Like many who lived by the South sea that drew up against the edge of the Kingdom of Galeharbor, he was a sailor foremost, more at home in the sunshine on the tilting deck of a ship than he was climbing the cool, stony mountains of Umrym. Odrigh was a thin man, his slight stature belied by the corded muscles that rippled along his forearms. Wait, sir, if you would, came the Witness’s voice from behind him as he scrabbled up the well-worn dirt track. The kind of hero who didn’t so often preside over scenes of death. Wes had been making the journey to the only overground city in Umrym once a season for as long as he could remember, but it never lost its magic.įor a moment, just a breath or two, standing there at the edge of divine things, the slightly pudgy boy of seventeen felt himself the hero that an Envoy was supposed to be. They would reach him soon, their ascent up the mountain burdened by the vast amount of wealth they carried in gold and jewel, but it was enough. He needed to look upon it alone, even if only for a moment. He should have been waiting for his two companions-a Witness by the name of Odrigh, this time from Galeharbor, and his own Deermaster-but he had gone on ahead. Wes Cervos looked toward it, across the city of Whitespire, as he crested the craggy gray ridge. The spire stood at the center of the world, watching everything, presiding over the birth of babies and the death of old men.

Magnify by Stefanie Lozinski