World-Ripper War (Mad Tinker Chronicles Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

faith. We have bottled our anger instead of letting it drip and leak from us in pointless small revolts. It is time to remember the Eziel that strode beside us into battle, the one whose teachings are sharp enough to draw blood. Join hands and speak the invocation with me:
    “Lord Eziel, grant us vengeance upon our enemies. Let us share our strength as comrades and become fearsome to our foes. I am your servant, teach me to kill in your name.”
    The congregation murmured along, many silent because they did not know the words. Davlin repeated them, and a few new voices joined in. The chorus grew louder the third time as the words sank in, and the newcomers began to absorb them. Kupe felt his heart pump. To his left, Mull clung to his hand with a man-shy timidity, still seeming self-conscious. To his right, Charsi’s hand was slick with sweat, trying to squeeze the blood from his fingers. By the time Davlin repeated the invocation a fifth time, the tunnels thundered with the voices of the worshipers, new and old alike.
    “Here we cleanse our hearts and gird our souls for battle. Outside these walls, let none know our heart or purpose. The time draws near. You will each be given your part to play. Go in peace and brotherhood.”
    A heady crowd rose unsteadily and began sorting themselves out the doors of the church. Kupe had heard the invocation enough times that he kept it in his heart, not to be carried off each time he heard Davlin speak it anew. He helped Charsi to her feet and waited for Mull to collect himself.
    “I had no idea,” said Charsi. She clung to Kupe’s arm as if she’d imbibed too much from her own wares.
    “It gets in you, that’s for sure,” Kupe said, helping her pick her way among the benches. “We can talk more later when it’s quiet.”
    “But I’ve got so many questions.”
    Kupe nodded. He caught her eyes with his own and held them briefly, men and women pushing past the pair as they stood idle in the flow of foot traffic. There was a fervency there, a hope blossoming like a color-petal plant from the skies. He could hardly wait to see her again later. But business pressed. “I’ll see you to the door, but Mull and I have some things to discuss with Pious Davlin.”
    “What sort of things?”
    Kupe grinned at Mull, who stood uncomfortably waiting for the pair to say their goodbyes. “Mull’s our new inside man at the thunderails.”

    At the back of the farthest reaches of the back tunnel of the church, another couple sat. To all appearances they waited for the crowd to thin before pressing through, but they were no natives of Cuminol, nor any other place in Korr.
    “Quite the speech. Gets the blood running hot,” said Juliana. She wore a plain wool dress dyed grey as stone and straight from the seamstress. It was less apparent when she sat, but she towered over the Korrish women. The tallest she had met only came as high as her nose.
    “I take it you followed along? I didn’t hear you chanting the invocation,” Kyrus replied. He wore a workman’s coveralls, but had at least taken the trouble to rub them with grime to make it looked as if he worked. Though well taller than Juliana, men Kyrus’s size were not uncommon among the stock-bred humans, though he was thinner of limb than the crashball players and heavy laborers that were common among the very large.
    Juliana shrugged. “Sure. Easier reading the stuff than listening to it, but daruu isn’t so bad to pick up. So, you going to join the rebellion, be a hero?”
    Kyrus shot her a glare that would have had a sensible creature soiling itself. Juliana just snickered. “I’m no hero. Look at what these people are doing? They have nothing—or at least very little. Yet here they are, ready to stand up and fight against the people who control the whole world.”
    “You could make it easier on them.”
    “I could sully their victory, steal away their purpose and resolve, let them remain soft and beaten, but under a kinder