The King of the Vile by David Dalglish Read Free Book Online Page B

done,” Qurrah said. “If we march into Mordan, we do so to overthrow the growing tyranny of the angels, not wage war against my brother and the boy king.”
    “A distinction few will make.”
    Qurrah sat up, the blanket falling down about his waist.
    “Is that what’s bothering you?” he asked. “Are you afraid this will somehow come between me and Harruq?”
    “No,” she said. “What bothers me is the impending disaster Mother wished me to prevent.”
    “What disaster?” he asked, wishing he could glimpse the visions Celestia haunted her with. “What happens that is so terrible?”
    “I see it no longer,” Tess said, and she sounded so sad, so defeated. “I only know my chance to stop it is passed. We must suffer through the bloodshed until its end, Qurrah. Suffer through, and bury the dead.”
    Qurrah took her hand and gently pulled her toward him.
    “Come to bed,” he said. “And try not to worry.”
    His wife finally turned his way. Tears were in her black eyes despite the smile on her face.
    “Without worry, I’m only sadness,” she said.
    “You’re more than that and you know it.”
    She leaned in to kiss his lips.
    “If you insist, I’ll believe,” she said, then lay down beside him to sleep.

    Qurrah kept to himself the next morning as he ate his breakfast. He needed time to think, for Tessanna’s words were a warning he needed to accept. If he marched at the side of King Bram Henley and his soldiers, and Harruq joined Mordan’s troops to fight back, then to many people it’d seem like the second Gods’ War never ended. But it had ended. In their own ways, both Harruq and Qurrah now followed Ashhur’s teachings. They were no longer enemies, nor the brother gods’ avatars to battle each other in their place, and Qurrah would do everything he could to keep it that way.
    But the specter of the angels hovered over everything, tainting so much of what Ashhur had preached. Something had to be done, Qurrah felt it in his bones. Dezrel’s freedom was teetering on a knife, and it put a bitter taste in his mouth realizing how similar that’d be to the world Karak desired to create.
    “I’ll be back in a bit,” Qurrah told Tess as he put aside his plate half-finished.
    “You won’t get yourself in trouble, will you?” she asked. Her worry sounded genuine, a bit of the childlike persona Tessanna had steadily moved away from. Other than during the conflict with the angels, when her madness nearly tore her apart, it seemed the various pieces of his wife’s mind were unevenly knitting back together again. She might never be anyone’s definition of ‘normal’, but Qurrah prayed she never reverted into the beautiful, wounded, dangerous creature she’d been when he first met her.
    “No trouble,” Qurrah promised. “Just talk.”
    “Talk tends to cause the most trouble.”
    Qurrah chuckled.
    “Not this time.”
    Tessanna nodded, then suddenly rose to her feet.
    “I’ll be bathing in the river,” she said, tossing aside the blanket.
    Qurrah lifted an eyebrow.
    “Isn’t it a little cold for that?” he asked.
    His wife snickered.
    “Then you’ll need to hurry back to warm me up, won’t you, Qurrah?”
    She stripped off her dress, tossed it atop her blankets, and walked naked toward the riverbank. Qurrah stared, momentarily debated warming her up prior to her dip in the water, then shook his head. Keep focused, he told himself even as he stared at her pale skin and the curve of her sides. She wants you to stay, and she’s far too evil and clever to just ask.
    Adjusting his breeches, Qurrah marched into the center of King Bram’s gathered soldiers. They numbered seven thousand at least, not counting the many traders, craftsmen, and camp followers that mingled all along the exterior. The tents spread out across either side of the road that lead up to the Bloodbrick, with soldiers blocking off the bridge entrance so they might first scan anyone coming in or out of the country.