Beyond the Hell Cliffs Read Online Free

barracks at the very rear of the city.  Eramus, however, lingered, closing the door once he was sure he was alone.  When the door was shut, a shadow shifted along the back wall and suddenly two figures came into view, as if they had been summoned from the ether.  A deep blue-skinned Faeir woman dressed in spectacular, oceanic-themed robes stood beside a visually exhausted male Stone-Seer.  The Seer’s hand dropped from the woman and she vehemently wiped at her shoulder where his touch had left.  She bid the male Seer to “turn and mute” before approaching Eramus.  She was young and beautiful and her dark, navy hair flowed about her face in slow, constant motion despite the lack of wind.
    “Such a fool!” Eramus hissed.  “He is so complacent in this ridiculous charade of war that he would send his son into the Greimere Heart and not lose a night’s sleep.”
    “The Elements have given us a gift, Eramus,” Isidora said, her soothing voice calming all the Mage’s anxiety immediately.  “Yet you seem… disappointed?  Do you doubt this sign, Eramus?  Maybe you doubt that the Council should rule Rellizbix.”
    “ I have never doubted the Council’s wisdom in my life!” Eramus whispered angrily.  “My only disappointment is in King Helfrick.  He’s better than this, Isidora.  You aren’t old enough to have known him as a Prince like I did, but before that Twileen seductress ruined his life by birthing that mongrel…”
    “ I care nothing for your nostalgia, Mage.  Whether this king is a good Saban or not is irrelevant!”  Isidora screeched.  “He is a Saban.  He belongs in the fields or on a fishing boat, not in the capitol of the Northern World.  Too long have we put up with the intellectually inferior denizens of this land.  The Saban soldiers have outlived their usefulness.  The miserable fools have to create war just to have a purpose and the Twileens… the Twileens have never been of any use to us.”
    “ Never, you say?  What of the Twileen thief we used to procure the King’s seal for this letter?  Was he not useful?”
    “For a brief moment,” Isidora replied.  “Then that moment was over and I formed a basin around his head and watched him scurry about the floor until he drowned.  Isn’t that what Twileens are good for?  Entertainment?”
    “ You’re rotten, Isidora,” Eramus said, sickened by her psychosis.  “Something has tainted your soul.  I imagine that is why you are so good at deceit.  And probably why you are able to have a Stone-Seer keep his hand on you, pouring his magic into you enough to cloak you in the shadows of the room.”
    “ Jealousy does not become you, Eramus,” Isidora stated, shaking her head in delight.  “Barely out of my twenties and I am already on the Council, yet here you are, a respected Mage twice my age and you kneel before the king every morning before you lock your lips to his ass.  It’s because I do what needs to be done for the Council, no matter how… unsavory the job.”
    “ Then I sincerely hope you are ever useful to the Council, lest they decide one day to watch you squirm for entertainment.”  Eramus left the war room, allowing Isidora to find her own way out of the castle unseen.
    Isidora grinned after him and then, once he was gone, she turned back to her Stone-Seer and bid him to turn and face her.  The Faeir, who looked even younger than her, kept his eyes on the ground, not daring to look at his mistress as she approached him and stared him down.
    “Eramus thinks you may have tainted me with your touch, Filth,” she said, addressing him by the name she bestowed upon him when she discovered and acquired him.  “He thinks that by allowing you to use your illegal magic on me, you’ve corrupted my soul somehow.”
    She craned her neck to sniff at the spot on her shoulder where Filth had touched her in order to keep them both cloaked.  She wrinkled her nose and sighed, looking back at the Stone-Seer.