Empire of the Worm Read Online Free PDF

no
choice.”
    “How can you have no choice? Of
course you do!”
    “We don’t.” Salbrind shuddered and
looked around at the blackness, as if afraid of something out there. “We truly
do not. Do you think we’d do this if we did?”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “I know. I went through this just
last year. Didn’t you wonder why Ilya had vanished?”
    “She . . . went off to Pysus to
study . . .”
    Salbrind shook his head sadly. “No.”
    “But . . . you loved her . . .”
“Just as you love Alyssa. Don’t try to deny it. We wouldn’t have chosen you if
you hadn’t found someone you felt that way about.”
    “No. I don’t. Really. Please. Let
her go. Please .” Davril hated
begging, but for her sake he would. This was a nightmare. “I don’t love her. In
fact, I was just about to break it off. She’s horrid.”
    Salbrind almost smiled, and Davril
hated him for it. “No, brother. She is the one for you. That is why it must be
her.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    Salbrind sighed again and kept
walking.
    One hand on his sword, Davril
followed, his gaze straying to the white form of Alyssa, sobbing quietly
against Milast’s hand.
    At last Father’s light picked out
something ahead—something tall and spiked, like a cluster of upthrusting thorns
made of obsidian. They grouped around a large slab of black stone on a dais
like a great clawed hand stretching up from the ground. The Altar—Davril
ascribed the honorific to himself, in lieu of the proceedings—squatted on the
palm. All else was darkness. It was an island in a black sea.
    “This is the seat of our power,”
the Emperor said, and even his voice seemed small here. “It’s here that we show
our love and devotion to He who looks after us, who even protects us from the
Worm. For a thousand years and more our House has guided the great nation of Qazradan,
and Qazradan has prospered like none in the history of the world. And we owe it
all to this ritual, this gift, the feeding of a soul to the Great One.” His
eyes strayed to Alyssa. “Sweet child, how we thank you. I know you cannot
understand. To you we are devils. But know even in your confusion and your fear
that your death serves a grand purpose—it holds Qazradan together. The greatest
and wisest empire ever owes its being to you, and those like you. The first
time a prince goes on the Great Journey he must sacrifice his beloved to show
his devotion to our god.”
    Sadness touched the Emperor’s face—that’s
what struck Davril the most strangely at that moment. His father wasn’t evil,
really. He wasn’t a monster. He was just himself, and very human. Even kind, in
his way. But he was nonetheless determined to put Alyssa on the Altar.
    Davril knew he could not allow
that. Even if he had not had feelings for her, he could not be party to her
murder.
    His father nodded briefly to
Milast, and the elder prince bore a thrashing Alyssa up to the black slab, where
he pinned her down while two of his brothers began to snap manacles around her
thin wrists and ankles, binding her to the Altar. How many young girls—and
boys, too, most likely—had those black iron links restrained?
    Her mouth freed, Alyssa screamed. “ Davril! Please! Do something!”
    The Emperor withdrew the ceremonial
dagger. It shone resplendently, all winking gems and inlaid gold and amber. Stepping
forward with much gravity, he pressed the weapon into Davril’s hand. It was
heavier than the young prince had expected, and it seemed to hum with a strange
power.
    “Son,” the Emperor said, “it’s time
you knew the truth. Our good fortune is owed entirely to the will of the great Subn-ongath.
He’s steered us toward wealth and peace and loftiness in nature. He is our
Patron, but he requires souls in order to survive in our world—and so to
satisfy Him we must thrice annually sacrifice one of our purest and worthiest
and most beloved. Such a one is Alyssa, and in order for you to prove your worth,
for you to make