The Obsidian Temple by Kelley Grant

Author:Kelley Grant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

SEVERIN PACED THE salesroom.

“The mood is getting uglier out there,” he told Kadar, who nodded and continued laying out the silks for the sales event in two days. “And the Voices are doing nothing. No negotiation, no word of concessions, nothing.”

“They’re attempting to wait the Forsaken out,” Nabil said. “It’s good tactics, and with the towns­people still helping out at the Temple, they aren’t desperate yet. We just need to hold tight.”

“We haven’t been able to get any more families out,” Severin told them. “No passes are being given to Forsaken, and every caravan is being searched. We’ve had a ­couple of families seized as they were trying to escape. One knows where they’ve been taken to now.” He caught Kadar’s glance and lifted his hands defensively. “I know, you warned us to get everyone unnecessary out before we started. But this was the right time.” He paused and ran a hand through his hair. “Voras has soldiers along the perimeter of the town. They’ve threatened to kill any Forsaken who try to escape without a pass.”

“How are the supplies holding out?” Nabil asked.

Severin nodded. “Good. We could last several months if needed. My group of Forsaken have been able to put pressure on the ones guarding the supplies to keep them honest. They know if they try to betray us, we’ll be waiting for them instead of jail.”

Nabil and Kadar exchanged glances behind Severin’s back. Kadar supposed there needed to be someone ruthless in charge of the resistance. But Kadar wondered how different they were than Voras’s men if they had to threaten and injure Forsaken to get what they wanted. He shook his head. Farrah would say “the needs of many trump the needs of few.”

“There have been attacks on Forsaken going to work for merchants,” Nabil offered. “Not up here, this close to the Temple, but down closer to the shanties. Several Forsaken who used to be maids and cleaners for the higher class were shaken up, with some broken bones. They said it was by first-­circle teens who were angry they’d work for lowly merchants and not come back to the upper-­class families.”

“I thought your guards were protecting against that sort of thing,” Kadar said.

Severin turned back to them and shook his head. “I tried to get them to. The first ­couple of weeks they were willing to stop ­people coming into shanties. But now my brother says they are spread too thin to protect the Forsaken. The Templar has been sending soldiers to patrol the streets around the district, and they outrank my guards. Unfortunately, some Forsaken youths decided to throw bottles and other debris at the soldiers from cover. I put an end to it—­we agreed to stop the skirmishes until the walkout is over. But now many of the soldiers are furious, and that could work against us.”

Kadar looked down at the silks he was folding. It was Severin’s fault the Forsaken thought it was okay to engage the soldiers. He’d had

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.