The Way Into Darkness: Book Three of The Great Way by Harry Connolly Read Free Book Online Page B

apologize.”
    Great Way, he sounded almost kind again. It really was too bad. “Accepted. Let’s hurry.”  
    They continued across the broad, empty meadow, walking down the slope toward Ivy and Kinz’s little fire. Cazia wished the warden would talk again, because talking would be easier than thinking.  
    The god of the Indregai--one of them, at least--was real, and he wasn’t a demon. Cazia was beginning to understand that the world was more complicated than she’d thought. What’s more, Kelvijinian had come to this world the way so many other creatures had: through a portal.  
    What did that mean for her own gods? Fury, Song, Monument, Great Way...were they embodied concepts manifested out of the universe and given form and thought, as she’d been taught? Or were they refugees from some other place?  
    Cazia was spared any further exploration of that line of thought when she arrived at the campfire. “How did it go?” Kinz asked. “Did you make to send your message?”  
    Cazia shook her head. “No, but that’s not important.” Ivy handed her a piece of flatbread soaked with wine. The sour smell wasn’t as offensive as the first time she’d tried it. Monument sustain her, she was learning to like it. All four of them crouched beside the fire and she turned her attention to Belterzhimi. “What’s important is that as much as you don’t want to split your forces, you’re going to have to. Kinz and I will take the princess to her parents. You need to leave your troops here.”
    “It is a violation,” Belterzhimi said, shaking his head. “The treaty would be forfeit if any one people’s troops occupied the temple.”
    “Well, you’re going to have to do something, because the most important thing you can do is protect Kelvijinian...I mean, protect his avatar. If he receives The Blessing, we will all be lost.”

Chapter 4

    “You can’t do that!” Tejohn said. “There are children down there. Babes in arms!”  
    “And soldiers!” Tyr Twofin cried. “And priests studying magic in secret, and scheming tyrs, and the witch-queen of Peradain, Amlian Italga! There is no other way for me to be safe!” The old man took a deep breath and tried to control himself. “And, of course, no other way to ensure the safety of my people. When the time comes, my brother assures me that we can plug the hole in Twofin Lake. The waters will never return to their normal levels, but if there are more portals beneath the waves--and of course there are, there must be--the flood waters will drain out into other realms. Only then will it be safe for my people to claim the lowland farms that had rightfully been ours before the Bendertuks came.”  
    “ Farms flooded with salt water? And w hat if the grunts have already reached the mountains? What if you murder all those people only to find that your enemy has survived. No, my tyr, please do not do this. There is no honor in this. It is genocide.”  
    “Psh. There are no grunts in the upper wilds, not when there are so many lowlanders to feed on. Besides, the beasts have neither boots nor hooves; how would they move among the rocks?” The old tyr shook his bald head and frowned. His certitude was unshakeable. “No. This is the only way. That’s why I have already sent mining scholars out into the peaks. Even now, they tunnel toward the bottom of the lake.”
    Tejohn stared at him in astonishment. So, this was not a plan for the future? It was already happening? Tejohn half expected to hear the sudden rush of a newborn waterfall right at that moment.
    “No tyr has the kind of power at their command as I do,” Twofin said haughtily. “And as for those babes in arms you’re so worried about, they aren’t my --”  
    He never finished that sentence. Tejohn spun suddenly, snatching a spear from the nearest guard.  
    Tyr Twofin, to his credit, reacted swiftly, starting immediately toward the great hall. Unfortunately for him, that only made Tejohn’s attack