Free The Last of the Ageless by Traci Loudin Page A

healing knowledge. Over time, I’ve learned how to heal myself, rather than skip over those ages. So I stay in them, allowing my people to care for me until I’m healed, just as they would any other person. I’ve only done it a few times before.”
    The Wizard shook his head, his expression skeptical. “But we have so many ages, why bother?” Then he waved it off. “Swear to me you didn’t kill Rollick.”
    Gryid rose and stood near the doorway, bringing the two Ageless face to face. “I did not. Think about it. What motivation would I have?”
    Gryid’s eyes flicked over to Caetl, his gaze falling on the artifact. “Ah, so you’re using them to communicate with all your followers. The Changeling… You sent her to steal the other devices from me, didn’t you?”
    Tapping Gryid’s mind revealed his concern for his people. He wondered what had happened after he’d fallen unconscious, how much damage Nyr had caused, and what else the Wizard had done to them.
    The Wizard coughed and gave ground. “Ehhh… I’ll admit, I didn’t have full control over her. I had no idea she would wreak so much havoc—”
    Gryid cut him off. “You threatened one of your own kind and stole technology that wasn’t assigned to you!” He pounded his fists on the force field in front of the Wizard. “You could’ve gotten me killed!”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    Caetl felt a twinge in his mind, and Gryid jerked as if he’d been slapped. He shed years at a speed Caetl considered alarming. The Wizard would never de-age so recklessly, though Caetl didn’t know what would happen if an Ageless went too far.
    He tapped Gryid’s mind, wondering what had riled him. An echo of pain answered him. The Wizard had used the amplifier’s power not to whisper into Gryid’s mind, but to scream.
    The young boy pouted. “Why are you doing this? We’re brothers at arms… It was us against the Catastrophe, remember?”
    “One of our ‘brothers’ killed Rollick,” the Wizard reminded him. “If we work together, perhaps we can track him down or stand against him when he comes after one of us. Now let’s start with an easy question. Are you in contact with any other Ageless?”
    Gryid’s shoulders slumped. Caetl had tapped many minds in Mapleton while trying to help slip an unconscious Gryid away with the Wizard’s followers. Everyone from Mapleton had respected and cared about Gryid, which spoke volumes compared to the relationship between the Wizard and his followers.
    The Wizard took a deep breath. Pressure built in Caetl’s mind, like a headache behind his eyes. Gryid screamed incoherent words and fell to the floor of his cell, his hands clamped to his ears. Caetl flinched.
    “Answer me, Gryid,” the Wizard said.
    Gryid’s mind swirled with mental chaos and pain. The Wizard had tortured one of his own tribemates. With his face pressed to the floor, Gryid’s voice was muffled. “You’ve perverted the very technology we were meant to protect.”
    The pressure built as the Wizard clenched his teeth. Caetl’s headache grew, and Gryid screamed until his voice broke.
    The pressure faded.
    Gryid sat up and rubbed his eyes. He was crying. “Kaia.”
    “Kaia?” the Wizard asked.
    “She’s the one who tracked us, remember? Even now she knows I am here,” Gryid said, his voice a little stronger. Caetl saw her in his mind, one woman with many ages, but best remembered as a tall girl in her late twenties and as an aged woman with long white hair.
    The Wizard chuckled, and Gryid flinched, which only made the Wizard’s smile wider. “That’s better. Keep talking, and it’ll be easier on both of us.”
    “B-Before your friends,” Gryid’s eyes darted over to Caetl, “kidnapped me, Kaia had already told me Rollick was dead. He’s hardly the first of us to die. Surely you know that.”
    “Of course I remember finding out about the first deaths... Akihito and the others.” The Wizard waved a hand.
    Gryid’s demeanor changed.