A Dynasty of Monsters by David Annandale

Author:David Annandale
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2021-04-07T13:13:08+00:00

CHAPTER 15

Kavak and Jaras were silent for the entire journey back. Neither spoke until they reached the Colonnade, a day later. Jaras broke the quiet as the pillars came into view.

‘Where are they?’ he demanded. He had been watching for the train of refugees since they had left the ruins of Farwilde, and he had not seen them, or the force that was supposed to have been sent to meet them.

Kavak’s eyesight was better, and he saw the refugees from Farwilde first. ‘At the base of the west pillars. They are alive. All of them.’ But that doesn’t really make any difference to you, does it? ‘The Prosecutors must have been able to escort them. The two days they had to run seem to have brought them within range of help. What happens to them now is up to the munificence of Lord Tarvynde and the council, who didn’t want to greet them in the great square of the Colonnade.’ They would all be housed in the Beneath. He had no need to point that out. He suspected that most, if not all, of them would wind up in the lower reaches.

‘Take me to them,’ was all Jaras said.

Kavak angled down towards the clusters of villagers. ‘Well?’ he said as they drew closer. He was being foolish in trying to debate with Jaras any further, but he couldn’t help himself. ‘Do you see? They are safe.’

‘I see the frightened,’ said Jaras. ‘I see people who will never again sleep without nightmares.’

‘You will see what you will.’ The desire to debate, having surged, now vanished, leaving Kavak feeling exhausted. His undead body did not know fatigue the way his mortal form had. His spirit could, though. He wanted Jaras off his back. His brother was lost to him. It was time to fly away from a futile struggle.

‘Leave me there,’ said Jaras.

‘I can take you to the Above.’ Kavak went through the motions of the offer. There was no need for Jaras to make the longer journey to his home all the way from the bottom of the pillars.

‘Just put me down.’

Kavak did. He landed a hundred yards from the nearest of the villagers. They still cried out when they saw him, and shrank together, as if expecting to be killed now, at the Colonnade.

Most of my kin would devour you, if you came within reach. But we saved you, whether you believe that or not.

Jaras jumped to the ground. He ran forward, then slowed as he approached the villagers. Kavak took petty pleasure in seeing that they regarded Jaras with deep suspicion.

Jaras spread his hands and bowed his head in a show of humility. ‘I am as you are, a victim of these days,’ he said.

Are you going to believe him? Kavak wondered. Of course you are. You want to. He didn’t convince you to listen to him in Farwilde, but his heart wasn’t in it. Now he wants you to trust him, and you will. The stories of what he was saying in the Beneath, and how people were listening to him, had reached Kavak’s ears too.

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