Path of Honor Read Online Free PDF Page B

Saljane’s black-and-white breast, savoring her ahalad-kaaslane ’s confidence.
    ~If I can’t call my magic . . .
    ~As the Lady wills it, came Saljane’s impassive reply.
    Reisil’s lips pinched together. Everything she had been taught said that the Lady protected Kodu Riik from ill, and would do so as long as its people remained faithful. But then why permit the war with Patverseme? Why send a drought? And what about the plague and the nokulas ? Kodu Riik and its people were dying, which pointed to an obvious conclusion. The Lady no longer cared. Or worse, were all these horrors punishment? Was Saljane right? Did the Lady will this?
    A chill ran down Reisil’s spine, and her toes curled inside her boots. “I hope not,” she muttered.
    As they walked by the boarded-up houses, Sodur swore, eyeing the symbols painted garishly on the walls.
    “What?” Reisil asked.
    “You don’t recognize them? No, of course not. You shouldn’t. These villagers shouldn’t either. These are ancient hexmarks and curses, wards against evil. They have no business here.” His voice was clipped, his chin jutting like a hatchet blade.
    Reisil glanced at the crude, stark symbols. They had been drawn with charcoal and a paint that looked unnervingly like dried blood. “I’ve never seen anything like them.”
    “Stupidity,” Sodur spat. “They look for salvation and ask for worse than what they’ve got. These symbols belong to the old gods and those evil times before the Lady saved us.” He shook his head again, lip curling. “The price was faith in Her. Absolute faith. All the old gods were to be left behind forever. And we wonder why She does not answer our prayers. The people have proved themselves faithless.”
    “Did the people lose faith and the Blessed Lady stop answering? Or did She stop answering and so the people lost faith?”
    Sodur jerked to a halt, rounding on Reisil and grasping her arms in a bruising grip. “Don’t you question the Lady! You , of all people!”
    Startled, Reisil couldn’t find the words to defend herself.
    He dragged her forward, his lips pulled thin and pinched face flushed. “Look there, that first one. The mouth in the circle with the eye inside? That one represents Betinue. God of secrets and lies, of seeming and tales. He’s an eater of souls. They say that those unfortunate enough to grace his palate scream their torment forever in the black depths of his stomach. You curse your neighbor with that one and hope Betinue doesn’t turn on you.
    “And there, the hand with the waves below and the lightning above? That one is Elwaak. She swims silent beneath the water, yanking the unsuspecting under like a hungry crocodile. She is blind, righteous vengeance, and chodha anyone who gets in her way. And there’s another. Suthmanya , the spoiler. A spider’s body, hands like talons, the long tongue. Do its bidding, and you will reap blood and power. But the spoiler is fickle and not even its disciples are safe from it.”
    Sodur faced Reisil again, his eyes glittering, flecks of spit speckling his lips and chin. His expression was so twisted that Reisil hardly recognized him.
    “Can you imagine what would happen to Kodu Riik if we went back to following them or the dozen other gods we put aside when we embraced the Lady? There’s not one that doesn’t revel in blood and carnage and suffering. There would be war again, like nothing we saw with Patverseme. And blood sacrifice. These gods must be fed, never forget. And I imagine they would want a bit of revenge for our faithlessness. Their power has faded in the years since the Lady’s held us in Her hands, but feed them, and they would ravage this land. Kodu Riik would dissolve into a horror of rape and pillage and brutality. Believe me, this plague is nothing, nothing , compared with what these monsters would visit on us if we turned from the Lady.”
    Sodur stopped, breathing hard, glancing back along the streets at the symbols repeated