Free Worldbinder by David Farland Page B

filled the room. “Speak, Vulgnash. I feel that your mind is clouded by questions.”
    Vulgnash dared hardly admit it to himself. He was not used to questioning his master. But he could not hide his thoughts from the Great Mother.
    “How long?” he asked.
    “Four years, since last I summoned you.”
    “But… there is a forest growing outside the gates,” Vulgnash objected. He knew that he had to have slept for centuries.
    “A great and strange thing has happened,” the wyrm said. “The world is changed, made anew by a powerful wizard, named Fallion Orden. He has combined two worlds into one, his and ours. He is our enemy. He must be dealt with.”
    That any one wizard could have such power seemed unimaginable. “You have but to command me, my master, and I will throw myself into battle no matter how fearsome the foe. But… how do we fight such a creature?”
    “Have no fear,” the Great Mother said. “I brought Fallion here by design. In his world, his power was great. But in this new world … he cannot withstand you. He is a flameweaver, talented in some ways, but he is only a child in his understanding….”
    Vulgnash smiled, his lips pulling back to reveal his overlarge canines. If there was one thing that he understood, it was the weaving of flames. He had been mastering his skills for millennia.
    The Great Mother continued. “Take the three into the woods south of the ruins at Caer Golgeata. You will find a golden tree there. Destroy it, root and limb.
    “You will also find humans, small in stature, led by the wizard Fallion. Bring him, and prepare his spirit to receive a wyrm.”
    Vulgnash knew that powerful enemies sometimes required wyrms of great power to subdue them. Knowing which wyrm was to take him might make a subtle difference as to the type of tortures Vulgnash would use to prepare the victim. “Is there a particular wyrm that I should prepare him for?”
    The answer struck Vulgnash with awe.
    Lady Despair answered, “I may choose to possess him myself.”

    8    
     
TALON
    Life is an endless awakening.
    As a child, we awaken to the wonders and horrors of the universe.
    As young adults we awaken to our own growing powers, even as young love enslaves us.
    As adults, we awaken to the worry and responsibility of caring for others.
    Last of all, we awaken to death, And the light beyond.
    —
High King Urstone
    In the tallest tower of Castle Coorm, Fallion kicked open the door to a small room and stood for a moment, letting his eyes adjust as motes of dust floated in his view.
    The room had served as his bedroom as a child, a room for both him and Jaz. But as Jaz said, it had grown smaller over the years.
    The room was filled with trash—broken chairs from the king’s hall, a broken wheel from a wagon, various tools with broken shafts—all things that had some worth but needed the tender care of a good wood-wright.
    Beneath the litter, Jaz’s bed still remained, but Fallion’s was gone. Gone also were their treasures—the princely daggers that had hung on the wall, the fine curtains that had once hung over the window, the carved and painted animals that Jaz had played with as a child.
    Fallion had hoped to find something to remind him of his childhood, but there was nothing. Nor had he found much of worth in Warlord Hale’s chamber. It seemed that everything of worth had long ago been destroyed, sold off, or stolen.
    He closed the door, then climbed the stairs to theuppermost tower, where his mother’s far-seers had once kept vigil.
    There, upon a mossy roof that was growing weak from rot, he peered out across the altered landscape. Rocks rose up in a tumult, twisted and eerie. It was not as if they had just thrust up from the ground, broken and new. Instead, they looked to have been sculpted by wind and rain over millennia. Their forms were graceful, strange, and utterly out of place.
    In the past hours, the dust had begun to settle, and though a yellow haze obscured the