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    Lord of the Freeborn: Saga of the God-Touched Mage, #7
    Lord of the Freeborn: Saga of the God-Touched Mage, #7
    Lord of the Freeborn: Saga of the God-Touched Mage, #7
    Ebook93 pages5 hoursSaga of the God-Touched Mage

    Lord of the Freeborn: Saga of the God-Touched Mage, #7

    By Ron Collins

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    Torean treachery.

    A planewalker's fury.

    A city under siege.

    Garrick wants to bring purpose to his Freeborn mages so he can use them to protect the plane from the whims of the god-like planewalkers. After the city of Dorfort evicts the Freeborn, however, his first task is to find them a new home. The Freeborn are a flighty collection, though, filled with fiercely independent and opinionated members as well as those who are not above treachery to get their way. Unknown to Garrick, a renegade Koradictine mage who has her own ties to the planewalkers is making her last-gasp effort to remain in power. And this time Garrick himself is the target.

    When the Koradictine arrives in Dorfort she unleashes an evening of terror the city has never before seen.

    In Lord of the Freeborn, Garrick must fight for the survival of his order, fight for his friends, and fight to save himself. Does he have what it takes to survive a planewalker’s full fury? Can he save Adruin from annihilation? Will he live to face the truth of his full destiny?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSkyfox Publishing
    Release dateOct 25, 2016
    ISBN9781540140388
    Lord of the Freeborn: Saga of the God-Touched Mage, #7
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    Author

    Ron Collins

    Ron Collins's work has appeared in Asimov's, Analog, Nature, and several other magazines and anthologies. His writing has received a Writers of the Future prize and a CompuServe HOMer Award. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and has worked developing avionics systems, electronics, and information technology.

    Read more from Ron Collins

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      Book preview

      Lord of the Freeborn - Ron Collins

      Lord of the FreebornLord of the Freeborn

      The Saga of the God-Touched Mage includes:

      Glamour of the God-Touched

      Trail of the Torean

      Target of the Orders

      Gathering of the God-Touched

      Pawn of the Planewalker

      Changing of the Guard

      Lord of the Freeborn

      Lords of Existence

      Other Work by Ron Collins:

      Five Magics

      Picasso’s Cat and Other Stories

      See the PEBA on $25 a Day

      Chasing the Setting Sun

      Four Days in May

      Links to these and more of Ron's work

      Follow Ron at

      www.typosphere.com

      or his twitter feed: @roncollins13

      Subscribe to Ron's Ramblings (*)

      (*) We promise not to spam you with anything beyond information regarding Ron's work!

      Copyright Information

      Lord of the Freeborn

      Saga of the God-Touched Mage, Volume 7

      copyright 2015 Ron Collins

      All rights reserved.

      Cover Art by Rachel J. Carpenter

      copyright 2015 Ron Collins

      All rights reserved.

      Cover Images

      copyright Katalinks | Dreamstime.com - Dangerous Woman Witch With Fire Ball Photo

      copyright Katalinks | Dreamstime.com - Portrait Of Young Beautiful Woman - Fairy Photo

      copyright Algol | Dreamstime.com - Medieval Hilltop Castle Photo

      This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All incidents, dialog, and characters are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

      Skyfox Publishing

      http://www.skyfoxpublishing.com

      For Tim, Mike, Jackie, and Ken. And of course, for Lisa.

      Table of Contents

      ---

      Prologue

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Chapter 12

      Chapter 13

      Chapter 14

      Chapter 15

      Chapter 16

      Chapter 17

      Chapter 18

      Epilogue

      Appendix

      Acknowledgements

      About Ron Collins

      How You Can Help

      Prologue

      ---

      Darien shoved an undershirt into his travel roll. His sword lay across the foot of his bed, reflecting a silver gleam in the murky light of the day. The city mocked him, sprawling wide and free outside his window as if it were there for his taking. But he knew better.

      The people of Dorfort saw his failure.

      They pointed and whispered, and they laughed outright to his face. There could be nothing worse than being made a public fool, and he was now known far and wide as the man who had lost his order, the man who had lost his city.

      Acid burned in his stomach.

      He pushed a dagger into the sheath at his belt and drew a heavy hood over his head. Then he shouldered his pack.

      The sword was last.

      If he were any man at all, he would leave the blade here. It was a proud weapon, having been worn by his father, and his father’s father before that. Its blade was etched with runes describing his family. Its steel was forged in a magical fire that bore it protections. It deserved a better wielder, but his father was dead now, and Darien couldn’t bring himself to leave it. He slung the weapon over his shoulder and trudged down the silent hallway.

      Somewhere, in the distant recesses of the halls, the Torean Freeborn celebrated their new Lord Superior.

      The weight of the sword against his back gave further proof that he was no leader.

      Proof again, that he was no man.

      Chapter 1

      ---

      Garrick gazed out the window of Lord Ellesadil’s briefing chamber. It was early morning in Dorfort, and frost still covered the rooftops across the whole of the city. It looked like it was going to be a cold, gray day, and there was so much he had to do.

      He was here to apologize, here to begin a new relationship between the Freeborn mages and the city of Dorfort, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Darien, his friend, and the man he had thrown to the wolves the night before by taking his order out from under him.

      His order.

      That still felt strange.

      Garrick had never truly led anyone before, and despite the powers he so obviously bore, he had trouble understanding how anyone would want to be led by him. Certainly Darien wouldn’t. Not anymore. Not that Garrick could blame him.

      The chamber’s sense of isolation, and his memory of Darien combined to make Garrick intimately aware of the state of his life force—the magic, or curse, that Braxidane had planted within him. It was full and brimming over after his time in Existence, restless now, ready to take action. It had taken to responding in ways that were now unnerving and altogether too instinctive for his tastes. For instance, as he stood at the window now the energy inside him spread over the city on its own.

      He felt fires burning on street corners below—fires in pits where people huddled to warm themselves. He sensed a horse moving over a rutted path, smelled the odor of mud and manure frosted with the morning snow underneath the cover of wood smoke. He felt the vibration of the floor beneath his feet as it shook with the fall of the smithy’s hammer in the manor yard outside.

      These were sensations so small as to have been unimaginable before being steeped in the power of All Existence, but now he felt them all as if he

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