Revelation (Rai Kirah) by Carol Berg

Author:Carol Berg [Berg, Carol]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Roc
Published: 2009-02-05T06:00:00+00:00

I could not bear to open my eyes. My head felt like a cracked melon. My gut like fire. My hands trembled unceasingly. When would they come? When would they begin again? I rolled over onto my knees and rested my throbbing head on the formless darkness of the floor, fighting to muster some shred of strength. I would not tell them my name. I would not yield my soul. I would not scream. I would not. I refused to feed a demon’s hunger until there was nothing left of me to care.

“Here, come on.” Hands reached under my shoulders and dragged me up. “And quietly about it.”

I pulled away, wobbling, flailing with impotent fists. “I won’t. I won’t,” I said, mumbling through lips numb with cold and swelling. “You can starve.”

The hands gripped my wrists. “Come, now, hold on. I’m sorry I knocked you about, but I had to silence you. Here . . . lean on me . . .” The whispering man draped my arm across his broad back. “You need to learn how things work in Kir’Vagonoth. Never go about anything directly, and never, ever, let anyone know who your friends are. Now, hush you, lad. We’d rather not allow these devils to know I’ve come for you.”

Through the fog of my fear the voice took hold. “Merryt?”

“Would you please keep your voice down? Since when are Ezzarians so dastard free with names?”

He dragged me stumbling through the cold darkness, through another sickening whirlwind, and into a long dim passage. The only light came from the walls themselves, built of pale gray stone or ice. After threading our way through a maze of such grim passages, we came to a small room, piled from floor to ceiling with clothing, dishes, boxes of candles, balls of yarn and rolls of leather, bars of metal and sticks of wood, and all manner of other things. A half-open wooden chest held hammers and chisels of various sizes, and the walls were hung with loops of rope, lengths of chain, and bundles of leather thongs. “This is a useful hideaway. Can’t keep anything safe in my quarters in the castle. They haven’t found this place yet, and I don’t intend they should. The devils imitate everything that’s been seen in our world, but don’t know the proper use of half the things they shape.” A small desk was littered with pens and ink and papers half written or crumpled. “Some of them shape themselves bodies, too, as if wearing flesh will make them human.”

As I stood hunched and shivering beside the door, Merryt threw open a flat-sided brass trunk, yanked out a small leather pouch, and stuffed it in the folds of his cloak. “I need to teach someone how to speak respectfully,” he said, once the trunk was closed and locked again. He stood up and raked me with his dark eyes. “Damn, you are a wretched mess.”

The Ezzarian disappeared into one corner. He came back with a silver pitcher and filled a crystal goblet, which he gave to me.

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