The City of Sun and Stars: A War of the Twelve Prequel (Mothers of Sorrow Book 2) by Alex Robins

Author:Alex Robins [Robins, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bradypus Publishing
Published: 2025-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

NEVER DIVE TOO DEEP

“The scrolls retrieved from the Depths revealed just how much was lost to us. Sketches and paintings of animals that defied imagination. There were cats as large as horses. Fish the size of boats. And other things. Terrifying, ferocious, nightmarish things. Things best forgotten.”

Matellas Thane, Former Keeper of the Peace

Brachyura had known cold in his life. Krabbon, the Insect King, had sent his little hive of workers out onto the streets of Keselgraad all day every day, through snow and ice and sleet and rain. All the orphans had suffered from chilblains and runny noses. There had been no alternative. To refuse his slurred commands was to incur even harsher punishments: beatings, lashings, or a night spent in the yard, barefoot and shivering.

So, Brachyura knew the cold. Or, at least, he thought he did. Until the waters of Sonnerstern lake closed over his head, and he realised just how wrong he had been. A glacial chill rose out of the darkness to embrace him, wrapping itself around his sinking body and holding him tight. His skin felt like it was encased in a cocoon of pure ice, leaching whatever heat remained to burrow even deeper, through muscle and bone to reach his heart.

He could no longer sense his fingers and toes, only a mind-numbing rawness that threatened to overwhelm his sanity. The prickling along his exposed arms became more insistent, a biting, clawing assault. Canines piercing flesh.

Move. The word struggled to escape the frosty haze of his mind. He kicked his legs and thrust his hands out in front of him, forcing blood along his freezing veins.

Move. Yes. But where? The tinny, muffled sound of the crowd had faded away to nothing, and all around him was pitch black. Yet, Halbeck had done this, had he not? Unless the old man had been lying. What better way to remove a prickly thorn from his side than to invent some ludicrous story with a tantalising prize? And Brachyura had fallen for it. Just like Pearlton’s apple. Why did he always have to be so stupid?

A tiny bubble of air escaped his lips. His lungs were bigger than most, but even a large man like himself could stay underwater for only three or four minutes. He had to decide just how much he trusted the Lord of the Tower. The man had never shown any kindness towards Brachyura but neither had he stopped him from seeing Lyra nor lied to him. Quite the opposite, in fact; he had always been particularly brazen about speaking the truth. And the fear in his eye had been real.

Brachyura twisted his head left and right in an attempt to get a better view of his surroundings. There was something different at the very edge of his vision, back towards the city. A flickering light. Its colour triggered a host of painful memories. Strapped to a chair, unable to move, his sockets pulled open by cold metal. Tears streaming down his face, syphoned by tubes to fill a glittering crystal.

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