Stones Unbound (The Magestone Chronicles Book 1) by Richard Innes Page A

They were bringing
out prisoners, most of them stunned, and throwing them into two caged wagons
like so much cordwood.  Those that weren’t stunned were protesting loudly or
thrashing, but they were beaten until they quieted.
    They watched as the Fear Squad left the building, the scaazi
ahead of the two Rak’soraa.  Four soldiers followed them out, two each carrying
an unconscious Brows and Hoyle.  They threw each of them into the separate
wagons, on top of the pile.  One of the soldiers locked the wagons, and the
soldiers began to move out, leaving several behind to secure the building.
    “What do we do now?” wondered Celia.
    “We retreat,” answered Salrissa without emotion.  Celia
noticed that the other woman was holding her hand to a bleeding slash along her
ribs.  Only because Salrissa hadn’t said anything did Celia hold her tongue.
    ---o---
     
    The bell at the Temple of Saveesha, the Mother, rang twice
as the two women worked their way back to the Red Rooster Inn through the dark
city.  They seemed to be following the same path that Celia and Hoyle had
followed earlier that evening, though Celia was having significantly more
trouble keeping up with Salrissa, even with the other woman wounded.  She
strode quickly down the streets that Celia was having trouble seeing, and
though her own legs were at least as long as Salrissa's, she kept stumbling
over the cobbles.
    “Is it true?” Celia asked.
    Salrissa didn’t answer for a time, but just as Celia was
about to ask her question again, Salrissa responded, “Is what true?”
    “Are you a Sister?”
    A longer pause.  “Was.”
    “I thought they were a myth to keep the Empire’s enemies in
line and to scare small children?” Celia stumbled again, and went down to one knee
with a grunt of pain.  She realized how physically drained she was as she stood
and ran to catch up with Salrissa, who had not slowed.
    “No.  If only that were true...” Salrissa replied bitterly.
    Celia was quiet as she absorbed Salrissa’s tone and her obvious
reluctance to continue with any details, so she changed topics.  “What are we
going to do about Hoyle?”
    “ I am going to rescue him; you are going back
to wherever it is you came from,” came the emotionless reply.
    “But you will need my help.  There were more than thirty
Guardsmen back there...”
    “No, I will not,” Salrissa interrupted.
    “...and you’re wounded,” Celia finished anyway.
    Celia was frustrated beyond measure.  They had lost her quafa'shilaar,
whatever gold was owed to Hoyle, and now Hoyle himself.  Hoyle’s supposed
friend, or possibly his lover, who was a former Sister of Kass, the Empire’s
mythical secret sect of assassins, was going to rescue him mysteriously without
her help.  She was going to lose the only trail to the quafa'shilaar that she
had.  She grabbed Salrissa’s arm, quietly casting a spell.  “You will need my help!” she insisted.
    Salrissa grabbed her wrist with her unoccupied hand and
broke her hold easily.  She twisted Celia’s arm violently as she stopped and
spun her against the side of a building.  “No.  I won’t.”  She let Celia go. 
“Go home.”  And with that, Salrissa turned and started down the street,
vanishing into the shadows.
    Rubbing her sore shoulder, Celia let her go.  She did not
have to follow her now.  With the tracking spell she cast on the arm piece of
Salrissa’s armor, she would be able to locate her wherever she went.  At least
for a numbers of days until it wore off.  However, with everything that had
happened since this morning, she realized how weary she was.  Looking up and
realizing that she was alone in the dark streets of this unfamiliar city, she
started moving.  Based on the location of the Emperor’s Sky Citadel floating
above the city, and since she knew that it was always centered over Palace
Square, she turned down the next street, beginning the process of finding her
way back to the