Reign Read Online Free PDF Page A

everything—all our crops, our livestock. It will kill us all.”
    Claude stood on the giant stone altar, looking up at the starry sky. “It will not. You will sacrifice half your crop and half your livestock so that the gods are appeased. This can be reversed yet. Your story can be unwritten.”
    The woman’s face changed. She seemed calmer now. She approached Claude, kissed his hand, and spoke. “I will do that, Your Greatness. I will go now.”
    Then she walked across the square, to where her horse was tied up. She climbed on and rode off, thanking Gerard, who let the last visitor up to the stone altar. He wasn’t much older than Claude. He held his hat in his hands, twisting it as he spoke. “The rockslide took my home and my entire family. It took more than half of our village. The few of us who are still there wish to leave, but we fear our gods.”
    Claude looked down at the man, who was glowing in the light of the fire. Claude knew about the rockslide that had happened over fifty miles away, in another town. Most of the townspeople who had made it through the plague were killed after. There couldn’t have been more than a dozen people there now, surviving alone for the past several months. “Sacrifice your best cow and your best goat. Then you may leave the village and do as you wish.”
    As soon as he said it, it felt right to him. In the past months he’d learned to trust whatever words came to him in the moment. They were divinely inspired. He could see that now, even though it had been difficult at first. Hundreds and hundreds of people had visited him since the plague ended, thanking him for relieving them of their suffering. He had prevented more deaths. He had turned the course of history around. Now he knew that Lily’s life had meant something. That act could only have been done by his hand, and from the act sprang forth a new power.
    The man nodded. “Thank you, Your Greatness. I will do that, and we will move on. We can all move on because of you.” He bowed down before Claude, and there was so much gratitude in his eyes, Claude had to look away. It was sometimes hard to take it all in, to accept so much love and respect at once. For the first time in his life people were looking at him— truly looking at him. People needed to hear every word he said.
    When the man left, Claude turned to the crowd of villagers surrounding the fire. “You may go now, until tomorrow,” he said. “Be at peace.”
    They all bowed before him as he stepped down from the altar. Gerard wrapped a rabbit-fur coat around his shoulders, then kissed his hand, which was now covered with jeweled rings. He followed Claude all the way back to his cottage and waited outside until he shut the door. “Goodnight, Your Greatness,” he said softly. He hardly looked Claude in the eye anymore. Out of all the things that came with his new role as a pagan leader, that was one Claude liked best.
    â€œGood evening, my beloved,” Clemence said as he walked in the door. She took his coat, then gave him a long, slow kiss. Claude held his new wife to him, feeling the curves of her hips. It always felt as good as it did the first time he kissed her, just three days after she’d arrived in the village, staring up at him with those striking green eyes.
    â€œI missed you. You know I’d stay here every day and every night if I could,” he said. He sat down at the wooden table he’d shared with his family less than a year before. It all seemed so different now. Clemence had made a giant painting for the wall and had decorated the place with the fine goods the villagers brought. Copper pots hung above the stove. Candlesticks were set down on the mantle and furs were draped over every seat. The kitchen smelled of lamb and potatoes.
    â€œI know you would,” she said, coming up behind him. “But you have to go to the square every night. Your