Read Online The Legend of Asahiel: Book 03 - The Divine Talisman by Eldon Thompson - Free Book Online Page A

to hold us at bay until help arrives,” Thaddreus taunted. “If that is the case, I fear you are in for a long night.”
    Again he was right. Whatever sentries might have spied them at this late hour would have given little thought to their dealings. A trio of City Elders, escorted by a pair of Fasor, was hardly cause for alarm.
    Her adversaries closed further. The sound of her own breathing sawed in her ears, harsh and ragged. Her question as to whether these were traitors or Illychar had been answered. Against the five of them, what chance did she have?
    A wielder of the Crimson Sword never tired. And yet it seemed to grow heavier in her hands as the cold truth bowed her shoulders. Allion , she thought hopelessly, forgive me.
    “Take her!”
    Somehow, she rose to meet their charge. In a whirlwind of motion, theycame at her, various weapons cleaving the air at odd angles. The swordsman died first. He knew there would be no trading blows, and so executed a high feint before driving his weapon around in a low arc. Marisha ignored the former and cut short the latter, sending his blade off in pieces and his head rolling after.
    Daggers whistled past her ears as she dodged and spun. Ashwar fell, clutching his severed leg. The pikeman tore a hole in her fluttering robe, but missed her flesh. When the tip struck the wall, she split its shaft with a downward arc, then swept around and whipped a stroke across his back. Crimson flames erupted along the blade as it sliced through leather and mail like sodden parchment, skin and bone like air. The cut was so swift and clean that the torso did not slide from its perch until the legs had toppled.
    The flames licked blood from blade and retreated within, leaving the talisman unblemished, its radiance undimmed.
    Emric struck her with a lowered shoulder, slashing wildly. She fell back a step, onto a central rug. Another slash drew blood from her forearm. She could have prevented it, but sensed in the instant before it happened the small price it would exact. Marisha paid it gladly in order to raise the Sword high and bring it crashing down upon her assailant’s head.
    A perfect strike would have cleaved the man from crown to groin. But her focus on him had been so strong that she hadn’t considered her feet. A sudden jerk by Thaddreus tore the rug out from under her, causing her to stumble. Her killing stroke slid sideways, exiting at Emric’s waist as she fell. When her hands separated in an instinctive effort to catch herself, that which clutched the Sword struck the edge of a table.
    The blade skittered from her grasp and hit the floor on the other side.
    The savage euphoria left her as if the wind had been blasted from her lungs. The warmth from the Pendant seemed but a distant reminder of its rush. She rolled to her feet, but slipped in a river of blood. Thaddreus was diving for the Sword again. She scrabbled desperately, even flung aside a vase and toppled an impeding chair, but was too late. Her fingers brushed the blade as Thaddreus seized it by the hilt and snatched it away.
    He crouched there for a moment, gaping as if astounded by the waves of power now coursing through him. As he rose, Marisha found herself backing away in helpless denial.
    “It is more wondrous than I’d imagined,” Thaddreus wheezed.
    Marisha knew what he meant. Witnessing the blade, bathing in its aura, was nothing compared to handling it. Even that, she knew, was an experience largely affected by the glory one attributed to it—explaining why strangers in a room might not even recognize its presence, and a man who knew nothing of the talisman could carry it without feeling a thing.
    The former First Elder, it seemed, knew well what he had attained, and was enraptured by the prospects.
    “Ceilhigh be praised,” he said. “With this, their world becomes mine.”
    Marisha had no response. She considered trying to rush past him for theexit, but a step in that direction brought his focus back to