Chaos Unleashed by Drew Karpyshyn Read Free Book Online Page A

than I thought.
    “We lack the numbers to effectively keep Callastan under siege as it is,” she reminded him. “If I draw even a handful of Inquisitors away, their spies might learn of it and the Enforcers might decide we are vulnerable to a counterattack.”
    “Surely you aren’t planning to face Carthin alone!” Xadier protested.
    “Send word to those Inquisitors still out in the field,” Yasmin told him. “The ones out searching for Jerrod and his followers. Tell them to meet me at the aerie near Norem.”
    “There are already rumors that some of the mercenaries who have joined our cause are using the Purge as an excuse to terrorize innocent villages and farms,” Xadier cautioned. “Especially along the borderlands of the Frozen East.
    “The presence of the Inquisitors in that region might be all that is keeping those soldiers from rampaging completely out of control. If we recall them—”
    “I do not enjoy leaving devout followers of the True Gods at the mercy of murdering swine,” Yasmin interrupted, her voice cold and hard. “But the Crown is in Callastan! Cassandra already used it once; the Legacy barely survived.
    “What if she uses it again?” she demanded. “If the Legacy falls, the Slayer will return. And his legions will unleash death and destruction a hundred times worse than the damage wrought by a few roving bands of corrupt soldiers.”
    “Of course, Pontiff,” Xadier said, bowing low and clasping his hands in front of his chest by way of apology. “You are right. As always.”
    “Send a falcon to Lord Carthin to tell him I am coming,” Yasmin commanded. “He has much to explain, but after all he has done for us it is only fair we give him time to prepare his defense.”
    —
    Orath focused his energies inward, calling on the night to wrap itself around him like a black cloak, shielding him from the awareness of the Pontiff and her kin. But even with their sight obscured, he was careful to give the army encamped on the plains outside Callastan a wide berth as he crept toward the city walls. The Chaos storm unleashed by the Crown had restored much of his fading power, but not enough to take on an entire army of Inquisitors by himself.
    In the aftermath of the storm he’d felt revitalized, his reserves of Chaos replenished enough that he had fled the battle between the Danaan and the Eastern Barbarians on a chariot of wind. But a few hours into his flight he’d felt the toll the spell was taking, so he’d abandoned it and continued his journey on foot.
    He didn’t know which side had won the battle at the Giant’s Maw; he didn’t know how many warriors on both sides fell to the ogre’s fury once it broke free of his control. None of that mattered to him now that he’d felt the Crown calling to him.
    Fighting the urge to use his magic to race to Callastan had been difficult, but he knew it was the wise choice. If the Crawling Twins had succeeded in their mission to claim the Crown, they would have brought the Talisman to him by now. At the very least they would have used their power to make contact with their leader. But too many days had passed in silence, and he knew that they had failed. The Chaos storm unleashed by the Crown—a storm so powerful Orath had felt it hundreds of miles away—had destroyed them.
    Raven failed, too,
Orath recalled. Like the Crawling Twins, she had been hunting the young woman carrying the Crown. Now she, too, was gone.
    Daemron’s ritual had sent seven of them through the Legacy. He had chosen them to be his Minions in the mortal world because they were the strongest, the smartest, the most cunning and most ruthless of his followers. But for all their power, only the leader of the seven was still alive.
    These are not ordinary mortals we face,
Orath reminded himself, his batlike features twisting into a scowl.
These are the Children of Fire. Daemron’s essence flows through them. They have been touched by a God.
    He reached the city walls