The Sin War Box Set: Birthright, Scales of the Serpent, and The Veiled Prophet by Richard A. Knaak Read Free Book Online

the moment of the first grisly discovery and when the Cathedral’s missionary had been slain. The fiend would have had to almost fly from one to the other the moment that he had the farmer’s knife. Uldyssian ruled out Achilios as the possible madman; the hunter was not only too good of a man, he was a true friend…and he had also been with Mendeln during the entire incident.
    Then…who?
    Footsteps echoed down the corridor, but footsteps much lighter, more delicate, than the tramping boots of Tiberius and his men. Uldyssian looked up…and beheld Lylia nearing.
    “I had to see you,” she murmured, her smile hesitant. Clearly she feared that he would be angry about her disobedience.
    But at this point, Uldyssian could not reprimand her. She had waited a long time. He was even grateful that the noblewoman had not simply fled Seram, abandoning him to his fate.
    Still, he started his greeting by saying, “You shouldn’t be here.”
    “I couldn’t stay in my room any longer. This is wrong! It’s happening all over again!”
    “What do you mean?”
    She pressed herself against the bar. Uldyssian put down the bowl and went to her. He had a great urge to crush her in his arms in order to comfort her. He felt as if she were the one in danger, not him.
    “You were kind to a stranger,” she whispered, her hand reaching through the bars to touch his. “A stranger with nowhere to go. Do you know why?” Lylia looked down. “Because of the game between the Cathedral and the Temple!”
    “The what?”
    Her eyes shifted up to his, their beauty seizing his gaze. He wanted to drown himself in those eyes. “The game . This is all a game to them, with the winner being the one who survives. They will let nothing and no one stand in their way and one thing that both despise is a heretic.”
    Uldyssian did not like where the conversation seemed to be heading. “What…what do you mean, Lylia?”
    She glanced back toward the door leading to the cells, then, maintaining her whisper, replied, “This has happened before. With my family. We had influence and wealth, both of which the two sought for their own. But we rejected them publicly…and then our world turned upside down! There was violence, the burning of a minor temple, with many of the faithful injured terribly. The fire spread to other buildings nearby. Afterward, it was somehow found that the tragedy had been of human making and that my family had some tie to it.”
    He gaped.
    “All lies!” she quickly added, clearly taking his shock for belief in her family’s guilt. However, Uldyssian by no stretch of the imagination suspected Lylia of such horror…and, by extension, her loved ones, either.
    “I believe you,” he quickly told her. “I believe you. Go on.”
    “While we had rejected them, there were others, far more powerful, who had embraced one or the other sect. Accused without true proof, my family was nevertheless stripped of everything . My father and mother were dragged off, never to be seen again! My brother was sent to the dungeons and my sister forced to wed one of the Cathedral’s most prominent supporters! A similar fate was intended for me, but I took what money I could get and fled from the city…”
    “And that’s how you ended up in Seram?”
    “Not at first…and certainly not in the company of those serving the very evil I sought to escape!” She bit her lip. “I’ve told you so much…now I suddenly fear that you might think that I might be responsible for what happened to the two!”
    Uldyssian immediately shook his head. “That’s hardly possible! This was done by someone much stronger and certainly more monstrous than you could ever be! It makes more sense that they would suspect me!” But something dark occurred to him. “Tell no one else this, though! They might think that I did it on your behest!”
    She put a hand to her mouth at this realization. “I did not think—”
    “Never mind. It’d be best if you leave and