Free The Melaki Chronicle by William Thrash Page A

his thoughts to drift. The
fire warmed him.
    The crash of the door startled him and his chair tipped over
backwards as he bolted awake.
    “Melaki, let us be off.” Talin stood in the doorway.
    “Shut the door,” the bartender said.
    Talin ignored him. The bartender was beneath him.
    Melaki picked himself up and downed the rest of his mead.
    “Shut the door.”
    Talin's chin was in the air.
    He carried the empty mug to the bartender. “My thanks to
you, again. I will shut your door for you.”
    “Quickly.” Talin snapped his fingers.
    The bartender grunted.
    Rolling his eyes, he turned and took his time straightening
his robes, dusting imaginary particles from it.
    The other wizard sighed with exasperation. “Perhaps I made a
mistake in selecting you.”
    Perhaps I made a mistake in accepting. He walked to
the door. “Are we leaving?”
    The two mercenaries watched from their table, a look of
indignation on the man's face. That anyone should leave before him was
unthinkable.
    Maybe he should go with Talin.
    “Come, I have created a summoning.”
    Melaki reached and felt the oily evil of the spiritwork.
Talin had summoned horses. If any were alive in the surrounding lands, they
would come. He could feel three responses through the connection. He followed
the wizard back to their packs and gathered them up.
    The guards at the gate said nothing. One shrugged and
motioned to two others who lifted the bar and opened the heavy wooden doors.
    Talin stood, chin thrust forward, eyes lidded. His packs
floated behind him.
    Melaki followed him out the gate and gazed at the dark of
the forest outside the port. He saw birds, but little else. Even the birds were
quiet. He carried his packs, conserving his personal energy. The senior
imperial officer had been right; the road was just a remnant. Ferns were
already growing close in on the edges and a few trodden in the road itself
spoke of the imperial soldiers marching them down on their conquest earlier in
the year. The trees stretched overhead and in places blocked any light from the
sky above them.
    “Make a light and float it ahead,” Talin said.
    He formed the two patterns in his mind – the oily one and
one for a bright blue light. He could maintain those without much of a drain.
Light was easy and the oily pattern was almost an afterthought. He scanned the
trees around him and then tried something risky. Forming a simple third
pattern, he sent his awareness out a ways, searching for necromantic
vibrations.
    “What are you doing?”
    He let the third one collapse. “Probing for undead.”
    Talin grunted. “It was rather weak.”
    He sighed but said nothing. Most likely, the soldiers had
scoured the immediate surrounding areas for pockets of anything that might
threaten the port.
    Talin's head wagged. “The soldiers have killed everything
nearby, assuredly.”
    “I was just thinking that.”
    “Of course you were.” Sarcasm dripped from his tongue.
“That's why you cast your magic, to look.”
    Idiot. I did both. Melaki realized talking only gave
Talin something with which to demonstrate his self-ascribed massive intellect
and ability. The other wizard was practiced at it, honed and polished, firing
smooth darts of sarcasm and scorn at anything for any reason – all to make
himself look better.
    So he kept his mouth shut.
    They passed a village on their left. It was a small clearing
with a few farms and buildings. There was an inn - the roof caved in. One of
the merchants from the First Charter was there, looking over the inn. He held a
sword, poking at things and looking over the walls. He waved to the wizards.
Only Melaki waved back.
    If anything, Talin walked faster.
    Someone was out the gate before you; how it must gall.
    The merchant would be well-set in that spot to offer
stabling, supplies for those coming from the port, and rooms for pay. The other
prime spot would be the crossroads coming from the port where it split from
Dramlos and Kellerran. He wondered