Pilgrim's Storm Brooding: A Sweeping Dark Fantasy Epic (Broken Stone Chronicle Book 3) by Damien Black

Author:Damien Black [Black, Damien]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-29T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

A City Baptised In Blood

Liquid fire. That was what Ushalayim appeared to be made of. No longer just a word in a tome, the mighty metropolis beckoned to Adelko with golden arms across sapphire waters as their ship pulled towards it. Ignoring the gaggle of excited pilgrims crowding the forecastle with him, the journeyman craned his neck so he could take in more of it. Set on the gently rising slopes of the Tauran Heights that overlooked the harbour bay, its more imposing buildings could be seen for miles around: dazzling minarets that stroked the heavens with graceful fingers, and gold-leafed domes beaming in the bright sun, their bejewelled turrets refracting its light in an explosion of colour. Older buildings there were, too: Thalamian obelisks of warm sandstone, marbled pinnacles of russet red built by the Assurians before them. The less pious called the city The Porcupine, and with good reason.

A rich jewel coveted by greedy men, that was what Horskram had called Ushalayim. And yet there was something undeniably holy about the place: Adelko's sixth sense registered a warm inner glow as the Pilgrim's Passage sailed towards it. The Redeemer had been born here, a few generations after the First Prophet had ascended to heaven from the summit of the city. Gazing upon the Shrine of the Ascension, the colonnaded temple from where Sha'abat had left the Known World in a coruscating shaft of light, Adelko felt a first shadow cross his elated spirits. Its resplendent rose-pink precinct had also been the scene of a massacre, when the First Crusaders had cut a bloody swathe through the entire city, wading knee deep in the bodies of the infidels.

The site was also a place they would call home for a time, for that was where the Knights Bethler had chosen to build their fortress headquarters. Adelko could make out the serried teeth of the preceptory's whitestone battlements, jealously clutching the temple its masters had reconsecrated in the Redeemer's name. A bloody benediction, if ever he'd heard of one.

'Adelko!' His mentor's familiar voice. 'Quit your blasted sightseeing, and come below and help us with our things. We'll be docking within the hour, for Reus' sake!'

Six weeks at sea had not improved Horskram's temper. It hadn't done Adelko's the world of good either. The hold had been crammed to the freeboard with reeking bodies once they'd taken on more pilgrims at Panya; he almost wished they had been arrested by the port watch after all, for surely a Mercadian gaol would have been more comfortable. A couple of passengers had died of food poisoning; another had been killed in a knife brawl below decks; the captain had keelhauled a sailor for disobeying orders. The food had gotten more miserable with every bite: Adelko hoped the Bethlers ate as well as they drank.

Pushing his way back through the crowd, he descended the stairway and wove through sailors and pilgrims on the main deck to where Horskram stood waiting at the hatch. At least he'd got his sea legs; the waves no longer held the same terror for him as they once had.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.