Shattered Sunlight (Book Five of the Storm Below) by JMD Reid

Author:JMD Reid [Reid, JMD]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dreaming Between Worlds, LLC
Published: 2019-09-21T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Hruvvoa 3rd, 399 VF (1960 SR)

Zori watched dully through the eyes of her body at the Vaarckthian child squirming on the pyre, her gray skirts bound about her legs. She was so small, fragile, tears shining on her ebony cheeks as she struggled against her bonds. Her mother was beside her, screaming for mercy for her daughter.

Xorale had no mercy. “Your child has been tainted by Theisseg.” Xorale spoke the Vaarckthian words with a pleasant, patient tone. “You have been soiled. Now the fires will cleanse you. Isn’t that wonderful?”

“Please! Please!” The woman writhed in her bonds, struggling to break free of the thick log she was bound to. “Mercy.”

“But this is mercy,” Xorale said, Theisseg’s song echoing through the small lumberjack town in the heart of Nraezhn.

Zori had lost count of how many of these towns she’d visited with Theisseg the last four days. A never-ending tour of the skyland. They traveled to every croft, hamlet, village, and town, finding those that were “tainted” and seeing them cleansed.

Every time, Zori had to hear the begging, a prisoner to Theisseg’s will. There was nothing she could do. She was trapped. Her chains were beyond anything her strength could break. She had tried and failed.

All she could do was try not to see. To hear.

But it was so hard.

Theisseg’s song swelled, supposedly worship to Riasruo, but it was gloating. Zori could hear the subtle cues that she’d missed months back. The mocking nature of the Golden Daughter was evident as She perverted everything wonderful about the Sun. Stole the warmth that gave life and forced it to give death.

Xorale threw the torch.

It sputtered through the air, the pitch sizzling at the end of the stave. Then it landed on the kindling. Flames spread, slowly at first, the orange tongues leaping and crackling as they attacked the small twigs at the feet of the child.

Little toes twitched, feeling the heat. Her wails grew louder. Xorale stared at the little girl’s face, smiling with love, forcing Zori to witness the pain as the flames ate higher and higher.

Zori saw every child’s face she murdered in the little girl’s eyes. How many did I execute while deluded? I was just a dumb tuna flying in her school, never realizing it was a shark at the front leading us into the frenzy.

She heard all her victims’ screams echoing through her mind as she watched another child die for Theisseg’s amusement. Helpless. Weak. Powerless.

It was her life. Decades and decades forced to watch Theisseg commit Her atrocities in Riasruo’s name.

*

Castle of Romeich – Hruvvoa 8th, 399 VF (1960 SR)

“Is that how you hold your rusting pikes?” Ary demanded to one of the soldiers he was training, his voice booming. “With that limp grip? This isn’t your mother’s hand you’re holding, but a weapon to kill. You need to grip it tight to control your weapon. Do you understand me?”

“Sir, yes, sir,” the recruit bellowed back, armor clinking as he trembled.

“And you,” Ary said, his head snapping to a woman, her yellow eyes widening, her face paling to the color of snow.

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.