Abook slammed down on the table in front of me, startling me awake. I sat up and blinked rapidly at my scowling father.
“I have already made my amends with those affected,” I grumbled and stretched before folding my arms across the council garbs I was still wearing. The buttons and tassels twisted over one another as I tapped my foot. He had forced me to sit at council meetings for days, and if I weren’t there, I was here, studying until sleep took me. I knew most frowned upon setting a god’s temple aflame, but it had truly been a mistake. Apparently, it was embarrassing for him, and as a result, it earned me a week’s worth of punishment.
My father nodded but folded his arms and continued to glare at me. “Read. Aloud.”
I frowned and sighed deeply, slumping further into my chair. With a roll of my eyes, I slid the thick red and gold-encrusted history book toward me. It was tabbed where I had left off yesterday, and I flipped it open. The illustration spanned two pages, depicting an army of a hundred strong, draped in silver armor, as they lined up for war. I sighed loudly again, making sure he knew just how much I hated this before I started reciting the text describing the battle.
“You are the gory, blood-soaked land,
I wonder how to make peace with these butchers.”
My head snapped up in surprise, and I stared at them in confusion. The text was not the ancient dissertation I had read the day before. Instead of tactics and weaponry, the words bled, seeping into the worn cream parchment. I watched as they disappeared, only to return, the letters dark and thick.
“Read,” my father insisted.
“But it’s not as before,” I said, and it wasn’t. I gaped, the image melting as if water had been poured over it. It disappeared, and more text formed.
“Read,” he demanded again.
I sat up in my chair and half-turned to face him. Unir stood just inside the balcony doors, framed by massive columns. Outside, the clouds grayed at the edges, bubbling in size and mass. Shadows blanketed the mountains of Rashearim, the darkness beneath them spreading wide like gaping beasts, attempting to swallow the ground below.
“Read.” Unir’s voice had deepened and gained an edge I couldn’t define.
I shook my head but didn’t dare disobey. I knew he’d keep me in this study until my eyes bled for the devilment Cameron, Logan, and I had gotten into. So, with a shuddering breath, I clutched the edges of the book and tried to read. The words continued to change and twist together on the page before spitting out the verse it wished me to recite.
“You decimate the soul of the noble man.
Moving through stars, laying curses upon the land.”
The words kept reforming over and over. I ran my fingers over the lines as if I could keep them still. I recognized this poem, having come across it in a book I’d found in the library. It was one nearly lost to time, originally transcribed by an ancient prophet.
“Repeat it,” my father demanded, standing with his back straight. He was ever the general and less the doting caregiver he perceived himself to be.
I swallowed. “It’s not the same.”
“Keep looking.” His eyes held no amusement or anger.
“The unheard voices, drowned in the cries of the dead.
Men begging, uttered curses and prayers,
Only answered by just and strong hands
Here is our scourge, our salvation, our hope.
Bathed in light with strength and might.
The anguished land sends tremors through all men,
Blood and destruction wear at every soul.
Weapons of horror now familiar.”
My chest heaved as the words all but slammed out of me. I heard his boots against the stone floor, his thick strides changing in both tempo and weight as he moved toward the door.
“Compassion falls before thy destructive force.”
I shook my head as the words started to tremble. Fear shivered through me, and I glanced up. The royal, bright room had turned a sullen gray, but that wasn’t what made my heart ice over. Nismera stood where my father had been, Dianna clutched in her grasp. My chair toppled to the floor with the force with which I rose. I struggled to move toward them but found I couldn’t.
