The Thousandfold Thought (The Prince of Nothing, Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

with reason and compassion convinces her to join them on the continued march.
    She finds their company awkward at first, but Kellhus is able to make sense of her melancholy, to give shape to the morass of accumulated sorrow that burdens her heart. He begins teaching her how to read—as a way to distract her, she suspects. As the weeks pass and the Holy War begins its disastrous march across the desert, she starts to resign herself to the fact that Achamian is dead.
    She also finds herself more and more attracted to Kellhus.
    Despite her shame, despite her resolutions, the chance intimacies accumulate. His words seem to carve her at the joints, cutting ever closer to truths she cannot bear. She admits her affair with Sarcellus, all her small betrayals of Achamian. Then, at last, overcome by shame and grief, she confesses the truth about her daughter: Mimara didn’t die all those years ago. Esmenet sold the girl to slavers to forestall starvation.
    She and Kellhus make love the following morning.
    The long suffering in the desert seems to sanctify their relationship. Everything appears transformed. She even casts away her Whore’s Shell, the contraceptive charm used by most prostitutes, something she never even considered with Achamian. Esmenet becomes the Warrior-Prophet’s second wife. For the first time in her life she feels shriven—pure.
    Caraskand is besieged and overcome. Serwë gives birth to the infant Moënghus. And Kellhus yields Esmenet more and more power within the growing ranks of Zaudunyani, raising her above even his closest disciples, the Nascenti. She becomes pregnant.
    Then suddenly everything seems to collapse. The Padirajah traps the Holy War in Caraskand. Misery and riot own the streets. The Great Names execute Serwë and condemn Kellhus to the Circumfix. All seems lost …
    Until Achamian returns.
     
    Cnaiür urs Skiötha ’s torment deepens. Though the Men of the Tusk mean nothing to him, he sees his own undoing in their slow capitulation to Kellhus. He alone knows the truth of the Dûnyain, which means he knows that Kellhus will eventually betray him in the prosecution of his obscure ends. Just as he knows the man will betray the Holy War.
    As the Holy War marches deeper into Fanim territory, he tries to teach Prince Proyas the rudiments of war as practised by the Kianene. Assigned by Proyas to command a cohort of Conriyan outriders, he returns to the camp he shares with Kellhus, Achamian, and the others of the less and less. He knows that Kellhus now possesses Serwë body and soul, and when he returns, he finds himself punishing her for Kellhus’s outrage. Secretly he loves her, or so he tells himself.
    In the arid highlands of Gedea, he decides he can tolerate no more. He refuses to share Kellhus’s fire, and demands that Serwë, whom he claims as his prize, come with him. Kellhus denies him. Since concern for women is unmanly, Cnaiür relinquishes her, though she continues to tyrannize his thoughts. His madness burns brighter. Some nights he roams the countryside, raping and murdering indiscriminately.
    After the Holy War seizes the north bank of the River Sempis, the Lords of the Holy War assign Cnaiür the task of planning the assault on southern Shigek. Impressed by his insight and cunning, they acclaim him their general for the impending battle. Kellhus comes to him, offering Serwë in exchange for the secrets of battle. Cnaiür knows that his knowledge of war is the last advantage he possesses over the Dûnyain, the only thing Kellhus still needs from him, but Serwë has somehow become more important than anything. She is his prize, his proof …
    Cnaiür agrees. Riven by recriminations, he teaches Kellhus the principles of war.
    Despite all his efforts, Skauras outwits him on the battlefield; only determination and good fortune save the Holy War from defeat. Something breaks within Cnaiür. At the height of the crisis he leaves Kellhus and the others, abandons his command to collect