Darkbridge by Adam Corby & asotir

Author:Adam Corby & asotir [Corby, Adam & asotir]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B002C4JW60
Publisher: Eartherea Books
Published: 2009-06-03T07:00:00+00:00

IX

Freedom

BUT ALLISSáL HAD GONE down to a land not even the cunning of the Vapionil could discover.

Even as the tribes were bidding the final farewell to their dead, she emerged into the light outside the Citadel. Concealed in a voluminous hooded traveling-cloak, the former Empress of half the world stood in the shelter of a broken pillar on the steps of the Hall of Kings.

For the first time she saw the ruin of her city close at hand: and she, no less than Dornan Ural, felt the emptiness of the loss. A few dark clouds rolled across the milky greenish sky, and beneath them gerlins wheeled. She remembered when she had first come to this place, and the crowds had cheered her in the rituals. She had been a girl then, and this city had been her Paradise.

She leaned against the broken pillar. An ungainly cart went by in the square, pulled by broken beasts guided by dirty men in rags. The cart left a stench in its wake: it was full of corpses. For three weeks this had been going on, and was yet undone. One cart more; a few bodies more.

When she had awakened from her bad dream, Allissál called her maidens to her side. She kept them in silence, forbidding them food and drink. Two she sent down to discover what was happening, but they found the doors of the White Tower barred and sealed. By then it was too late, and the ghastly feast had reached its end. The maidens cried in fear and misery; Allissál, looking down from her dimchamber window upon the corpse-strewn earth, only trembled.

What he had done, not even the worst barbarian would have done. He was, then, capable of any act, no matter how vile, no matter how brutal, no matter who fell victim to it – and she had answered him when he had called her by a dead woman’s name, and she had tasted joy in his body. She looked beyond the corpses of those who had worshiped him and called him father, to the dark grove. But already the many barbarians were riding into the grounds. She and her maidens were trapped there, the prisoners of a madman.

From that waking, her only thought had been of thwarting him. She waited and planned, and her women learned much from the Vapionil and mercenaries set to watch them.

Now in the shelter of the broken pillar she looked away brightward and saw the long voyaging procession of tribes returning to the camp. It was the first hour of the longsleep, and she felt tired. She wondered if he could sleep, after all he had done. Then she heard a nervous whinny and recognized the call of Kis Halá. Silent as the shadow of God, she passed below, to the alleyway between The Hall of Kings and the tombs of her ancestors in great stone barges.

Emsha was attempting to soothe the frightened animal. Allissál quieted the mare with a caress.

‘Oh – majesty!’ Emsha said.

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