Free Taliesin Ascendant (The Children and the Blood) by Skye Malone, Megan Joel Peterson Page A

keep breathing as she strode after him into the conference room.
    Stepping to one side, he waited as she entered and then closed the door, his magic sealing out the sound from the factory.
    The council watched her.
    “You wished to speak with us, your majesty?” Darius asked.
    Her gaze darted to the side as Cornelius slipped around her and circled the table to take his seat to the left of Darius. Keeping her face solidly expressionless, she nodded once and then took a chair as well.
    “I wanted to talk to you about why I’m here,” she said.
    A few people glanced to Cornelius in confusion, but he’d long since locked his eyes on a spot somewhere beyond the tabletop and didn’t look away.
    “The Taliesin weren’t responsible for my father’s death,” she continued. “Or Lily’s. Not entirely. The man who ordered their deaths didn’t look like a Merlin wizard, or a Taliesin. And he didn’t have an absence of magic inside him like a cripple. He was something else. He looked human, but he had magic too.
    “He was from a group that calls themselves the Blood.”
    Around the table, grimaces twisted the faces of several council members. At Darius’ side, Sebastian looked away, nearly rolling his eyes with impatient disbelief.
    Cornelius didn’t take his gaze from the table.
    “I know you’ve heard of them before,” she said. “Josiah Carter tried to tell you about them eight years ago. But I’m here to confirm that they’re real. I’ve seen them. This man, Mason Brogan; he attacked me with magic two nights ago. And he nearly killed me with it before I took it from him.
    “The cripples saw him for what he was. They recognized those like him from crowds that just seemed like regular people to me.”
    She glanced at Cornelius, but he didn’t look up.
    “Carter and the others weren’t lying. They weren’t delusional or insane. I’ve seen ferals. Wizards. Cripples. And I’m telling you, these monsters are something else. They hunted down my father and sister, and even though Brogan’s gone… the rest are still out there. They’re killing people with almost no chance of being stopped because the wizards who could help fight them don’t believe they’re real.
    “So I’m here to ask you to change that. Go back to the cripples and work with them to stop these monsters. The Blood aren’t just a threat to the cripples; they’re a threat to all of us. But with your help, they don’t have to be anymore.”
    Exhaling slowly, she fell silent, watching the council for their reactions.
    For a minor eternity, none came. Gazes darted from one side of the table to the other, and beneath their imperious masks, hints of expressions surfaced too quickly to be identified. But no one said a word.
    And then Katherine cleared her throat. “Your majesty…” she started delicately. “As you say, this information is not new. But… it is not quite as you describe.”
    Ashe waited, barely breathing.
    “Since the start of the war, there have been rumors. Weapons, designed by Taliesin, to aid those without magic in wielding powers like our own. It is understandable, given their binding for so many years, that wizards of Taliesin’s breed would have attempted such a thing.” She hesitated. “But it came to nothing, your majesty. What you describe cannot be done.”
    Ashe shook her head. “I’m not saying they had weapons, and I’m not saying they were human. I’m saying they had magic. That they glow to the cripples. Visibly. Unmistakably. And they were leading Taliesin wizards, not working for them.”
    Katherine grimaced, but before she could speak, another council member interrupted. “Your highness,” the portly man said in a tone edging toward condescension. “We know one another as wizards because we possess magical skill. Cripples have none, and thus are fortunate to be aware of us at all. Given the facts, it makes no sense for them to be able to perceive anything of magic that we cannot.”
    “I