READER'S ROCK LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE VOL 2 ISSUE 4 NOVEMBER 2014 Vol. 1 Issue 5 November 2013 | Page 15

An Exclusive Excerpt from Divided against Yourselves

(Image copyrighted by Pablo Hidalgo and licensed from
http://www.shutterstock.com )
While I was brooding over that problem, Morgan,
who had presumably been hiding on the other side of
the pier, popped out of concealment and swung her icy
sword straight at Shar. Unarmed and weakened from
blood loss, he fell back away from the blade, but not
quite fast enough, and Morgan inflicted another flesh
wound on the arm, this one aggravated by the extreme
cold her sword radiated. Shar, who had probably the
highest tolerance for pain of any of us, actually
screamed, and, though the cold prevented immediate
bleeding, I could see what looked like a very large gash.
Shar crumpled up, possibly on the verge of passing out,
and Morgan brushed past him and grabbed Alcina in her
arms, with the obvious intention of flying away with
her. Dan, fearful as he was of David’s sword, was
making it impossible for David, or for Gordy or Carlos,
for that matter, to get around him without hurting him,
which none of them wanted to do. I raised Zom again
and tried to open fire, but all I got at first was a flicker.
Horrified, I looked down at it. Its emerald glow was dull;
I had pushed it too far trying to break the spell on Dan. I
could feel it coming back, I could see its glow
brightening by the second, but Morgan could be
airborne with Alcina in seconds, and all we had risked
tonight would have been for nothing.
I conjured up my own flying spell and shot in
Morgan’s direction like a bullet. Seeing me coming, she
held her blade at Shar’s throat.
“Let us go, Taliesin. I would hate to kill your
valiant friend, but I will do it if I must.” Near the edge of

my awareness, I felt Dan take a wound in the arm, but,
energized by a fanatical desire to protect Alcina at all
costs, he apparently held on to his sword and kept
fighting. It was up to me to save Shar and Carla..but
how could I do that?
“Drop that sword!” she commanded as a landed
on the dock, nicking Shar’s throat to underscore the
order.
I knew I couldn’t drop Zom at this point. At the
best, that would allow Morgan and Alcina to escape. At
the worst I was running a little low on magic and magic
resistance, and either or both of them might
conceivably recapture me, or do harm to someone
else—and then escape as well.
What is that old saying? It’s always darkest before
the dawn…but now we seemed on the verge of an
endless night. My best option strategically seemed to
be to allow her to do her worst with Shar in the hope of
healing him afterward. Nurse Florence had suggested
she might be able to heal Gianni under similar
circumstances.
I reached out with my mind to see how Vanora
was doing with Nurse Florence—and the endless night
got darker. Not only was Vanora, already wearied from
maintaining the security system I had demanded, now
pretty much exhausted, but Nurse Florence was not
reviving. Had she drained herself too far to come back?
Even if she started to revive now, Vanora and Nurse
Florence probably wouldn’t have enough energy
between them to heal a mortal wound.
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