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Everything Begins Chapter 44
His friends were led to two different homes, and the women gestured inside before leaving. Sophyra led Frank to a third home, but she entered before he did. With another sigh, he stepped inside. A wooden washtub was in the middle of the room, the water steaming. Next to it was a towel, soap, and his saddlebags. He paused when Sophyra stood next to the tub.“Are you staying?” he asked as he pulled his bloody shirt over his head.“Do you want me to?” Her voice was icy, but he felt her tears wash over him like a flood, and he ran his hand through his hair in frustration.“Yes, I want you to stay,” he said, looking at her. The tears were dripping down her cheeks, and his chest tightened.“Why?”He took a step toward her but stopped when she stiffened."Sophyra, I...” Her bottom lip trembled, and he reached out a hand toward her. “My heart, I am so sorry.” She did not move, and he dropped his hand.“What are you sorry for, Frank? Ignoring me? Hurting me? Forcing Yisu to make me Anmah? What
Everything Begins Chapter 45
“I do not know.”“Well, I see no difference. And as for you making a world-ending mistake, I do not see that happening. Besides, Yisu stepped in to correct this mistake. What makes you think He will not do it again?”“He will not,” Frank said. “I do not know how I know, but I do. The next stupid decision of mine could be fatal for a lot of people. Maybe for everyone.”Dinton stood up and pulled the Anmah up with him. “That may be so, but you cannot expect to never make another mistake. After all,” he said with a smile, “you are still just a child.”As Dinton had hoped, Frank smiled slightly. “I am. At least for an Anmah. And children do make mistakes every now and then. Rarely are they world-ending, though.”“Tell you what,” Dinton said with a grin. “If I think you are making that kind of mistake, I will smack you and tell you to shape up. Agreed?”Frank just nodded.Dinton stepped back and cocked his head toward the door. “Come on. Everyone is waiting for you.”“Who’s everyone?”“The
Everything Begins Chapter 46
“Frank, What is wrong?”He brought his head up and grabbed her arms with both hands, even though he still held his blades in them. His eyes shone like torches with the conviction of his next words.“My heart, please stay here! He can kill you!”“Who?”“The Daitya in the town! Please, Sophyra! Stay in the watch tower and do not come out.” She nodded, eyes and mouth wide, and he pulled her to himself in a strong hug. “I love you, Sophyra. No matter what I say or do, never forget that. Now go. Lock yourself in and do not open the door for anyone but me. Promise me!”“I promise,” she whispered and then disappeared inside the tower.Frank raced into the town and headed toward the square. As he entered the town, he almost ran over the young girl who had served him at the feast. He skidded to a halt in front of her.“What is happening?” he demanded.She sobbed out, “Dahaka came back with his raiding party. They came from the east. They saw the bodies! They started killing everyone!”“Bride o
Everything Begins Chapter 47
“Son of a goat!” he groaned as he looked down at his chest and saw the unmistakable point of an arrow sticking out of him. Whoever had shot it had been good, and had struck him cleanly through the heart. He felt the blood pumping out of the holes in him as he crumpled, his sword clattering on the cobblestones. “Find the horeson who shot me, Dinton,” he gasped. “Do not kill him, though. I want to—“ That was as far as he got before he pitched forward onto his face, dead.Dinton barely heard him, and he could not have followed his leader’s command even had he wanted to try. The position that the Daitya had forced his body into had dislocated both his shoulders, and he was groaning in pain on the ground. Tero had a broken leg from dropping to the ground from a height of two paces onto legs numbed from being tightly bound by nothing but air, but he managed to pull his bow from the pile of weapons and nock an arrow before forcing himself to stand, leaning heavily on Mathi who seemed to be c
Everything Begins Chapter 48
Next to the door was a chest of drawers with similar carvings as the bedposts. A crystal pitcher that actually had steam coming from the spout and a matching basin sat on top. Next to these were soap and a comb. He quietly filled the basin and washed his face and hands before running the comb through his hair. Someone had cleaned him the day before, for when he had collapsed onto the cobblestones, he had already been covered with his own blood and that of the Asabya. He was sure it had only gotten worse when they pulled the arrow from his body considering the path it had taken.He stuffed his feet into his boots, noticing that they had been polished recently, and walked to the window. He pulled the curtain aside and was surprised to see that the room was not on the ground floor. From the window, he was able to see down into the square. In the gray of first light, he noticed that the cobblestones were cleaned of blood, and there were no bodies to be seen. The window faced the west, so
Everything Begins Chapter 49
“One like him, yes.”“Well, thank you. He was about to kill us when you showed up.”“He was going to do more than that. He was going to claim your souls for Sayatan.”Dinton and Tero both frowned even as Mathi and Nikale gasped.“How do you know that, Frank?” Tero asked.“Because I understood what he was saying. That seems to be another lovely ability of mine—being able to understand the language of evil.”Nikale looked as if she were going to say something, but instead, she pointed to an open door. “First meal is ready. Enjoy your spoils, Captain Mistri.”“What do you mean?”The old woman gestured around the room. “This was all Dahaka’s. Now it is yours as the one who defeated him.” She turned to walk out the front door but stopped with her hand on the handle. “And thank you, Captain. Dahaka was the worst of them all, and now I know why. Would you be amenable to talking later on?”“Of course, but right now I need to eat before I faint.”She smiled and left the house.“Come on, Tero,
Everything Begins Chapter 50
“Do I?” he said, standing up slowly. “I suppose I had better get moving, then, Nikale. Thank you for the talk.”“We have much more to discuss, Captain Mistri. And do not forget there are still at least four raiding parties out there. You had better be ready for them. You are the only one who can protect us now.”“I know.” He took Sophyra’s arm. “Come on. Show me these students.”As they walked to the square, he asked, “How much did you hear?”“Not much,” she said, “but I do not understand why you are so willing to talk to a woman you just met and not to me.”He stopped, startled. “What are you talking about?”She turned to him, and her eyes were glistening. “You have been talking to Nikale for over two hours, Frank. I heard enough to know you told her about your life after Desa. You have not told me much at all.”Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. When he opened them, his eyes were blazing, and he pulled her into a hug. “I am sorry, Sophyra. I did not mean to hurt you. I will te
Everything Begins Chapter 51
An hour later, Frank was back in the square giving a similar lesson to the second group of thirty students. They were all women except for Mathi and two others. Sophyra told him this was because male slaves rarely lived past the age of thirteen in Grama. Since thirteen-year-old Asabya were considered men, so were thirteen-year-old slaves, and one of the favorite spectacles of the Feast of Yud’dha was when the male slaves were herded into the clearing where Frank and his friends had placed the dead bodies. Once there, they were used as fodder while being subjected to torture and torment and death at the hands of their masters. Those lucky enough to survive two sennights of this were spared the horror for two years by law. Mathi had survived his first trip to the clearing when he was thirteen, but he had been scheduled to return this year. Frank had saved him from having to go through that again, and that helped bolster the Anmah’s mood more than anything except Sophyra’s forgiveness.I