Read Online Quest for the Sun by V M Jones - Free Book Online Page B

a world beyond the Morningside. Karazeel sent out his scouts, and for many moons they searched the Cliffs of Stone for any sign of an opening. In vain, for they found nothing.
    â€˜But a trusted servant of the King, second only in favour to Evor himself, crept out at dawn on the infant Prince’s birthing day and resumed the search. How they happened upon the portal, I know not. Enough that they did. Four years later, this same spy crossed into the other world in search of the lost Prince.’
    My head was spinning. ‘Hold on a minute. You’re saying that somewhere in the world I come from there’s someone from Karazan, looking for me?’
    â€˜Aye.’ Kai’s whisper was so faint I had to press my face against the bars to make out the words. ‘I know little more. I cannot even tell you if the creature was male or female, only that it was human — once. The name of the spy was Tallow: a dissembler.’
    Even through I had no idea what Kai’s words meant, a chill trickled down my spine. ‘A dissembler? What’s that?’
    â€˜It is the name we give to those whose form and spirit have been melted and remoulded to the will of King Karazeel andthe service of evil. They say their faces forever bear the scars, taking the form of the molten wax of a candle.’
    â€˜Well,’ I growled, ‘if he’s got a face that looks like a melted candle, he wouldn’t be hard to spot.’
    â€˜Nay, for the art of dissemblers is in disguise. They are adept at cloaking their true being, concealing their identity so skilfully it is impossible for any to guess it.’
    â€˜I’m glad you’ve told me.’ But I wasn’t. It gave me the creeps to imagine a creature from Karazan searching for me. I gave myself a mental shake. Truth was, there wasn’t much point worrying about it, not here in Karazan, with the prospect of being eaten alive by the Mauler and the desperate need to find some way of dealing with Karazeel.
    â€˜Kai,’ I whispered, ‘about the morning. Time’s running out. If I could borrow your trident, and find some way of hiding it …’
    â€˜That be the second thing.’ Something told me I was going to like this piece of news even less. ‘Evor has brewed potions for many things. Potions to kill …’ I thought of my father … ‘and a potion to bestow eternal life.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Aye: a potion of immortality, the potion Karazeel was calling for. It has become a hunger for him, a need greater than food or water or air itself. While it flows in his blood he will not age, and nothing under the twin moons can do him harm.
    â€˜So, my Prince, your quest is ended. Nothing and no one in this world can overthrow Karazeel — not even the child of legend grown to man and King.’

Trust and betrayal
    My brain felt numb. It had all been for nothing. We might as well give up and head on home.
    I stared blankly round the dark room, praying for inspiration. But there was just the computer, humming softly under its breath; Blue-bum’s empty cage, its shrouded dome-shape reminding me of Q’s plasma globe. The computer screen … but now the stars that had been so comforting seemed cold and mocking. Nothing under the twin moons can do him harm …
    Behind the screen I thought I caught a faint flicker of lightning as another storm gathered. Karazeel’s demented voice echoed in my mind: I have harnessed the power of skyfire … night and day are at my command, and soon the very galaxies will be in my control …
    Then Kai’s words, flat, defeated: Nothing and no one in this world can overthrow King Karazeel …
    â€˜Kai,’ I said slowly. ‘What was it you just said?’

    I was jolted out of sleep by a bull-like bellow that shook the walls of the tower. I leapt to my feet and the sound came again, a deep-throated roar that made the air tremble.
    It was