Read Online Serpent Mage by Margaret Weis - Free Book Online Page A

down at her clasped hands, clasped fast to keep from trembling.
    “One member of the Council, the village shamus, was in the village at the time of the attack. We found her body. Her death had been most cruel.” Delu shivered, drew a deep breath, steeling herself to go on. “Around her dismembered corpse lay the tools of her magic, spread about her as if in mockery.”
    “One against many …” Eliason began.
    “Argana was a powerful wizardess,” Delu cried, and her shout made me jump. “Her magic could have heated the sea water to boiling! She could have raised a typhoon with a wave of her hand. The ground would have opened at a word from her and swallowed her enemies whole! All this, we had evidence that she had done! And still she died. Still they all died!”
    Dumaka laid a soothing hand upon his wife's shoulder. “Be calm, my dear. Eliason meant only that the entire Council, gathered together, might be able to work such powerful magic that these serpents could not withstand it.”
    “Forgive me. I'm sorry I lost my temper.” Delu gave the elf a wan smile. “But, like Yngvar, I have seen with my own eyes the terrible destruction these creatures brought upon my people.”
    She sighed. “Our magic is powerless in the presence of these creatures, even when they are not in sight. Perhaps the cause is due to the foul ooze they leave on anything they touch. We don't know. All we know is that when we magi entered the village, we each of us felt our power began to drain away. We couldn't even use our magic to start the fires to burn the bodies of the dead.”
    Eliason looked around the grim, unhappy group. “And so what are we to do?”
    As an elf his natural inclination must have been to do nothing, wait, and see what time brought. But, according to my father, Eliason was an intelligent ruler, one of the more realistic and practical of his race. He knew, though he would have liked to ignore the fact, that his people's days on their seamoon were numbered. A decision had to be made, therefore, but he was quite content to let others make it.
    “We have one hundred cycles left until the full effects of the wandering of the seasun will begin to be felt,” stated Dumaka. “Time to build more sun-chasers.”
    “the serpents let us,” said my father ominously. “Which I much doubt. And what did they mean by payment? What could they possibly want?”
    All were silent, thinking.
    “Let us look at this logically,” Eliason said finally. “Why do people fight? Why did our races fight each other, generations ago? Through fear, misunderstanding. When we came together and discussed our differences, we found ways to deal with them and we have lived in peace ever since. Perhaps these serpents, powerful as they seem, are, in reality, afraid of us. They see us as a threat. If we tried to talk to them, reassure them that we mean them no harm, that we want only to leave and travel to this new seamoon, then perhaps”
    A clamor interrupted him.
    The noise had come from the part of the terrace attached to the palace—a part hidden from my view—being short, it was difficult for me to see out the window.
    “What's going on?” I demanded impatiently.
    “I don't know …” Sabia was trying to see without being seen.
    Alake actually poked her head out the opening. Fortunately, our parents were paying no attention to us.
    “A messenger of some sort,” she reported.
    “Interrupting a royal conference?” Sabia was shocked.
    I dragged over a footstool and climbed up on it. I could now see the white-faced footman who had, against all rulesof protocol, actually run onto the terrace. The footman, seeming nearly about to faint, leaned to whisper something in Eliason's ear. The elven king listened, frowning.
    “Bring him here,” he said at last.
    The footman hastened off.
    Eliason looked gravely at his friends. “One of the message riders was attacked on the road and is, apparently, grievously wounded. He bears a message, he