Path of Bones by Steven Montano

Author:Steven Montano [Montano, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 19441895
Publisher: Steven Montano
Published: 2014-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Thirty-Three

It had been a productive night, and Mazrek Chairos was pleased. The Kruje had been captured, Dane was all but broken, and Chairos had every confidence the thar’koon would soon be in his hands, which meant the Dream Witch was as good as caught.

Don’t get overconfident, he cautioned himself. Harrick was in a similar situation barely a week ago, and the Jlantrians are still scraping his remains off the bottom of the River Black.

Chairos marched through the upper floors of his sandstone mansion, an archaic and surreal palace he’d had reconstructed into a siege fortress. Iron shutters blocked every window, the doors were reinforced with dark iron, murder holes had been placed in the stone ceiling over each entrance and the place was stocked with enough food and weapons to support his small army of Phage mercenaries and Blood Knights for weeks, if necessary. The structure was round and organic in classical Galladorian fashion, and blood red tapestries and curtains hung from the walls.

The air was thick with the smell of burning meat and wine; Chairos kept his chefs busy feeding his soldiers and Phage guests. His boots clacked loudly as he rounded the stairs to the uppermost floor. Dane had finally stopped screaming, and the Voss’s latest attempt to call upon its J’ann-granted abilities had been quelled, which meant it would be some time before the giant would even be able to piss without experiencing intense pain. For the moment his stronghold was quiet.

He passed a window and glimpsed down at his sunlit garden, an expansive and lush solarium populated with hyacinth and roses. He’d always had a knack for gardening, and he sometimes retreated there when the rigors of running the Scarlet Lair and enforcing Mez’zah Chorg’s will became too much for him to bear. A few of his girls were in the garden now, drunkenly dancing half-naked in the pale light of the early morning. He’d send for them later – the sight of them made him stiffen, and he realized he hadn’t had one of his whores pleasure him in nearly a day, which was a lifetime by his standards.

A pair of Blood Knights stood vigil at the top of the stairs, their kan’aar drawn and held lengthwise before them. He moved past the statuesque guardians and walked to the rune-covered doors at the end of the long hall. The room on the other side was red.

The former Dawn Knight was a pitiful sight, scarred and bleeding and thin. They’d been beating and torturing him for hours, but so far as Chairos was concerned they were just getting started. Dane hung from chains in the ceiling and floor that stretched him out into a human X. Little of his skin was visible beneath the blood and bruises. Shelves on the wall held knives, chains, slivers of shaved wood and hammers. Bags of salt rested on the floor next to buckets of water. Drakanna soundlessly walked over to Chairos and helped remove his cloak, leaving him in his black tunic and loose trousers.

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