Blade of the Avatar/Blade of Midras/Chapter 19

Dispossessed

Chapter 19: Dispossessed

Excerpt

Aren was quite suddenly not where he had been.

He was still running, but his surroundings had changed in an instant. The dark alleyway had been replaced by a brilliantly lit hall of white marble, polished floors, and alabaster walls rising to an arched ceiling overhead. The wall of blue light that had overtaken him in the alley was now in front of him. It had washed over Aren and was rushing away from him down the hallway. Confused and disoriented, Aren tried to stop but his boots slipped from under him on the gleaming surface underfoot. He tried to recover but it was too late. He lost his footing, stumbled and then came crashing to a rolling and sliding stop in the middle of the hall.

Painfully, he picked himself up and, per his training, looked around him. The wall of blue light had come to a stop at the end of the hall about thirty feet from where he stood. Aren watched it warily for a few moments. With some trepidation, Aren turned around, suspicious that it might chase him once more, but it remained where it had come to rest.

Aren slipped his sword back into his scabbard. The hall down which he had just run had two enormous doors set on either side. Beyond those, the hall opened up into a rotunda. At three equally spaced points around the circular room, statues stood against the walls, each one bowing slightly inward as though the overhead dome were supported on their backs and it’s apex were too low for them to stand. One of them was of a muscular man with his hand raised in a defiant fist. The second was of a different man, this one with his hand raised palm open as though swearing an oath. The third was a remarkable woman with her hand placed over her heart. In the center of the room, on a raised pedestal, stood eight smaller statues that appeared to be facing outward in a ring but each of these was covered in black cloth.

Aren stepped up to one of the draped figures. He reached a tentative hand upward toward the shroud.

“Aren Bennis.”

Aren had heard the voice. It was a deep tone, so quiet that he might have questioned hearing it if it had not penetrated his bones. It seemed to come from every direction at once.

Trivia

• In the original Blade of the Avatar, prior to the additional chapters added for The Sword of Midras, this was Chapter 16.