Of Echoes and Flames: An epic fantasy adventure (Shattered Empire Book 3) by P.C. Darkcliff

Author:P.C. Darkcliff [Darkcliff, P.C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2025-06-05T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY: ANOTHER OATH

An excited murmur rose from dozens of throats as the warrior nuns of Renekah crested a hill and saw an enormous fort crowning a rocky plateau about a mile ahead. The sun was nearly setting, and few of them had hoped they would reach their destination before nightfall.

Mother Nergan stood in the stirrups of her giant dun warhorse. “We are very close to the temple-fortress of Bek’Di, Daughters!” she boomed in her harsh, husky voice. Lanfareth was sure that even the nuns at the back of the long column could hear her. “We will ask the sisters to accompany us to the desert to teach the savages about our dear Goddess Aganope—and pierce every heart that does not open to the goddess. But first, we will take a… what? But first, we will take a two-day rest.”

Lanfareth exchanged a relieved look with Caya, who as usual rode beside Lanfareth’s black mare on her dappled gelding. A bright smile made Caya’s smooth, innocent face beam, and she looked beautiful despite the horrid tattoos and that awful topknot.

Lanfareth assumed there would not be enough cots in the temple-fortress for all of them, and that she as a novice would have to sleep on the floor. Nevertheless, anything was better than sleeping in snowy woods and fields. They had been on the road for twelve days and twelve nights, and the only time they had slept under a roof—a real roof, not the thin, canvas roof of a tent—was in a tiny temple-fortress in the tiny city of Krip, about halfway to Bek’Di.

Lanfareth looked forward to the two days of rest, though perhaps not as much as Caya. That poor girl was not used to horse riding, and she suffered from back pains, and the skin on her inner thighs was scraped raw. Lanfareth tried to heal her with her Might without the girl’s noticing, but the girl still ached.

Kenate, who always rode along with them on her white stallion, craned her neck to the temple-fortress. Then her large, dark eyes glided to the city walls of Bek’Di, which spread about two miles behind the fort. With a scowl, she grumbled, “I suppose the nuns won’t let me sleep in the temple-fortress. I’ll have to go on to Bek’Di and find an inn. Provided that the city gates are still open when I get there.”

Lanfareth smirked, for she doubted that Kenate would make it before nightfall. The woman had slept in a comfortable inn in Krip, but here, she would probably have to huddle in her coat in a field outside the city. The snow had slowly disappeared along their journey south, and the sun was strong, for they were less than a hundred miles from the Kalhan Desert, and yet the nights were frigid. However, Lanfareth would not mind if Kenate froze to death.

She still had not forgiven Kenate for abandoning her in Renekah and letting her deal with Yaztrac, Derrik Thon, and his friends on her own. Besides,

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