Free Phantom by Terry Goodkind Page B

turn in on itself.
    The darkened line raced around Nicci, hitting intersections, making turns, sweeping through and darkening arcs. The line Richard had extinguished ceased to exist in the pattern, its absence causing an interruption in the vitality of the rhythm.
    Nicci marveled at the reaction of the spell-form within her. She could sense in detail the process of it dismantling, like a flower closing its petals.
    The room again seemed to shimmer in Nicci’s gifted vision, as if lightning were flaring, but she knew that this was not lightning.
    The glowing eyes peered about, as if it, too, sensed the fluctuation in the flux of power Richard had interrupted.
    Didn’t anyone but Nicci realize that Richard was using his gift to penetrate such shields? Were they blind? The use of his gift drew the beast out of the underworld.
    Outside, real lightning flashed and thunder boomed. The room flickered not only with the lightning but with the disruption of power within the spell-form. The wall of windows flashed between blinding brightness and inky obscurity.
    It felt to Nicci as if both of those powerful discharges thundered right through her. She could not understand how she was still alive. It could only be that Richard was shutting down the spell without destroying it. He was methodically extinguishing it, like snuffing out the flames on a row of wicks.
    Focused in concentration, Richard put his other hand down lower and blocked another line. The line went dark, racing back through the complex matrix.
    The shadow of the beast began to step out of the underworld, partially into the world of life, pulling and flexing its arms with the difficulty of the task, testing its newborn muscle. Fangs glistened in the lamplight as the jaws stretched wide.
    Their attention riveted on the lines around Nicci, no one noticed.
    Holding a block in one network of lines, Richard carefully inserted a finger to occlude a preceding framework.
    The entire web, having lost not just its most important supporting structure, but its very integrity, began to come apart. Angles opened. Intersections disjointed, letting connecting lines sag away. Other lines collided, sparking flashes of white light upon contact that made yet more lines go dark.
    All of a sudden, the web of remaining lines collapsed downward, like a curtain falling. Nicci could feel the network of power laced all through herslough away. As the falling lines of light hit the Grace they went dark. In an instant, they were gone.
    Free from the tangle, Nicci abruptly dropped to the table as she gasped a breath, like a scream drawn inward. Her legs had no strength to hold her and she crumpled, toppling over the edge of the table.
    Richard caught her in his arms as she fell. Her dead weight took him to one knee. He maintained his balance, cradling her in his arms, saving her from hitting the stone floor.
    Outside, lightning went wild, casting the room in fits of flickering light.
    It was then that the beast, a soulless creature created for a single purpose, materialized fully out of the world of the dead and into the world of life.
    And sprang straight for Richard.

Chapter 7
    Hanging limp and helpless in Richard’s arms, despite how much she tried, Nicci simply could not bring forth enough strength to warn him of the beast about to crash down on him. She would have given her last breath to deliver that warning but, right then, she had no breath.
    It was Cara, throwing all her weight at the charging creature, who deflected the full force of the attack and saved Richard from a killing strike. The beast’s fangs caught only air as it crashed past Richard, but its claws ripped through the flesh at the back of his shoulder. Knocked off balance from Cara’s tackle, the beast stumbled past Richard and smashed headlong into one of the heavy shelves. Bones, books, and boxes tumbled down.
    The thing scrambled to its feet, snarling, fangs bared, muscles taut. Stretching for a moment to its full height, it