Free Changing Of The Guard (Book 6) by Ron Collins

his presence burned against Garrick’s hunger like a raging sun. That hunger surged with the Koradictine’s nearness. It wanted to drink Ettril in, to reach out and take him as it had once taken a serving lad in a village outside Dorfort, to rip Ettril’s life force from his body as he once had done to mages on the fields of God’s Tower. But Ettril Dor-Entfar was no simple mage. He was god-touched himself, and he was having none of Garrick’s fantasies.
    “If you harmed the boy,” Garrick said, his tongue clay in his mouth, “I’ll kill you.”
    Ettril gave a deep belly laugh. Energy crackled across the Koradictine’s entire being.
    “I’m so pleased to find you’re still alive,” Ettril said, his voice echoing inside Garrick’s skull.
    Ettril seemed larger than life. His staff flowed like liquid in his hand, and he smiled with vile humor as he took in the destruction that lay around him. His silver-gray hair shifted and waved of its own volition. His skin glowed. His eyes were puffy, white, and bloated, their pupils dilated and wild.
    “It wasn’t Alistair who drained the plane at all, was it?” Garrick said, shivering with the cold wind. The trickle of mage stuff was helping him. At least he could stand on his own. “You’re the one who created these creatures.”
    “Weren’t they wonderful?” Ettril said.
    “But now you have no one to rule.”
    “I never intended to rule Nestafar, Garrick.”
    Garrick was aghast. “You destroyed an entire plane on a lark?”
    “I destroyed it because I needed its energy, and because I needed someplace to draw you toward.” He glanced around and gave a smile, his lips full and pulsing. “So, in a way, you could say Nestafar’s fate was your fault. Isn’t that just … perfect?”
    “These people were merely mage fodder to you?”
    “It was a selfish plane, anyway,” Ettril said, “filled with people interested in wealth and material rather than knowledge. Their greed had already changed the very composition of their plane. So, you see, I didn’t really do anything they weren’t already doing to themselves.”
    “You spout Hezarin’s credo like an expert,” Garrick said.
    “Only because she’s right. I’ve done this plane a great service. Now it can rebuild itself.”
    “You are generous to a fault.”
    “I’m glad you see it that way. It will make it more pleasant to think of you when I use your life force someplace else.”
    The blow came almost from nowhere, but Garrick was schooled enough to react as soon as he smelled the Koradictine odor rising within the fabric of the plane’s energy. He pulled as much magic into his mind as he could and threw a shield haphazardly over himself.
    Still, the Koradictine’s fist of power tossed him to the ground like a rag doll.
    Garrick took refuge behind the cornerstone of a broken building. Ettril’s god-touch was strong, his magic sizzled with vitality. Garrick would never beat him if this battle came down to sorcerous power. His only chance was to somehow nab Will, and get off the plane.
    “Come out from behind that rock,” Ettril said. “You know you can’t hide from me anymore.”
    Gripping the boulder, Garrick stood up again, strangely ready to die. It would be worth it if he could save Will, he thought. And it would solve so many problems.
    Energy seeped from the Koradictine.
    Garrick’s hunger was drawn to that energy. It yearned for its sustenance and drew morsels from its fringe.
    Will squirmed on the disc, obviously understanding of what was happening around him.
    “The two of you share a bond,” Ettril said with clear distaste. “So, to prove I can be accommodating, I’ll take both of you at the same time.”
    Ettril sang a phrase, and magic swirled in the clouds above him.
    Garrick took the moment to grab what little energy he could, and he threw a bolt at the disk where Will lay. The leather around the boy’s wrists scorched, and the bindings around his arms burned away.
    “Run,