Heirs of the Fallen: Book 02 - Crown of the Setting Sun Read Online Free PDF Page B

him like a frozen wave, halting him. He hung there, breathing deeply but calmly, searching for another way. Finding what he needed, he moved off to his right and came to an area pocked with dozens of deep pockets. Some, he was surprised to find, were filled with empty bird nests made of dried, crumbly mud and feathers.
    With a new path chosen, he climbed up and sideways, well over half the height of the cliff, then came to a ledge. Needing a rest, he tugged himself up, then settled his rump amid a scatter of twigs. Here, birds had attached even more mud nests to the rock.
    Back the way he had come, the
Alon’mahk’lar
were much nearer. They did not blow their horns any longer, and Leitos thought sure they had noticed him climbing up the cliff. He grinned at the idea of their fury before wondering if they, too, could climb. Abruptly deciding he had rested enough, he resumed his ascent.
    In short order, he made it to the top of the sheer spine of stone, and halted in the notch of a cleaved boulder. From far away, he heard a strange, monotonous rumble, but thought nothing of it, his attention fixed on the
Alon’mahk’lar
staring up at him from the base of the cliff.
    There were at least two dozen, perhaps more—it was hard to separate one shadow from another. He should have run then, but instead he peered back, waiting. It struck him that he had never seen so many slavemasters gathered in one place.
Why are there so many ... and where did they come from?
Since they seemed disinclined to crawl up after him, he also wondered what they intended to do.
    “Come down, child,” one slavemaster invited, “before you fall.” It spoke as did all
Alon’mahk’lar
, in a voice that sounded like the grinding of stones and suppressed ferocity.
    “Why should you care if I fall, if you mean to kill me anyway?” It took all his courage to keep his voice light, almost indifferent. He had never directly addressed one of the slavemasters.
    “We wish you no harm,” the slavemaster said, snarling the words.
    Leitos thought of mutilated slaves, and about what another
Alon’mahk’lar
had said, just before Adham drove his pick into the creature’s skull. “
Your blood will be a sweet wine upon my tongue…
.”
    Harm
, Leitos concluded with growing anger, was all that these monstrous beings wanted for him, or any human.
    The
Alon’mahk’lar
smiled up at him, a terrifying vision. “A place of comfort has been prepared for you. You will want for nothing.” Several of the demon’s fellows nodded in agreement, all smiling as nastily as the first.
    Leitos’s eyes narrowed. “And a place has been prepared for you,
Alon’mahk’lar
,” he said, speaking that forbidden name with as much disdain as he could muster. “
Geh’shinnom’atar
is your true home, and
Peropis
is your master!”
    He hoped to infuriate the creatures, and by their harsh growls he did. A handful of the slavemasters flung themselves at the cliff, snarling and snapping. To Leitos’s horror, one began scampering up the rock face with a mind-numbing grace, as if it were floating rather than climbing. Then one huge hand caught a lip of stone that broke away, sending the
Alon’mahk’lar
hurtling back. It bounced when it hit, scattering its companions. In the next instant, it was on its feet. A moment after that, the beast set to climbing again, cursing Leitos in its natural tongue.
    The spell of watching the slavemasters come was broken by their terrible utterances, and Leitos clawed his way up and over the cleaved boulder. His desperate movements caused the massive stone to shift. By the time he had reached its crown, the boulder was moving downward in a sickening, sliding roll. He leaped with all his strength, not sure if he would fall into a bottomless crevasse, or land on solid ground. The boulder wobbled underfoot as he pushed off, then the sound of grinding stone filled the night. He landed in a sprawl on a flat sandstone surface. For the barest moment quiet