Wit'ch Fire: Book One of the Banned and the Banished

Excerpt from Wit'ch Fire's Prologue: Page 2

Greshym stopped and warmed his backside by the fire while frowning back at him. "I know what's working behind your grey eyes, Er'ril of Standi. Hope. But both you and your Standi clansman are clutching empty air."

"What would you have us do? Bow our heads to the Dreadlord's axes?"

"It will come to that soon enough." Greshym rubbed the stump of his right wrist, almost accusingly.

Er'ril remained silent, his eyes caught by the sight of that smooth stump. He should not have pressed the old man some six moons ago. Er'ril remembered the Gul'gotha dog that had trapped the two of them and a handful of refugees in the Fields of Elysia.

Greshym seemed to notice his stare. He raised his stump toward the flickering flame. "Listen, boy, we both knew the risks."

"I panicked."

"You were frightened for the children. What with your niece among the townspeople."

"I shouldn't have pushed you. You told me what would happen if you tried to renew." Er'ril bowed his head, picturing the late afternoon sunlight slanting across the fields of tallac. He again saw Greshym raise his right fist to the heavens, begging for the gift of Chi, his hand vanishing in the fading sunlight as the ritual began. But this time, when the old mage pulled his arm back down, instead of his hand reappearing richly coated in red Chyric power, Greshym pulled back only a stump.

"It was my choice, Er'ril. Put this aside. It was you who saved all our hides that day."

Er'ril fingered the scar on his forearm. "Perhaps . . ." After Greshym's maiming, he had lunged at the Gul'gotha beast, tearing the creature to bloody ribbons. Even now, he was unsure if rage or guilt had driven his wild stabs. Afterward, he had been covered in steaming blood and gore; the children had shied from him in fear, even his niece … as if he were the monster.

Greshym snorted. "I knew it would happen. The same fate befell the other mages of the Order." He shoved the sleeve over his stump, hiding it away. "Chi has abandoned us."

Er'ril raised his eyes. "Not everyone has suffered the same fate."