Land of the Beautiful Dead by R. Lee Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

moved to his throat, actually inside that terrible open scar to press somewhere unseen amid the muscle and bone. “Or here? Tell me, shall I stab or slash?”
    Lan pressed her lips together and said nothing.
    “Both have been tried, of course.” Azrael removed the knife from his throat and studied it with amused contempt. “By greater blades than this. I have been cleaved by swords with names as fine and lineages as noble as the men who wielded them. In every bygone age, I have met with heroes who have learned to their loss—” He touched the tip of the blade to his arm and drew it slowly downward. His flesh parted; black blood welled like beads of tar, too thick to fall. “—I do not die.”
    “I didn’t come here to kill you.”
    “Witness all the same.” He moved the knife back to his chest, glanced at her, then pushed it in as deep as it would go. “I’ve found it saves time.” He released the hilt, gestured to it. “Twist, if you desire.”
    She shook her head, her hands in fists.
    “So be it.” He pulled the knife out and tossed it into her plate. The blade was smeared black, but he did not bleed. “You cannot wound me. You might open every vein, but you will never bring my life gushing out. My flesh may tear, but it does not burn and does not decay. My bones do not break. The heart you seek to pierce—”
    “I do not.”
    “—beats in time with this world’s own ageless pulse. It feels no love, no remorse and no mercy, and it will never stop.”
    “I’m not here to kill you, damn it!”
    “No. Plainly, you have come on a diplomatic mission. One for which you are uniquely unqualified.”
    Lan flushed. “I just want to talk!”
    “You forget I am familiar with the way humans ‘talk’.” The word was a curse in his mouth, even if he smiled as he said it. “I have been a supplicant to Men. I endured without protest every indignity they inflicted as my ‘show of faith’. I allowed them to bare my body, to fondle it and indeed, to enter it. And when they satisfied themselves that I was utterly unarmed, these men of peace brought out their weapons and emptied them into me. I survived it, as I survive all things, and gave them better deaths than they deserved, I dare say. So this was done and so I went in to the audience I had earned, allowing those men, who had surely given the killing order to their slaves, every opportunity to treat with me honestly. I made my demands—You will note I do not say I asked,” he added with an arch sidelong glance. “With the bodies of their minions strewn about the tent still choked with the smoke from their weapons and dewed with my blood, they gave me every agreement even as they made plans to invade the prison they had not yet set me in and butcher the children they had not yet given me. This is how the living ‘talk’…with smiles and lies.”
    Lan shook her head and stared at the wall, clenching her jaws tight together to keep from spitting out something else she knew she’d only regret.
    “Have you nothing else to say?”
    “You’ve already decided not to listen.”
    “One wonders how you could have expected anything else.” He gazed around the empty room, then moved past her and headed for the door. When he opened it, the hall beyond was lined with guardsmen as deep as Lan could see. Azrael gestured toward them. “If your appetite returns in my absence, by all means, stay and eat your fill, child. When you are finished, my men will see you safely to the town of your choosing. I advise you to stay well clear of Norwood.” He turned to the first of his guards. “Food and water for her journey. If she has other requests, inform me.”
    “Wait!” She ran after him, but had to stop at the door, where two guards crossed their pikes before her.
    Azrael did stop, although he did not turn to look at her. “You are proving an unruly guest,” he warned. “Take care lest you become unwelcome.”
    “I’m not going anywhere until we talk!” Lan