[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
face emerged from his flesh.
Isranon was still screaming when he woke and bolted into a sitting position.
Anksha snapped awake, glancing around with her claws out. "What is it?"
Her nostrils flared as she sniffed the air, and then blinked.
The moist air would sharpen the odors, yet she found not.
Isranon swallowed. "Another nightmare, Anksha."
Her brow furrowed. "Of me?"
"Ahhh. No." He kissed her forehead. Anksha had never shown any sign that she
knew about his nightmares concerning the day that she had taken him as her
blood-
slave, broken his will, and shattered his sense of self, leaving him to
painfully pull himself back together again. Nor had he ever told her. "I love
you, Anksha."
* * * *
Isranon spent the next day, while Randilyn was decorating the area beside the
command tent beneath a large awning for the party, pouring through the books
and journals of the late mage-master, Josiah Abelard. The ghost of his friend
had bequeathed him all his journals and books just before Kalirion
Blood Harvest [Dark Brothers of the Light Book VII]
by Janrae Frank
107
released his soul to the wheel of life after Isranon expiated
Page 50
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Josiah's sins by taking on his mentor's unfinished service to the Sun-Lord.
The distinctive clacking of the wooden and ceramic beads in Amiri's long
braids alerted Isranon to her entrance. He raised his eyes and regarded the
Ymraude shaman as the vampire settled across from him at the table where he
had the books spread out.
"Randi is enjoying putting the party together," said Amiri.
Isranon smiled and then sobered. "Yes, she is."
Amiri leaned across the table and touched Isranon's hand as she studied his
face. Isranon tensed at the contact and she drew back. Too many unresolved
issues remained between them, yawning like a chasm that had suddenly opened
like a rip in the grounding of their friendship. "Is something bothering you?"
"A dream. A vision. I don't know what it was."
"Describe it to me."
When Isranon had finished, Amiri nodded. "Skerpyons. A
very dangerous type of demon. I thought they were extinct, but if you've had a
vision of them..."
"A lot of things that we thought were gone forever after the godwar aren't."
Isranon turned more pages of Josiah's monster book, searching the
illustrations for anything that resembled them.
"The females implant their eggs in the bodies of intelligent species. The
stronger the host body, the stronger the larva emerges and in the case of
mages, they frequently absorb the mage's powers."
Blood Harvest [Dark Brothers of the Light Book VII]
by Janrae Frank
108
Amiri extended her hands to Isranon for the book and went swiftly through the
pages. "Josiah was given the gift of knowledge by Kalirion." Her hand paused
on a page and she turned the book around for Isranon to see the picture. "Is
this it?"
Isranon felt chilled by the image. "Yes."
Beside the picture of the male and female Skerpyons was a diagram of how their
tails worked, both of the male and the female with a side cut. The caption,
written in Josiah's elegant script read:
The venom is comparable to that of the Lemyari, only stronger. One a scale of
one to ten, I would place theirs at seven, the Lemyari at level six, and the
legendary nekaryiane and sa'nekaryiane at nine.
"I felt the stinger enter my chest and the egg slide in."
Isranon shivered, his eyes haunted, one hand curling into a fist. "Then the
larva hatched and emerged from my flesh."
Amiri eyed him closely. "Let's pray that wasn't a vision of the future."
Isranon's voice thickened and he lowered his eyes, reaching for the still
place within himself that he called his castle. But the doors refused to open
and he remained visibly troubled. "Yes, let's. And ... if they do get me ...
promise you'll kill me before that thing can hatch."
She gripped his arm as a sign of her word. "I swear it."
Looking up with the tiniest sigh of relief, Isranon felt the first easing of
the tension that had lain between them for over a month. "I knew you'd
understand. I knew I could count on you for this."
Blood Harvest [Dark Brothers of the Light Book VII]
by Janrae Frank
109
"You can count on me for many things. I made a mistake with you and Anksha. I
regret it. I let the scientist in me get the better of my compassion. Randi
tried to intervene and I
punished her. I keep telling you how sorry I am."
"We all make mistakes, Amiri. This isn't going to be an easy war, or a short
Page 51
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
one. Stand by us. And ... and I forgive you." There, he had said it. It was
what Anksha had been pressing him to say for days. But it was forgiveness of
the mind and not yet of the heart. That would come with time.
* * * *
Stygean's small party mixed both the sa'necari and the nibari children so that
it would be a large one and hopefully produce some good will on both sides.
The nibari children's transitioning had not yet made them completely docile
with the sa'necari children, as it would once puberty set in, and they were a
bit rowdy. And the two sa'necari boys' status as slaves enhanced the nibari
perceptions of them as equals, rather than superiors; which was something the
adults would never have done.
A few presents were produced, but only a few, since most of the people did not
like Stygean. He seemed first hurt and then defiant when he saw how little
there was. Had he been in his old home with his parents, it would have been a
grand birthday, for he had been blooded. Perhaps they would even have provided
him with a nibari to rite in mortgiefan, to feel her death slide down his
throat while he rode her and shattered her soul. It burned in his stomach that
he had been given so little.
Blood Harvest [Dark Brothers of the Light Book VII]
by Janrae Frank
110
They will pay for giving me such a shoddy birthday
, Stygean thought angrily.
When all was done, Anksha allowed him to see his father.
Stygean immediately pressed himself into Liuthan's arms and wept. "They gave
me a belated birthday party."
Liuthan kissed Stygean's forehead. "Happy birthday, my son. I wish I had
something to give you."
"I wish we were home. I wish Mother were alive. I hate these people."
"I wish I had never gone up against Lord Dawnreturning,"
Liuthan said softly. "Then you would still have those things and this would
have been a splendid birthday."
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]