World's End Read Online Free PDF

was safe, if the outer world was fed and comfortable. If the outer world was fed, if there was enough amusement and gossip to sate their curiosities, why would they care how Yincastle was run? Why would they care who ran it?
    Yincastle itself had many layers. The outer folk – newcomers grown excessively rich and therefore allowed in – were almost as ignorant of the place’s inner workings as were those in the civilian realms. One learned to close one’s ears and eyes to strange comings and goings through the high arched doorways. And to ignore the distant sounds heard from the high windows which glowed orange late at night. One learned to ignore rumours of underground chambers far beneath Yincastle, tunnelled so deep below that magic air existed there, and where improbable things were said to be done by the city’s elite. It was true that every now and then, people vanished as if plucked off the prosperous streets. But the same, surely, happened in every city.
    It was in Yincastle’s highest tower that the orange windows glowed at night, a place from which one could survey the entire city below, active as an insect hive in daylight, a sparkling nest of lights by night. Here, out of reach of any war machine, the smooth silvery bricks still bore drake-claw marks from a long past war, the same war which had made room for Yincastle’s current elites.
    Izven peered out through one of those very high windows now. The pulsing orange light behind him bathed the chamber in glowing warmth. Naked, his body looked soft and vulnerable as he surveyed the city’s night lights, spread beyond him like a web full of struggling morsels he was in no hurry to bring closer and consume. The visitor he expected was late.
    Behind him there was a clink of chains as Lalie shifted on the huge bed. She was not concerned about the chains clamping her wrists, the belt about her waist, nor indeed her own near nakedness. She had leeway enough to crawl about on the bed a good distance. She was released whenever she wished to relieve herself. She was fed luscious, beautiful meals – the best food she’d ever eaten in fact. Hot baths were insisted upon twice daily.
    There were others here of course who did not enjoy the facilities as much as she did. They too were chained up throughout the chamber, to beds and couches, always frightened and wanting to return to their homes and families, not yet understanding there was simply no way that could happen after all they’d been through and witnessed here. Lalie was quickly tiring of their complaints.
    This chamber – though it didn’t bother her – had seemed quite peculiar at first. She had thought mayors were like stern parents: boring, straight in their ways, pushing papers around,blathering about taxes and grain supplies, now and then parading in front of people like roosters proud of their feathers.
    She was no stranger to some of the games men enjoyed, either. The high priest had used her for many peculiar sexual rituals, involving other women, involving Offerings. The trick was to understand your flesh was just a plaything of the spirit inside, the spirit already pledged and therefore owned by sleeping Inferno, who would one day waken and claim it. What happened to the flesh didn’t matter, as long as the mind was undamaged. As long as the spirit stayed keen, pure and hot as a candle flame. Pure enough to be brought within Inferno’s divine fire.
    The sexual games played in this chamber had therefore been no shock to her, but she was surprised to find a mayor, along with his high officials and friends, so very preoccupied with them. All day, in this large, circular chamber, and in the other rooms adjoining it, the games went on and on. She had begun to wonder: did they even
bother
with taxes, laws, wars and all the rest? Was all that just a clever disguise?
    The others held here were mostly women and girls, with just a few men for those with