BooksBarbecue
Back Limits of Power
Chapters (59)
  1. Cover
  2. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  3. BY ELIZABETH MOON
  4. Dedication
  5. Dramatis Personae
  6. Map
  7. CHAPTER ONE
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  24. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  25. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  54. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  55. extras
  56. about the author
  57. if you enjoyedLIMITS OF POWER
  58. CHAPTER 1
  59. CHAPTER 2

Or what about elves or their dread cousins the iynisin? Iynisin had killed the elven queen … but no one in Tsaia had reported anything like that. He lay in the dark, imagining what it might be like to be an elf, master of strange magicks, able to shape growing things … or an iynisin, able to kill with a spell. Or a magelord … able to make light.

He put up his hand, staring at it in the faint light from his window. What would it look like if he could make light with it? Would there be a flame flickering from his fingertip? Or would it look like a hand held before a flame, with that red glow through the skin? Or would there be light around it, like the pictures of paladins? Or more heat than light, like the dragon? Would there be a smell, a forge smell?

He fell asleep wondering about all that and woke sometime later, wide awake, as if startled, but he heard no noise. He felt too warm and threw off his covers.

Only then did he notice the dull glow, like a dying coal, moving in the dark not far from him. He gasped, rolled over to the opposite side of his bed, clutching the covers as he did, and stared where it had been. Nothing. He licked dry lips and stared around the room. What? Where? Slowly, he let the covers drop and backed toward his door. His heel hit the rack where his sword and practice armor hung; he reached for the armor, and a blur of dim red caught his gaze.

He stared. When he moved his hand, the glow moved. He relaxed suddenly. He knew what it had to be. Some fungi glowed in the dark. He had touched those mushrooms, and though he’d washed since, he knew he’d done so hurriedly. He brought his hand nearer his face to smell his fingers. His one finger. It glowed from the knuckle to the tip … surely he hadn’t rubbed his finger on the mushroom that far down.

As he looked, the glow strengthened. Now it lit the rest of his hand. Fear returned; he felt an icy chill down his back … though his hand, as he brought it closer yet, warmed his face.

Was this what had happened to Beclan? Did it mean some dire threat was near him? An evil mage? An iynisin? Was someone fooling him, making him think he might have mage powers when he didn’t?