Dark Covenant: A Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy Harem (Dread Knight Book 3) by Sarah Hawke

Author:Sarah Hawke [Hawke, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jade Fantasy
Published: 2024-06-29T00:00:00+00:00

Interlude

Zaelya

Three years.

Zaelya realized that was how long it had been since she’d fought alongside White Mantle soldiers in a skirmish this size. Looking down at the faces of dead men and boys unlocked a trove of dark memories she had hoped would stay buried forever.

Their group would be moving further down the road soon, if only to get some distance between them and the lingering corruption from the Riven. Hopefully, the taint wouldn’t spread, since Duncan had gathered up all the turned soldiers and thrown them atop a blazing pyre. But one never knew for certain.

“I can’t believe they attacked the Coast,” the younger of the Mantle paladins, Argeth, breathed. “I can’t believe they found us…”

“Why not?” Zaelya asked.

“I…” the man trailed off, then shook his head. “I don’t know, it just didn’t seem possible.”

“Spotting a caravan traveling through the plains from a few thousand feet in the air isn’t difficult. And we already told you there are hundreds of demons in Canith Mir—and that the arcanists can easily summon more by sacrificing villagers.”

Argeth didn’t reply. He looked like he might be sick.

Zaelya choked back her reflexive disgust at the man’s naivety. She had felt the same way about Roderick when they’d first met, but he had eventually become one of her closest friends. But then, he had also proven himself in countless battles over the years, while this man—this boy, really—had probably never seen a Riven before tonight, let alone a demon.

“Go check on the Mother Confessor and make sure she’s all right,” Zaelya told him. “We need to move soon.”

The paladin was under no compulsion to listen to her, but he did anyway. It must have been something in her voice.

She turned her eyes to the dead Bloodletter, wondering if she’d known him. Before the Invocation, the Tahlem’Val druids had reverted to their natural form when they perished, but Balophoren rarely gave his servants freedom, even in death. To him, this druid was a dead beast like any other.

But that was a lie. This druid had been a person once, a man who had willingly traded his future so that everyone else would have one. And no matter what Balphoren had turned him into, no matter what the Covenant had done to him, Zaelya would honor that sacrifice.

“Quel esta, toror,” she breathed, her fingers idly twisting the small silver leaf dangling from her belly. “You will not be forgotten.”

She had little use for sentiment most of the time, but just like how Roderick refused to accept that the past could never be restored, she refused to believe that the men and women who had given so much to win the war could be erased from history. If she was destined to be the only Bloodletter who survived, then it was her duty to remember the names of those who hadn’t. And one day, when this was finally over, she would make certain those names were recorded somewhere.

And known everywhere.

“It’s time to go,” Duncan said. She’d heard him approaching long before he’d reached her side.

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