The Sin War Box Set: Birthright, Scales of the Serpent, and The Veiled Prophet Read Online Free PDF Page A

gasp.
    Uldyssian followed her eyes, but saw nothing. Nonetheless, the noblewoman stood frozen, as if whatever had caught her attention shocked her senseless.
    “Lylia…Lylia, what is it?”
    “I thought I saw…I thought…but, no…”
    Even when he stood next to her, the farmer could see no cause for her alarm. “Where is it? What did you see?”
    “There!” She pointed at a particularly dense area of the woods. “I…think…”
    He was tempted to simply take her back to Seram and return after the storm, but the intensity of her reaction made him worry about what lay out there. Mendeln suddenly came to mind. Mendeln, who was still missing.
    “Stay here.” Uldyssian started forward, at the same time drawing his knife.
    The brush thickened and at times the wild grass rose as high as his waist. How Lylia had seen anything was beyond him, but he trusted that this was no wild-goose chase.
    Then, as he neared the area in question, Uldyssian’s hackles rose. A sense of dread rushed over him, nearly causing the stalwart farmer to backtrack.
    A faint but sickly scent wafted under his nose. It brought back memories of the plague, of his family…
    Uldyssian did not want to take another step closer and yet, he did.
    The sight before him made the farmer fall to one knee. It was all he could do to keep his last meal in his stomach. His knife slipped from his hand, utterly forgotten in the face of the horrific revelation before him.
    What had once been a man—at least, from the height, Uldyssian decided it must be so—lay strewn across the patch of ground at the base of the first trees. His entire torso had been expertly sliced open, much the way the farmer would have done to a cow after slaughter. Blood soaked everything in the immediate vicinity and had turned the dirt in some places to crimson mud. Part of the victim’s own stomach had poured out of the cut and flies already clustered over the tremendous, stench-ridden bounty.
    As if cutting open the body had not been terrible enough, the throat had been slit open sideways, the gap large enough to admit a fist. The face was covered with blood from the wounds, and leaves and other refuse decorated it like some bizarre festival display. After a long study, Uldyssian finally determined that he did not know the man, who was roughly his age and with black hair now caked with gore.
    It was what remained of the shredded garments that finally identified the unfortunate figure for the son of Diomedes. The robes’s coloring alone was sufficient in itself, but the symbol of the missionary’s order left no doubt whatsoever.
    Uldyssian had found Brother Caligio, the missing acolyte from the Triune.
    A gasp from behind startled him. He spun about to see Lylia, eyes wide, taking in the awful sight.
    She suddenly went pale. Her eyes fluttered upward, showing only whites…and then she began to fall.
    Pushing himself to his feet, Uldyssian managed to catch her just before she could strike the ground. He held her prone body for a moment, at a loss what to do. Someone had to be told about the murder, likely Captain Tiberius, chief of the Seram Guard. Dorius, the village’s leader, would also need to know.
    In his arms, the noblewoman moaned. Uldyssian decided that, first, he had to take care of Lylia.
    Fortunately, it took little effort for the towering farmer to carry her. Uldyssian moved at as swift a pace as he could without risking his precious burden. He had to watch his footing at all times, fearful that one false step would send both of them crashing.
    It was with great relief that Uldyssian reached the edge of the village. The sky continued to thunder loudly, but the storm so far held back.
    “Uldyssian!”
    He stumbled at the sound of his name, nearly tossing Lylia away in the process. The farmer managed to steady himself, then looked to the source of the call.
    A great fear lifted off his chest as Mendeln and Achilios came rushing up to him. They had clearly just arrived