Temple of No God by H.M. Long

Author:H.M. Long [Long, H.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags:  
Publisher: Titan Books

NINETEEN

Dawn broke over the marshes. Behind us, I imagined I could see the distant smoke of the village, but it could just have been the morning mist. It curled off the surface of the water in an unseasonably cold breeze, sending the tufting heads of the marsh grasses and bull rushes swaying.

I rode double with Sillo, watching the mist condense on my skin and clothes, a deep shiver running through my bones. Serka was alive, but burned and exhausted, and in no condition to be ridden. She trailed at the back of the train, watched over by Silgi and her ministrations. Nui had come through without a scratch, though her ears were pinned back in concern as she trotted along the side of the road.

The legionaries had left off their pursuit after Imnir and Mrandr had slaughtered three sometime before sunrise. Still, we could not risk relaxing yet. We simply bound our wounds, fought back our exhaustion, and moved on.

It wasn’t only exhaustion I fought, but a profound unease. I’d already called out Mrandr’s foray into thievery. We’d discussed the matter as we rode and Mrandr had grudgingly shared his haul with the rest of the Vynder, which appeased them. But that moment when he unfolded from the night? The knife in his hand? That hung between us, unspoken and festering, and he refused to look at me.

As we rode, the world began to lose more of its color. Reeds and bushes faded from greens and yellows to listless gray and red. The wind was easterly, distantly scented with the sea, but the marsh lent no fragrance; no rot, no flowers, no life save the moths. The wind kept them down but I still saw them, fluttering close to the water, clinging to the trunks of occasional dead trees or stands of dry, raspy reeds.

“Where is this god Larun?” I muttered to Sillo as we rode, my back to his chest. “We see signs of him everywhere, but where is he?”

Sillo gave a laughing grunt. “You think I’d know? It’s your task to unravel the Laru. It’s mine to keep you from falling out of this saddle.”

I smiled and bumped my head back into his chest in rebuke.

Mid-afternoon, we came to a ridge near the end of the dead marsh. A line of reddish rock girded by gray reeds, it divided the land to either horizon, blocking off our view of anything further south. The road passed straight over it, indomitable as always. Mrandr and Ifling rode ahead, silhouetted against a sky of muted sunlight and thin, stretched cloud, like carded wool.

When they signaled the way was clear, we rode up to join them. Wetlands stretched before us, dead as far as the eye could see. My skin cooled and I leaned forward in the saddle, searching with no little desperation for any islands of life in the wasteland. There, to the east near the sea, green woke again; but everywhere else, the land was cursed. If we were right,

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.