The crystal merely swelled a bit brighter.
“Do as I say,” growled the sorcerer. His perfectly manicured fingers curled into fists. “You must obey me! I command you to darken, to bend to my will. How dare you resist my spells? My magic? Do you not know that I am the greatest power in all of Avalon?”
“No,” crackled a thin, disembodied voice from the darkest corner of the cavern. “You are not.”
At the sound of this voice, Kulwych gasped. He spun around to face the corner, which was growing blacker and denser by the second. A sudden sizzling arose from the spot, like molten lava flowing into the sea.
Kulwych straightened, trembling, as the sizzling sound grew louder. Even the white crystal flickered uncertainly. Slowly, very slowly, a shape began to form in the darkness—a spiral, darker than smoke, coiling like a vaporous snake.
Just then a heavy door swung open and a burly gobsken, carrying a torch in one hand and a spear in the other, burst into the cavern. He started to speak, when the sizzling coil whipped at his throat, quick as a bolt of black lightning. The gobsken’s body, along with his severed head, dropped to the floor. The head’s unseeing eyes rolled onto the fallen torch, extinguishing its flame, and the putrid scent of burning flesh filled the chamber.
“We tolerate no interruptions,” crackled the black coil. “And no failures.”
“You!” exclaimed the sorcerer, rubbing his pale hands anxiously. “I, well, didn’t expect, didn’t think—”
“Think what, Kulwych?” spat the spiral as it floated toward him. “Didn’t think that you would see me so soon? Or that I would be strong enough yet to make the journey?” The coil crackled vengefully. “You underestimate me, Kulwych.”
“N-n-no,” protested the sorcerer. “Never.”
The dark being came steadily closer. Whenever it touched the floor of the cavern, it crackled and left a mark, charred and steaming, upon the stone.
Kulwych took a step backward. But before he could speak again, the coil lashed out at him. He shrieked and stood frozen—completely motionless except for his one twitching eye—as the spiral wrapped around his neck, not touching his skin, but only a finger’s width away.
“I, I . . . have never,” croaked the sorcerer, shivering with fright, “doubted you.”
The sizzling shadow spun around his neck, circling slowly. At last it spoke again, its voice echoing within the walls of stone. “If you care to survive, Kulwych my pet, that had better be so.”
The sorcerer could only gulp.
An endless moment passed. Then, in a flash, the coil pulled away, moving toward the crystal that continued to pulse with light.
“Now, Kulwych, you shall learn about true power.”
The sorcerer rubbed his neck and nodded meekly.
The dark shadow coalesced even more, until it seemed almost solid, a rope of blackness suspended in the air beside the crystal. “First I will show you how to corrupt this crystal. Next, how to use it to defeat all our enemies. And finally, how to wield it to conquer this world.”
From the depths of the coil came a snarling, sizzling laugh. “And other worlds, as well.”
The sorcerer bit his fingernails. Though his voice shook, he managed to say, “Yes, my lord Rhita Gawr.”
Table of Contents
Title page
A Word from the Author
Born of a Seed That Beats Like a Heart
The Dark Prophecy
Prologue: One Dark Night
PART I
1 • Land of Bells
2 • Banished
3 • A Pale Hand Beckons
4 • Hot Wax
5 • Green with Envy
6 • A Dead Torch and a Heap of Dung
7 • The Ballad of Avalon’s Birth
8 • Out of the Shadows
9 • A Dangerous Journey
10 • The Staff of Merlin
11 • Tracks
13 • Hands of Blood
PART II
14 • Baby Brother
15 • Skunkweed
16 • Emissaries of the Gods
17 • Hoofprints
18 • Absolutely
19 • The Smell of Resins
20 • Something Marvelous
21 • The Child of Krystallus
22 • Death Trap
23 • The Rugged Path
24 • Just Listen
25 • Shrunkelled and Stingded
26 • Master of the Skies
27 • Prosperity
28 • Illusion
PART III
29 • The Hand of Greeting
30 • A Pure Crystal
31 • The Lady Revealed
32 • Scree’s Plunge
33 • A Hornet’s Nest
34 • The Mudmakers
35 • The Secret Spring
36 • Something Stupid
37 • Musical Mead
38 • Death on Wings
39 • Strange Meetings
40 • Just the Faintest Heartbeat
41 • A Gaping Hole
42 • Water and Fire
43 • Dark Flame
Epilogue: The Encircling Shadow