Read Online These Shadows Remain by B W Powe - Free Book Online Page A

felt pride and confidence over his actions on the field, he knew the war wasn’t over.

    *
    â€œWe were thrown backwards,” the black knight said to the cloud.
    â€œHe knows things,” Batman said.
    â€œHe has a new power,” Superman said. 
    â€œHe knows too much,” the Phantom said. They spoke to the cloud through unseen fibres that telepathically leapt from their minds back to the encampment and to the screens. The cloud thrived on networks. He devoured the signals, and grew.
    On the screens the people, flattened in their emotions so that they couldn’t respond with any depth, nevertheless felt the vibrations of awful change.
    The cloud wondered again how the knight had managed to stay ahead of them.
    Had he read the books of black and white magic?
    How had he come to understand the power of ritual?
    The wizard knew that he would have to drive his swarms on with more demands for sacrifice. Give up more, he would tell them, and your rewards will be greater.

    *
    â€œWhat are you carrying?” Tomas asked Adina.
    She had approached cautiously. The children’s circle had been tight. But their voices had died down eventually. It was then that Cyrus had offered his thanks on behalf of the castle.
    Now all looked at her.
    From under her garment she produced a sword.
    They gasped because it wasn’t a sword like any other.
    It gleamed and wavered between states, half solid, half air.
    Tomas watched it warily. Still his emotions said, reach forward, touch the gift. He did so, and the sword sang, its high pulse like the wire-sounds familiar to anyone who had stood near a hydro-electric pole.
    â€œI made it for you last night while you slept. I couldn’t sleep and suddenly an image came to me from the movies and paintings I’d seen over the years. It was of a sword. I thought I saw it rise from water, and the pale hand holding it was mine.”
    So many dreams, Tomas thought. We were inhabited by dreams, and moved by them. We’d been wrong to think that images couldn’t move around and shift into new formations. We were wrong to think that the image realm was only something fantastic, what we forgot when we went about our daily affairs.
    He held the sword by its hilt. 
    â€œHow did you make this?”
    â€œIn the forge. You know, I’d been trained to design lasers. So long ago.” She looked back at the castle gate. Then she looked at Tomas. “And I was guided in my mind to make an outline for a sword, something that would be . . . ”
    â€œ. . . a frame.” Tomas completed her sentence. 
    â€œYes,” she said. “A frame for your feelings.” 
    â€œWhat are we becoming?” Gabrielle asked. 
    â€œSomething strange,” Santiago said.
    *
    The children shivered in the way they did in the forest clearing. The day was bright, and the terror had retreated, yet they felt lost, the fear surging again. Not even the castle was protection enough.
    Cyrus watched Adina closely, wondering if it was possible that a human could drift to the image side. After all, if Tomas could shift towards flesh, anything was possible.
    The children whimpered in their worry. All except for Gabrielle and Santiago, who gazed at the sword with admiration and wonder.
    â€œDon’t be afraid,” Santiago said to the other children.
    â€œIt’s been made to help us.”
    Gabrielle felt once more that steadying quality in her brother.
    â€œIf a human made this then it must be a key. It will open up a path back to the dreams,” Santiago said.
    Our inventions, Cyrus thought, are ahead of us. We make things and only learn of their consequences later. But time had been shortened because of the terror. Then it struck him: standing here in this circle with the children and with the knight and with these two wise children and with Adina, each of them were capable of learning and knowing more quickly.
    They were talking to one another