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circle. He nodded to the young girl in boy s clothing.
"Kiasidira", she said softly. "I m Kiasidira."
The north wind, which had been blowing against the windows steadily all
afternoon, suddenly stilled.
Ciro closed his eyes and his hands began to tremble.
The sight shook Khamsin. "Ciro, what does my name mean?"
"You don t know, child?"
"No. Yes. I mean, I understand I m the one he would seek. The chosen one.
Tanta Bron told me that. But you said there have been others, in the past. I
don t understand why my being Kiasidira& "
"Then, it s best I don t tell you until it s time."
He worked feverishly on her instruction after that, testing her skills by
creating mock-demons and fiery elementals that barraged her at random. Time
and again she was forced to draw her sword and strike out at her enemy,
vanquishing them with the words that rolled easily off her tongue. Khamsin and
the sword were one now, and she cast spells with it, into it and through it.
Ciro also taught her to create a perfect visual duplicate of the sword,
advising her to always leave more than one sword laying around when she
didn t have the enchanted weapon strapped to her side. Woe be the Wizard who
was undone by the fingers of a petty-thief!
Then there came the day she materialized at Ciro s table and for once,
nothing came screaming across the great room after her. There was just Ciro
and Nixa and a square wooden jewel case, metal-strapped and locked.
He pushed it towards her. "Open it."
She touched the locked lightly, springing it and prepared herself for any
manner of banshee that might come howling from its interior. She lifted the
lid slowly. There was only a rolled piece of parchment and some trinkets of a
base metal inside.
"Go ahead." He nodded.
She pulled out the parchment and lay it carefully against the table as she
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
unrolled it. It was a map of the Land and she read the names of towns she
knew: Wallow s Cove and Dram, Bright s Cove and her own, Cirrus. There were
the Hill towns of Favon and Flume and their most recent conquest, Browner s
Grove. There was Noviiya, much larger in the northern corner and graphic
notations of mountains, forests and swamps.
There was also the Khal, the bottomless lake of black waters. And on the
mountainous peninsula that penetrated its darkness, Traakhal-Armin. The castle
of the Sorcerer.
Ciro lay his finger on the accursed name. "There is where you must go,
Khamsin of Cirrus Cove. To Traakhal. There is the lock that only you, as the
key, can open."
He splayed his hand over the map. "In the East Tower of the castle there s a
room that no mortal has ever entered. In the center of this room is a mage
circle carved into the floor of polished marble and inlaid with pure gold. In
the center of the circle is a crystal orb within a pedestal.
"It s this Orb that s the center of the war that now scars the Land, with
rapes and burnings and senseless death. And you are the key to this Orb.
Possession of it grants unlimited knowledge."
"The Sorcerer has this Orb?"
"Yes. He states it s Tarkir s gift to him. But Lucial and Melande say it s
theirs, also. They stole it once. That was before Traakhal was built. And, in
a way, why Traakhal was built. To protect the Orb."
She shook her head. "If it s safe from them in Traakhal, then why& "
"It s not Traakhal that s stopping them. Not even that fortress castle can
withstand their combined powers. Something much stronger than the castle
protects the Orb."
Ciro pointed his index finger and traced a circle on the tabletop. "The
circle around the Orb is fused with impenetrable wardings. It took the
Sorcerer twenty years to create it under Tarkir s instruction. Twenty years in
which it s been said he never left the tower room, so intense were his
incantations."
He stabbed at random points in the circle he d traced. "Now, there are twelve
rune stones in a mage circle, as you know. In his, every rune stone is a
carved gemstone. And each gem alone has the power to destroy a city larger
than Noviiya."
"But then, how could I gain access? I m just& I don t have those kinds of
powers."
"Perhaps you don t. Perhaps you do. But you are Kiasidira. It is written that
only two beings can cross through the golden mage circle around the Orb and
live. One is the Sorcerer. The other," and Ciro looked directly at her, "is
Kiasidira."
She sat back in her chair, her eyes wide.
"You could take control of the Orb, Khamsin. No one could stop you, if you
can gain entry to that room in the East Tower. And you could settle who could
use it, and for what, right then and there. Or you could choose to destroy it.
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