Veiled Empire Read Online Free PDF Page B

one of my kin somehow found a way through the Shroud.” The sheer absurdity of the suggestion drove him into even greater fits of laughter. “Whatever would compel you to ask such a thing?”
    Rekaj narrowed his gaze on Voren. “Nothing. Mind your place. It is not to question me.”
    Voren’s mirth was swept away like feathers before a storm. Feeling a chill start to creep up his spine, he bowed his head in obeisance.
    The emperor stormed out. Voren was left alone, and an abundance of questions swirled in his head, none of which he could even begin to answer. Whatever had happened, it meant change . Voren had almost forgotten what the word meant, so absorbed as he was in playing the harmless, obedient prisoner. But how long can such a mask be worn before the act is no longer a fiction?
    Shame flooded his soul as he realized just how empty it had become.
    V ASHODIA ST ROLLED ALONG the Chasm’s edge at the cusp of night. She soaked in the burgeoning darkness like a lizard did the sun on a cold day. She was separated from the brink by a mere finger’s width, but she feared neither falling nor the hungry maw of depthless shadow below.
    It was her home, after all.
    She spied her destination and began skipping along. She held apart the folds of her robe, which was so dark as to seem a part of the night itself. It was, in fact, enchanted just for this effect. No, not enchanted— such a word was used by the ignorant, which was everyone but her. Rather, it was augmented . Yes, a much more accurate description.
    The path before her ended abruptly, cleaved by a deep ravine a dozen paces across that bent and twisted its way up into the barren hillsides to the east. Without hesitation, Vashodia marched off into the void.
    Falling, she energized briefly and formed a cushion of air below her feet as thick as stone—no, again she corrected herself. It was stone. There. She crafted ropes and tethered one end of each to the cliff top, and the other to the platform upon which she now stood. Her descent slowed. She lengthened the ropes to allow for brisk yet controlled passage down.
    Though the night was dark, it was not pure. Not even close. It was a passive thing, beset by two moons and a cacophony of stars. Vapid, hollow.
    The darkness into which she now passed was everything night was not. It . . . filled, with intention and rapacity. The dark energy gathered here, thick as foam, made her giggle in delight.
    At last, Vashodia reached the ground. A vast cavern opened up, the ends so distant even her mierothi eyes had trouble discerning its scope. What filled it, though, not even humans could fail to see.
    Darkwisps. A hundred thousand at least.
    “Knock-knock,” she said in a high, singsong voice. “Anybody home?”
    The normally dormant creatures buzzed into a frenzy of activity at her intrusion. They spun through the air, converging on a point several paces in front of her. They stopped, though, afraid to come closer.
    They had learned that lesson the hard way.
    She reached into her robe and brought forth two spherical objects. They were the size of her fist and crafted from a dull metal, closer to the look of burnished stone than the glint of a sword. She tossed them on the ground. The hovering mass of darkwisps flinched back.
    That will do you no good, my little friends.
    Vashodia spoke, and though her voice seemed that of a young girl—matching her face and the size of her body—her tone left no doubt that she was, in fact, commanding.
    “Come, darkwisps.
    “Come, death-sighs of watered souls.
    “Come, machines of a sundered past.”
    Vashodia paused and giggled once more.
    “Come to your new home, you naughty little things.”
    The spheres opened up, revealing a hollow center. The mass of sparking creatures began slowly descending, contracting.
    “Are you watching?” she said. “Ruul? Elos? Can you see?”
    Darkwisps now flowed like a stream into the spheres.
    “Ah, but what use is sight if you are lacking in