The Staff of the Winds (The Wizard of South Corner Book 1) by William Meighan Page B

to her, and rolled the body onto it.  The body was badly beaten and disfigured, sliced and burned in many places, and judging by the amount and the pattern of the blood on the floor, she must have been alive for a long time.  A large chunk of flesh had been carved from the inside of her left thigh, down to the bone, and was nowhere to be seen.  Her face was badly bruised, and her cheek bones had been broken, so Owen could not tell who she had been, but he did notice with a pang of guilty relief that her hair was blond.  It was not Sarah.
    Near the wall, Owen spotted a piece of cloth that must have been the woman’s shift, torn and ripped from her body. He tucked it around her as best he could, then Jack helped him roll her up in the tattered blanket. Owen hated to use this rough cloth that smelled so strongly of the gorn who had owned it to cover the woman’s body, but it was all they had. They would bury her in the trees so that the gorn or a wolf would not dig her up. ‘ The carrion eaters are welcome to the dead gorn ,’ Owen thought, angrily ‘ if they can stomach the taste .’
     

Chapter 4

    The Baraduhne
    Yeva knelt with her forehead pressed to the polished marble floor.  While in the presence of the Great Sorcerer and High Lord Adham al Dharr, she was expected to hear and to see nothing.  As bodyguard to Master Kadeen, Sorcerer and First Counselor to the High Lord, she was trained to hear and to see everything, and she never forgot her training.  Her eyes never moved, never left the marble floor, but the marble was highly polished, and in the reflection of the floor, she could clearly see the nearby silver lamp stand, and in the reflection of the lamp stand, she had a panoramic view of the entire room.  She could see her master at the other end of the long audience chamber standing at the foot of the raised dais that held the gilded throne of the High Lord.  Lord Adham al Dharr was standing in front of his throne looking down upon his Chief Counselor. In proportion to the High Lord, Councilor Kadeen was short and slight of build, making him appear almost childlike in his long dark robes, standing below the dais.
    The Great Audience Chamber of the High Lord of the Baraduhne was vast, with 13 tall stone pillars down each side supporting a vaulted ceiling high overhead. The pillars were large—it would take three men holding hands to reach around any one of them—and deeply fluted with gold mined from this very mountain inlaid up their long length.  Rich gold and dark magenta tapestries lined the walls behind the columns, depicting great battles and past victories of the Baraduhne.  The black marble floor was laced with flecks of quartz, and inlaid with silver in the form of a large rune of warding that stretched from one side of the great hall to the other.  Anyone approaching the throne would have to cross that rune.  If they were armed, whatever weapon they carried would burst into white-hot flame, incinerating the weapon, and likely the one who carried it.
    There were hidden alcoves along the sides of the chamber for the High Lord’s guards and the ever-present Watchers whose job it was to observe the overt and hidden words and actions of all who came for audience before the Great Sorcerer. Carved from the mountain itself, this room along with the entire palace was heated by conduits and baffles that brought warm air up through deep shafts that tapped into the very fires of the earth far below. The room was lit by hundreds of silver sconces backed by silver mirrors that held gas flames fed from the depths. Three large chandeliers spaced down the center of the chamber also provided light so that every corner was illuminated. The acoustics of the room were cleverly designed so that pronouncements from the throne could be heard clearly to the far reaches of the great hall.
    “As I have foretold, Kadeen” the Great Sorcerer was saying, “the wizard Gilladhe has been destroyed. Just as for ages I