From Heaven To Earth (The Faith of the Fallen) Read Online Free PDF Page B

said.
“How old are you? Twenty-five?”
    “Actually I’m closer to fifty, bitch,” the skia said. “Age doesn’t matter
as much as skill.”
    “He and I have been at this for over three hundred years,” Riell said.
“You’ll soon find that age and skill are two inseparable attributes. Who
trained you?”
    “Verill the Unbreakable himself.”
    “The self-proclaimed ‘Unbreakable.’” Riell chuckled. “He has one loss on
his record, if I remember correctly.”
    “Shrazz got lucky.”
    “I have received training from many sensei, knights... warriors of all
kinds,” Riell said. “The goddess Devi is the most notable of them.”
    “Gods and goddesses don’t exist.”
    Riell laughed. “I guess calling Devi a goddess is being dishonest. She is
a skia with multiple personality disorder that has lived for thousands of
years. Each personality was a different well of knowledge. Her warrior aspect
was named Durga.”
    The skia hacked out a laugh.
    “So you learned how to fight from an insane hag?”
    “How many times did you have to spread your legs to get into Verill’s
little posse so you could waste your time with your ‘training’?”
    “We’re going to find the angel. Then you. I promise you that.”
    Riell chuckled. “I’ve been absolutely cordial with you,” she said. “If I
see you or anyone else spying on me the last thing they’ll see is the tip of my
sword piercing their eyes.”
    “You won’t find me on the end of your sword, old whore,” the skia said as
she walked away.
    “Come again?” Riell asked, though she knew full well what the woman had
said. She concentrated on the area around the two of them and created a small,
imperceptible dome that would obscure them from sight for a short period of
time. She delved into the woman’s own shadow.
    The skia’s hazel eyes met her green ones. “I said you’re a hag. And a
whore.”
    Riell commanded the woman’s shadow to restrain her.
    Tendrils of opaque black reached up and wound themselves around the
woman’s legs, wrists and neck. She tried to cry out, but the tentacles stifled
her scream. Riell smiled at the panic in her eyes: the woman’s inadvertent
realization of Riell’s superiority to her. Riell loosened the grip on her
throat.
    “Why can’t they hear me?” she yelled.
    “I erected a shield that blocks any physical or mental contact with this
area we’re standing in,” Riell said. “No one can see or hear us.”
    “There’s no way you’re this powerful. Your wings... there’s no color
within them at all.”
    Riell let out a sharp, sardonic laugh.
    “The fact is, fledgling, my wings are so luminescent I had to train
myself to control the light they emit.”
    “You’re bluffing.”
    Riell let her wings illuminate and sighed in relief. It was like
discarding a heavy weight she had shouldered for hours upon hours.
    The skia saw the uncountable brilliant colors of Riell’s radiance before
she covered her aching eyes.
    “Now you understand your place, but this lesson will be the last one you
will receive in this life.”
    Riell did not let the skia die quickly. She strangled her for a full
minute before she broke her neck. The tendrils of the skia’s shadow vanished along
with her heartbeat.
    Riell tossed the body into the lake before she dropped her shield. She
searched the crowd for any of the skia’s cohorts. She could feel traces of
sloppy Inner usage and assumed they retreated.
    Riell resumed her walk around The Circ. After she had made an example of
their messenger she knew they would leave her alone for the time being.
    Ignorant child, she thought. Hopefully that will show them what
they’re up against if they want to try to take the angel for themselves.
    Cold wind picked up and buffeted her. Her black hair flew in every
direction.
    Riell stayed near the edge of the boardwalk to avoid the crowd. The
laughter of a group of young girls drew her eye, and she did a double take when
she saw that one of them