Chapter Nine
Theurgy
The sun was close to setting, its fiery orb standing only a span above the horizon. Oblique, elongate rays turned the vast field of grain into a sea of golden-red: seed-laden heads undulating in waves as the wind hissed through their sibilant stalks.
Red and gold gleamed in the tree-shadows as well, where soldiers with raised spears and scarlet-robed Sisters surrounded this small village forge. Their circle kept all but a few select locals at a respectful remove. And of course inside the forge itself, where Elia and the Empress were preparing to finish the work begun three evenings previous, fire-red and glowing gold blazed forth in a furnace roar that kept all but those two sorceresses and the forge’s burly master at a cringing distance. Even that worthy smith, wh
