The Bone Flute by Daniel Allison

Author:Daniel Allison [Allison, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: House of Legends
Published: 2019-11-16T22:00:00+00:00

Sariad had sat silent for some time. It was clear she was wrestling with a decision. Talorc and Runa waited.

‘He talked about it. So many years. Didn’t believe he would do it,’ she said.

‘Do what?’ said Runa.

‘Start a war. The last war, in which the katra – they call themselves katra – take Orka back from the dries. He would sit in his tent with the other divers. They would talk about it. Take the islands back… kill most of the dries… keep some. Every katra dreams of having a dry slave. Keep some of us alive… breed us so they would have dry slaves forever. Punish the slaves for everything the dries ever did to them.’

‘Were there other slaves?’ said Talorc.

‘Yes. Weren’t allowed to talk to each other. I wasn’t allowed to talk at all, except when he told me to.’

‘You were Mordak’s slave?’ said Runa.

‘Yes. He had another slave before he found me. Gave her to another diver. Didn’t need her anymore once he had me… but I saw her sometimes. We spoke a few times, even though it wasn’t allowed. She said the other wasn’t as bad as Mordak. Didn’t beat her as much.’

‘He wanted you as a slave because you were a spey,’ said Runa.

‘And a diver,’ said Sariad. ‘I don’t know why, and he didn’t either. But I could do fin magic. I could send out my spirit. He didn’t understand how I… he didn’t like it.’

Talorc shivered as he eyed the scars on Sariad's arms and face. He couldn’t imagine how anyone could go through all that and come out sane. Though, he thought as he watched her play with Dort’s skull, maybe she hadn’t.

‘Skelda said you could hear Mordak’s thoughts,’ said Runa.

Sariad nodded. ‘He hated that I could hear them, but he liked it too. He used me to get stronger. He would come at me with his whip… think where he was going to strike… I could read his mind and get out the way. But he sent fake thoughts with real ones. Sometimes covered his thoughts. It was a game to him. Made him stronger, which he liked, but made me stronger too. I learnt to plant thoughts in his mind, to change what he saw.’ She smiled. ‘I could appear like one of his friends to him, he would tell me things he would never tell otherwise.’

‘And it worked?’ asked Talorc.

‘Not often. It would have worked on other fins; it’s easy to create illusions in minds with no magic. Divers are different. We hear whispers of the spell being spoken in our minds. He would ask me to try… when he saw through me, it made him laugh. But then his mood would change. He would ask me again how I dared have the magic of the katra. I couldn’t answer. He beat me.’

‘But he never found out why you could dive,’ said Runa. Sariad shook her head.

‘Did he ever speak to you about the Azawan?’ Runa asked.

‘He loved to talk about the Azawan.

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.