Read Online The Kingdom of Eternal Sorrow (The Golden Mage Book 1) by C.G. Garcia - Free Book Online Page A

she is
now, as we speak, lying unconscious in my bed by the sleep spell I cast over
her,” he stated bluntly.
    Silence.
    Aidric shifted uneasily on his feet. This was not the reaction
he had expected from them. He half-expected Selwyn to burst out laughing and
call him a daydreaming fool, but instead, Sel looked completely dumbfounded,
his mouth actually dropping in shock.
    As for the king, he had expected immediate questions, even skepticism,
but Diryan expressed neither. The shock and fear that now reflected in the eyes
of the king was enough to almost make him lose his composure.
    “Are you certain, Aidric?” Diryan finally managed to ask after a
prolonged silence.
    “Almost completely positive, Your Majesty,” Aidric confirmed grimly. “I
would not have pulled you out of an important Council session to tell you of
her unless I was that certain. Diryan, she has hair of gold and more power at
her disposal than all the mages of Lamia put together!”
    “Golden hair…” Selwyn muttered under his breath in wonder. “But I
thought the Golden Mage was only a myth, a tale told to frighten children into
good behavior. It certainly frightened me! Now you are actually telling me that
such a person exists?”
    “At least I am mostly convinced,” Aidric said. “She flattened me
with a single thought, and I had all of my shields up at full strength!”
    Rubbing his temples, King Diryan said, “I think you had better start at
the beginning.”
    Aidric nodded and began to pace. “I was heading for the Lake of Tears
when my mage senses suddenly alerted me to the presence of a person with more
power than I had ever felt before. I could feel it radiating all around me
without even having to probe to see it.
    “It was rather alarming. This was more power than I had ever
confronted, and I didn’t know whether the person behind the power had ill-intent
or not. I sent out a Probe of Inquiry to try to touch the mind of the mage. I
found that it was a woman, and her mind was wide open for any mage to read.
However, before I could scan her thoughts for an identity, something inside of
her head shattered, something mental. Before I knew what was happening, a burst
of power in the form of a mind-scream had struck at my mind, knocking me flat
on my back and instantly shattering every one of my shields.”
    Aidric shuddered involuntarily at the memory.
    “The screams were horrible! Even now, I feel a shiver go down my spine
at the thought of those screams. Thankfully, they only lasted a few moments or
else I have no doubt my mind would have cracked. Once I had gathered my wits
again, I went searching through the forest in hopes of locating her. I found
her lying sprawled on her face in the center of a small clearing that I never
knew existed.”
    “A clearing in the Forest of Illusions?” Diryan interrupted with a
frown. “There are none that I know of except for the ones around the lake, the
path we have cleared centuries ago leading from the edge of the palace grounds
to the lake, and the site of the Mage-field, of course. How strange that we
have never noticed another.”
    “My thoughts exactly, Your Majesty. The place contained energy
particles similar to those of the Mage-field. I suspect that there was no clearing there until the girl appeared, but that is a matter that should be
investigated at a later date. Our first concern should be the girl, herself.
She was unconscious when I found her, unknowingly reading the minds of everyone
within the Lamian borders.”
    “Unknowingly?” Diryan echoed, his frown deepening.
    “She’s untrained, Your Majesty. I’m certain of it. That’s why I’m so
unnerved. I don’t believe she even realizes that she has these powers because
if she did, she would not have so recklessly left her mind unshielded or
damaged herself so severely.” He paused dramatically, then forced himself to
continue. “What’s worse, I don’t believe that she is of this world.”
    “What!” Selwyn