The Shattered Sun by Rachel Dunne

Author:Rachel Dunne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-12-03T16:00:00+00:00

They went a long way before they made camp. Made their own twisting path through the trees, and even Vatri was quiet, even Edro. Scal drew wide circles around the group, checking the scouts, checking their trail, standing still in the starlight to listen for sounds of following.

They made camp, and they made a meal of hard bread and dry meat, and around a fire sheltered by the tight ring of their bodies, Edro was the first to speak. “They’ll still be nearby. We should hunt them down.”

“The preachers?” Deslan asked. Her voice as hard and as dry as the food. “Or the villagers?”

“The preachers, of course. If they’re so fresh in that fool’s mind, they can’t have passed through so long ago. And since they haven’t been to any of the villages we’ve been to, there are only a few places they could have gone. We should be able to find them easy enough, and keep them from poisoning any other villages. They’ll—”

“Pardon, masters,” a voice interrupted. One of the scouts, Scal saw when he turned. “Seems we have a follower.” She held a boy by the arm, a boy who looked sheepish and scared and determined.

The boy puffed out his chest and stepped forward, farther into the firelight. “The preachers were going on to Beston,” he said, the words wavering. The breath it took to say the words snuffed his confidence. “Can I . . . can I stay with you?”

Room was made around the fire, and the boy sat beside Deslan, who gently, calmly stroked his hair as he ate. She had a maternal streak, though she laughed whenever someone pointed it out, and said she could not stand children.

Edro, too, proved good with the boy, and they slowly worked the story from him.

Seven preachers had come to the village, and found the usual mistrust at first. But they found fear, too, and the Fallen had always known how to speak to fear. The village had listened. Listened to assertions of the Twins’ mercy, that one need only believe to be saved when their judgment came. Listened to the gentle assurance that, though the Twins had taken the sun, they would not allow the world to die. It was not what they wanted. Only those who did not pass their judgment need die. Listened to the tale of how King Cordano had been pulled down from his throne, not by the Fallen but by the citizens of Mercetta, a seething mob. (“That can’t be true,” Vatri whispered, but there was no certainty in her voice.) Listened, to their vision of the world made dark, of the world made fair. Listened and, for many, began to believe. Belief made in fear was no less strong.

But not all came to believe. After five days of preaching, still some held their faith to the Parents, held their hope that the sun would return, that all would be made as it had been.

And so the preachers had left. And life had gone on in the village.

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