Read Online Tides of Darkness by Judith Tarr - Free Book Online

the worlds for a thread of gold, a memory of passage.
    The blight on the worlds had spread. He saw it as black ash and blinding smoke, a darkness in the heart of the fire. The size of it, the breadth and sweep, caught his breath in his throat. No mage had such power; even if all the mages of this world banded together, they would not come near to the strength of this thing.
    It was not a living will, though living will must drive it. He thought of walls and of shields—of a shieldwall, and an army behind it.
    As if the thought had unlocked a door, he glimpsed … something. He was just about to grasp it when her voice shattered his focus. “Daros! You fool. Get back!”
    Her hands were on him. He was leaning over the fire; his cheeks stung with the heat. She dragged him back.
    He was glad of the bench under his rump, but not of the woman who bent over him. “Don’t you know enough not to startle a mage out of a working?” he snapped at her.
    That rocked her back on her heels. She could not have been reprimanded for such a thing since she was a tiny child.
    He pressed such advantage as he had. “Lady, I don’t think we can do this alone. We can hunt for the emperor, yes. But the other thing, the thing he was hunting—it’s coming toward us. If you would have a world to bring him back to, you would do well to call on your mages and set them to work building such shields as they can. They can do that, yes? Even if they don’t see or believe in the reason for it?”
    â€œIt has been done,” she said.
    He flushed.
    She was not inclined to be merciful. “You will leave the searching of
the shadow to the mages. Your task is to find your master. Do you understand?”
    â€œYes,” he said tightly.
    â€œGood,” she said. “See that you remember.”
    He lowered the lids over his eyes before she saw the extent of his defiance. The shadow was the key, he was sure of it. If Estarion was not inside it, then he was very close to it. “Do I have your leave to hunt?” he asked. And added, after a pause, “Lady.”
    â€œHunt,” she said. “But watch yourself. Don’t fall into the fire.”
    For answer he sat more sturdily on the bench and knotted his hands between his knees. He was well away from the fire, if not from the lure of its myriad worlds.
    She set hands on his shoulders. So mages guarded one another in workings. And so, he thought, could she keep him chained to her will.
    She did not know all there was to know of Gates, or of his magic, either. He sent a part of himself down the safe road, threading the loom of worlds. The part beneath, after a careful while, he sent back toward the shadow.
    He had done such a thing before, more than once, to elude his father or his mother, or to escape the testing that would have bound him to Gates or temple. But he had not done it in such close quarters, under such a watchful guard. The lesser hunt must seem to be all the world, and the greater must leave no trace at all. To divide himself so, he needed every scrap of power he had, and every bit of discipline that he had taught himself. That was more than anyone knew. Whether it would be enough, only time would tell.
    The lesser hunt skimmed the sparks of worlds, finding no trace of what it sought. The greater one skirted the edge of shadow. It was a shield, he was certain now, but how it was sustained, what had wrought it, he could not tell.
    He sought the source, the life behind the wall. It was elusive; it warded itself well, shields within shields. He looked for a face, a mind, anything that he could grasp, to draw him behind the shield.

    He was not strong enough. Merian wore at him with the weight of her watchfulness. If he could have focused on the shadow alone, he could have found its makers, but the fruitless hunt through worlds not yet touched by shadow kept him from discovering the truth.
    He must find Estarion. The emperor had