Under A Colder Sun (Khale the Wanderer Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

body before it fell. There was a sharp gasp, and that was all. The light was gone from the eyes, and nothing stared into nothingness.
    The King’s killer stood over him for a moment as he cleaned his knife blade, swiping it roughly against his furs. He re-strapped his two-handed sword across his back. Then, with a whispered word, he too was gone. He disappeared like a ghost.
     
    *
     
    Leste found Alosse. He had been too long alone with Khale, and when she listened at the door, she heard no conversation. When she entered, she saw the dead old man hunched over on the floor, bleeding into the thick bearskin rug laid over the flagstones.
    “My liege ...”
    She held him and her hands came away dark and red.
    Tears pricked at her eyes.
    I failed him , she thought, I was on guard. He’s dead. I failed him.
    She cradled the light, frail form of the King and wept as if she were a mother holding a stillborn. She should never have left them together.
    “I will find him, your Grace,” Leste swore. “I will find him and I will kill him for this.”

Chapter Six
    There are whispers of iron cities and great roads before the white fire came, but that world is gone now, and what came after is remembered as a night of cold and darkness that saw our people come close to dying out forever. After it passed, we were little more than savages, dwelling in caves with precious few memories of the old world—but something did linger on. Our hands found stone and wood, and bringing them together made fire come into the world again. We made weapons of flint to slay the animals and cooked them over the fire, though we could not help but think we had done this before; and in the taste of their blood, other memories awakened.
    To children, women, and to elders came dreams, visions, and voices that spoke without words. The men were shown how to shape the world around them: to fell the trees and to work the stone, creating walls that could trap the fire’s warmth. All the while, the elders and the young continued to dream and to speak of what could be achieved. From their words came the first castles, the first kingdoms, and the first kings. Our people were divided into rich and poor, the exalted and the hated, the damned and the lost.
    And from the words of the seers came worship and sacrifice as we learned of the Four who watch over us: Murtuva, the Last Breath; Chuma, Plague-Father; Voyane, Blood-Creator, and Mirane, the Starv’d One. For only with darkness can darkness be fought. Light failed our ancestors, and so we abandoned its worship forever.
    Though some say there are places in the land where worship is given over to Another—neither of the light, nor of the dark—who dwells beyond the shadows cast by the Four, and such places lie deeply buried beneath isolated henges of disfigured stone ...
     
    *
     
    Milanda closed the book for a moment. She loved to read, and the stories of old were her favourite. They told of a world so much more exciting than the one she endured day by day. Eighteen winters to her name and she had not been outside of the city gates. In truth, she had not even crossed the moat from the castle into the city itself. Her life had been these stone walls, the wan light that filtered in through its windows, and the faces of men and women so much older than she.
    When she awoke in the mornings, there was fruit, meat, cool water, and warm milk waiting for her, as well as fresh clothes. The clothes were always plain and dull. The dresses and battle-armour of the women in the stories were never presented to her. When she wished to bathe, she would be bathed by attentive Sisters from the Church of Four. They were the shadows that haunted her steps whenever she left her chambers and the heavy iron door that sealed her in there at night.
    She daydreamed about the mage wars, the demon-knights of Anhedon’s host and the last battle of Aarthe. She passed the time, and she felt time passing her by. Her days were content, but they