The Splintered Eye (The War of Memory Cycle) Read Online Free PDF Page B

over his shoulder at the sound of whispers.  A small mob of Trifolders clogged the hall they had just come down—men, women and children in the colors of the altar cloths, their expressions a mix of interest and unease.  Self-conscious, Cob turned his back to them and sank down on the mat, and Arik crouched at his side.
    “Allow me to introduce myself,” said the blind woman as Sister Talla took up a vigilant position by her cushion.  “I am Mother Matriarch Aglavyn of the Trifold Temple of Shared Light.  You have met my Lady of the Forge, Sister Justiciar Talla, and I hear that a few of our little sisters and brothers have gathered…”
    A girl in the crowd stifled a nervous giggle.  Cob took a deep breath as the Mother Matriarch’s white gaze turned back to him expectantly.
    “Thanks for seein' us so quick,” he said.  “I’m Cob.  Cobrin son of Dernyel, from Kerrindryr.  With me’s my friend Arik from Wyndon.  I think.”  Beside him, Arik shrugged as if to say ‘close enough’, and the Mother Matriarch smiled.
    “ It is a pleasure to have you in our humble temple,” she said.  “All who seek sanctuary are welcome here, be they within the faith or not.  It is the Way of the Hearth.  And your other companion?  Shall she introduce herself?”
    “ Her—?” Cob started, but swallowed the word as the Guardian’s weighty coils shifted in his chest.  For a moment twin spots on his forehead twinged: the place where the Guardian’s antlers manifested.  He willed it to settle down.  This was his plan, and though he did not think it could take him over on a whim, he did not want to test that theory.
    To his surprise, it subsided without fuss.
    “No, I’ll do that,” said Cob.  “I’m carryin’ the Guardian, Aesangat, one of the Great Spirits of the shiftin’ folk.  It’s the reason I’m here.”
    Murmurs chorused through the crowd, but the Mother Matriarch just raised her eyebrows.  The bells in her sleeves shivered as she gestured for quiet.  “Then it is no wonder that you would encounter Jasper.  On behalf of the temple, I bid you welcome, Aesangat.  It has been far too long.  How may we serve you?”
    “Serve me?” Cob said, glancing around.  The small chamber was filled to the brim with Trifolders, all eyes upon him, and though some faces were wary, many showed awe and reverence.  He had expected help but not such instant and overwhelming attention, and it made his face heat.  To have so many people—so many women—watching him like that…
    He looked away, squashing untoward thoughts.  “What d’you mean?”
    “It is our duty to aid the Guardian,” said Sister Talla flatly.  He focused on her; she was more what he had expected, her square face sober, eyes sharp as knives.  Ammala Cray had been that stern when she was angry.  “Aesangat has been our ally since the joining of the three goddesses many centuries ago.  Sword Maiden Breana and Hearth Mother Brigydde were once human, but Forge Matron Brancir is a spirit, one of the Guardian’s kin.”
    Cob stared.  He knew that last name.  Brancir was the Silver One, the Mountain Queen—a heretic goddess of Kerrindryr whose worship had been banned by the Empire upon its annexation.  She was the creator of the Muriae who lived within the Thundercloak Mountains and whose historical exploits had been the bedrock of his childhood, and she had imbued Aloyan Erosei the Elder—Kerrindryr’s national hero—with the power to hold back Kerrindryr’s ancestral enemies, the Jernizen and the northern ogrekin.  Cob had been raised in her faith and that of Senket the Sky King until his father’s death, and had officially renounced it at age twelve when he converted to the Imperial Light.
    He still remembered the stories, but they were faint and far away.  He had never associated them with the Trifold, or even heard the other goddesses’ names before.
    “ But…Brancir’s a spirit of metal.  Silver,” he managed