Unholy War Read Online Free PDF Page B

back to the emperor … Afterwards.’
    ‘After what?’
    ‘After using it. I want to be an Ascendant. You too. Both of us will be, with all the powers of the mighty. Then I’ll make those bastards who rejoiced when my father killed himself wish they’d never been born.’
    Mount Tigrat, Javon, on the continent of Antiopia
    Zulhijja (Decore) 928
    6 th month of the Moontide
    Elena woke to the wind on her cheeks to find herself huddled inside her skiff, the
Greyhawk
, in the foothills west of Loctis. She and Kazim had flown all night, then slept all day in the shadow of the hull. Kazim was snoring gently, his body warm against hers, even through the layers of clothing and blankets. They were near the snowline and their breath steamed in the clear, cold air.
    She wanted to stroke his cheek and pull him against her. He was so handsome, his bronze face perfectly formed, and so alive, so determined. He could have abandoned her, but instead he’d come back and fought tooth and nail against his own bloodbrothers to prevent her rape. She owed him. And he wanted her too: she could see it in his eyes, feel in his judicious concern and his closeness.
    But she held herself back.
    He’s a Dokken
.
    His aura was quiescent now that he’d killed and fed on the souls of his former colleagues, but she could still sense the way it reached for her, like tentacles of light, expressing his yearnings. Its touch was not unpleasant, but it frightened her. She could sense it was linked to his desire for her.
    What if we make love? What would happen?
The little lore about magi and Dokken was troubling; she knew only the Brevian tale of Nasette Ledoc, a young mage-woman born three hundred years ago.
    Nasette had gone missing, and a woodsman claimed to have seen her with two wolf-men, lupine creatures who ran on all fours and also walked erect. After months of searching, Nasette’s father, Heward, also a pure-blood, tracked her down. Finding that her captors were Souldrinkers – Dokken, as they were called in the north – he killed them both and freed Nasette. But he was too late, for the girl was pregnant – and worse, she had become a Souldrinker herself. Heartbroken, Heward had no choice but to kill his only daughter as well.
    Heward was desperate to understand what had happened to Nasette, and he spent years researching. According to the story, he read every written account of the lives of the Souldrinkers – but no one could explain Nasette’s transformation, for there were no records of Dokken and magi ever lying together, and Souldrinkers were becoming increasingly rare as the constant purges took their toll. At last Heward concluded that any female mage who fornicated with a Dokken would be infected by their curse, for there was no other explanation for what had happened to Nasette.
    Over the years, the story became a popular cautionary tale for mage-children, and with each retelling the truth became increasingly shrouded in myth.
    Elena watched Kazim sleep and fearfully wondered where legend ended and fact began.
    *
    Kazim woke to find Elena’s eyes on him. Her functionally short blonde hair was matted from sleep and she looked pale and bleary, sad-eyed in the dawn. Her nose and cheeks were dotted with freckles and her skin was wind- and sun-chafed. His fingers itched to stroke her skin, to soothe it gently and draw her close, to kiss her chapped lips …
    She is my Cause now. She is my shihad. She took me in when my brother Hadishah abandoned me. She taught me when she could have killed me. She trusted me even when she found out what I did and what I am. I am assassin and Souldrinker and I owe her everything: above the holy war, above my family, above Ramita. Elena is my Cause.
    ‘Ella.’ He felt his whole face smile. He freed his arms from the blankets, pulled her against him, nuzzled her neck. All he wanted was to …
    ‘Kazim,’ she said, her voice strange enough to make him pause. ‘We have to talk.’
    He stopped, slapped