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Chapters (95)
  1. Cover
  2. Copyright
  3. Dedication
  4. Map
  5. Dramatis Personae
  6. Fifteen Years Ago
  7. Endas, 25th day of Wellmarch
  8. One
  9. Two
  10. Three
  11. Four
  12. Maladas, 26th day of Wellmarch
  13. Five
  14. Six
  15. Seven
  16. Eight
  17. Nine
  18. Ten
  19. Lumendas, 1st day of Radiance
  20. Eleven
  21. Twelve
  22. Thirteen
  23. Fourteen
  24. Astridas, 2nd day of Radiance
  25. Fifteen
  26. Sixteen
  27. Seventeen
  28. Eighteen
  29. Nineteen
  30. Jeradas, 3rd day of Radiance
  31. Twenty
  32. Twenty-One
  33. Twenty-Two
  34. Twenty-Three
  35. Twenty-Four
  36. Twenty-Five
  37. Endas, 4th day of Radiance
  38. Twenty-Six
  39. Twenty-Seven
  40. Twenty-Eight
  41. Twenty-Nine
  42. Thirty
  43. Thirty-One
  44. Maladas, 5th day of Radiance
  45. Thirty-Two
  46. Thirty-Three
  47. Thirty-Four
  48. Thirty-Five
  49. Tzadas, 6th day of Radiance
  50. Thirty-Six
  51. Thirty-Seven
  52. Thirty-Eight
  53. Thirty-Nine
  54. Forty
  55. Forty-One
  56. Forty-Two
  57. Forty-Three
  58. Lunandas, 7th day of Radiance
  59. Forty-Four
  60. Jeradas, 10th day of Radiance
  61. Forty-Five
  62. Forty-Six
  63. Forty-Seven
  64. Endas, 11th day of Radiance
  65. Forty-Eight
  66. Forty-Nine
  67. Fifty
  68. Fifty-One
  69. Fifty-Two
  70. Fifty-Three
  71. Fifty-Four
  72. Fifty-Five
  73. Maladas, 12th day of Radiance
  74. Fifty-Six
  75. Fifty-Seven
  76. Fifty-Eight
  77. Fifty-Nine
  78. Sixty
  79. Sixty-One
  80. Sixty-Two
  81. Tzadas, 13th day of Radiance
  82. Sixty-Three
  83. Sixty-Four
  84. Lunandas, 14th day of Radiance
  85. Sixty-Five
  86. Sixty-Six
  87. Lumendas, 15th day of Radiance
  88. Sixty-Seven
  89. Sixty-Eight
  90. Tzadas, 20th day of Radiance
  91. Sixty-Nine
  92. Acknowledgements
  93. Discover More
  94. Extras
  95. Meet the Author

“And I expected aid from Kreska,” he said as evenly as could be managed. “As for the victory, that belongs to Josiri and Calenne Trelan, not I.”

She scowled. “I’d soldiers ready to march. I was ordered to hold my ground.”

“Ordered? The Southshires are mine to govern. Its armies mine to command.”

“Not any longer. The Council has revoked your authority.”

Viktor’s blood ran cold, even in the heat of the fire.

He’d been wrong. The battle for the Southshires wasn’t over. It had merely changed form. “In whose favour? Yours?”

She gave a bitter laugh. “Who else? The archimandrite. He’s coming back. And I doubt any of us will much enjoy his arrival.”

Lunandas, 7th day of Radiance

Lunandas, 7th day of Radiance

Savour your time in the light, for darkness is jealousy unbound.

And like jealousy, it always returns.

from the sermons of Konor Belenzo

Forty-Four

Forty-Four

“Revekah.”

The breathy whisper echoed about her. The Dark knew her name. Revekah froze, her thoughts trapped in nightmare, but unable to awaken. The ground beneath her feet was hidden in rushing, swirling blackness. Yet she knew the precipice was there, just out of sight. Maybe one step. Maybe two. Maybe she was already falling.

“Revekah.”

Heart thundering, she spun around. “Who are you?”

Her foot pressed down on emptiness.

She fell. Fingers scrabbled vainly on a slick surface. Her second foot joined the first in emptiness. Unseen hands clutched at her calves and thighs – a hundred insistent fingers drawing her into the abyss.

She wanted to scream. She couldn’t. Her throat was parched as the dust of a Midsommer field. Instead, she redoubled her efforts, searching for a handhold in the world without substance.

“Lay down your burdens. Come home.”

Her hips slid across the precipice. With a silent scream, she fell.

Revekah jerked awake into the rising dawn with a scream ringing in her ears. Her scream.

She clambered to her feet. She made it as far as her knees before her stomach spasmed. She doubled over. Hot, sour bile rushed over her tongue and spattered against rock.

“Nice,” said Kurkas. “And here I was just getting used to the place.”

He sat propped against the cave mouth, his wan features dappled by grey dawn and tangled briar. His right leg lay bent beneath him; his bloodied left bar-straight in front. His words were scarcely more substantial than the voice from Revekah’s dream.

“Don’t make me regret saving your life,” she growled. “Bad dreams, that’s all.”

“Had a few myself. Most of ’em about a demoness sawing off my other arm, if you must know. Drives a man to drink.” His head fell back and his eyes closed.

Revekah wiped her mouth on a filthy sleeve. “I don’t want to talk about it.”