The word shone through Karigan’s foggy mind as a bright memory. She had met tiendan before—Somial had been one. They were hunters of the king. The Eletian king.
    Telagioth, as well as other Eletians who moved about the clearing and encampment, were all clad in the odd, milky armor, though no others possessed spines that she could discern.
    At Telagioth’s side was a sword sheathed in the same material as the armor which, she was certain, wasn’t steel. The sword was girded with a belt of embroidered cloth. Lengths of it dangled from the knot at his hip to his knee, the complicated patterns woven into it seeming to move and swim as though alive.
    “How do you know me?” Karigan’s cheek was stiff with drying blood, and as she spoke, fresh blood trickled along her jaw.
    “We know you,” Telagioth said. “You are touched by Laurelyn’s favor . . . and other things.”
    He took her by the elbow, holding a muna’riel aloft in his other hand. He guided her around the cairn, taking special care to avoid the dead.
    “Where are we going?” Karigan asked, wishing that the whole nightmare would just end and she’d wake up safe and sound beside the campfire and other Riders. Where was Ty? Had he been slain, too? Was she the only one among the Riders to have survived?
    The Eletian paused and gestured toward the cairn. A portion of it had been blown outward. Rubble was strewn before a gaping hole. The light of the muna’riel revealed steps that descended into darkness. He guided her toward them.
    “You—you’re not taking me down there,” Karigan said, backing away.
    Telagioth turned to her, the crystalline light of the muna’riel making his features smooth and well-angled, and alien. Cerulean eyes, with the transparent depth of blue glass, regarded her with interest.
    “You would not enter an empty tomb when there