Alusair’s trail ran toward the ruin as straight as an arrow. Tanalasta did not have the courage to voice her thoughts, but there was little need. After four days of dodging gnolls and ghazneths in the dusty vastness that separated the Stonelands from the Goblin Marches, she and Rowen had develope...
In the blackness of the night, it took him a moment to locate the source of the breeze: the gaping mouth of a grotto, less than a dozen yards away. The cave opened into the base of a rugged peninsula, a stony bluff that rose straight out of the Sea of Silt. From Agis's per...
Outside High Horn’s inner gatehouse, a dozen Cormyrian soldiers were struggling with pulleys and ropes to raise Bhaal and his amber prison off the ground. Earlier that day, the masons had mortared support posts into the wall, high over the gate. The soldiers were attempting to hoist Bhaal onto th...
Then I climbed the headwall and crawled miles through the tall salt grass to a small farm with a pungent little barn. Thinking this stock shed a good place to rest and collect my wits, I opened the door and sneaked inside. I was greeted by the shining eyes of five goats and a mangy dog, all peeri...
After four days of travel on Mar’s Looking Glass, half the Mahwa were riding lame beasts. With the merciless goddess blazing down on the wind-burnished stones, the searing heat blistered even the tough pads of the camels’ feet. In order to reach his allies as quickly as possible, Sa’ar was pushin...
asked Avner. The youth stood on the ramparts of Castle Hartwick, looking across the Clearwhirl’s eastern channel. In the distance, the stone giant Gavorial was disappearing into the dusk, the former king of Hartsvale gripped securely in his hand. “Now that you’re the queen, what’s going to happen...
Enormous as it was and swaddled in black shadowstuff, the enclave resembled a storm cloud crashing down from on high, complete with sheets of silver lightning illuminating jagged sweeps of misty curtain and mysterious, half-heard roars rumbling out from its hidden heart. Veserab riders were desce...
Maybe Brianna’s plan wasn’t lost after all. With a little luck, he could slay both stone giants and prevent them from telling any of their fellows about Shepherd’s Nightmare. Perhaps he could even save the refugees. Tavis just wished that he understood why the stone giants had taken such pains to...
He reached his little finger and stopped. “Need I go on?” Prince Tang shook his head. “We only sell poisons, not use them. Yanseldara’s condition is not our fault.” Hsieh lowered his hand. “You know I do not care if it is, as long as your reason is good. But if you are lying” “Never!” Both Tang ...
At times, Galaeron and Keya could not even tell the warriors were behind them. They descended Goldmorn Knoll and slipped past Dawnsglory Pond without drawing a second glance, and Galaeron grew confident their plan would work. They had to stop once and listen to a silver-haired matron assure Galae...
Spread across a verdant bench-land between a lush mountainside and a gloom-filled rift valley, its tidy sweeps of green turf were surrounded by burgeoning plots of foliage and connected by snaking ribbons of gray paving stone. To Jaina’s surprise, there were no tiny dots dodging among the glisten...
It was a hot, windless morning, and the smoke of the fires hugged the ground like a cloud of dust sinking to earth. The haze in the plaza hung so thick it was impossible to breathe without choking on mordant-tasting ash, and anyone standing more than a few feet away seemed no more than a ghostly ...
“Eyes down, boy!” commanded a snarling voice. Rikus lowered his head and trudged onward, cursing the gladiator's obvious delight in berating his commander. Along with two dozen fellows, all wearing the tunics of Makla's village garrison, the imposter was driving a small fo...
Wu asked, her voice a frustrated hiss as she struggled with her samfu. Wu’s fingers were trembling so much that she could not thread the tog-buttons through their holes. Without answering the question, Qwo gently pulled Wu’s hands aside and began fastening the samfu. The gray-haired servant studi...
The birds and the cold. He had never seen so many birds, and he had never been so cold. He felt sick with cold. His clothes were frozen stiff with his own sweat, and his thoughts bumped through his mind like icebergs. The weather was not particularly frigid, but, as Munairoe had warned, the high ...
A bow TIE!—Jacen Solo, age 14IN A GALAXY WHIRLING MADLY OUT OF CONTROL, WHERE THE WAR erupted in another system every day and whole cities could be blasted away by simple fiat of the GA Chief of State, nobody much cared when a young human walked into the seedy cantina of the Nova Station refuelin...
“Come.” Vala stood where she was and didn’t move. She didn’t even lower her sword. “Come?” she gasped. “After you killed Parth and everyone else?” “I did not kill them, woman. I saved you.” The elf continued away, but his head turned to face her, his neck giving a mushy crackle as it traveled the...
Rikus called, fixing his stern gaze on Agis. “It's not time to rest!” The handsome noble looked up at the gladiator for a moment, then spoke in an even voice. “I don't need your permission to sit,” he said, once more propping his head in his hands. ...
He took Naraka’s sword and the hastily loaded rucksack from Yago, then waded forward to where Rishi was freeing the yaks from their harnesses. “I d-don’t think this will w-work,” Atreus chattered. “We’ll f-freeze to death.” “The good s-sir may have f-faith in his servant.” Rishi’s hands were shak...
She stood on a narrow stairway, looking out over an immense abyss filled with a haze that stretched from far below her feet to the zenith of the sky. It was the color of ash and as still as the midday sands. There was nothing else out there. The steps had been carved from ...