waiting for her to answer, so she’d said the first thing that came to mind. “They’re. Um. Related to us?”
“Do you know how?”
She could have repeated any textbook answer to him. Migration induced by droughts or flooding. Exiled aristocracy. Clan warfare dating back to the days of the Red Emperor. No one was really certain. She’d been taught many theories that were all equally plausible. But she’d suspected that Altan wasn’t really interested in her answer, so she had shaken her head instead.
She’d guessed right. He’d wanted to tell a story.
“A long time ago the Red Emperor had a pet,” he’d said. “It was a beastly thing, some very intelligent ape he’d found in the mountains. One ugly, vicious fucker. Do you know this tale?”
“I don’t,” she’d whispered. “Tell me.”
“The Red Emperor kept it in a cage in his palace,” he continued. “Occasionally he brought it out for guests to see. They liked to watch it kill things. They’d release pigs or roosters into its cage to watch it dismember them. I imagine they had great fun. Until one day the beast sprang free of its cage, killed a minister with its bare hands, kidnapped the Red Emperor’s daughter, and escaped back to the mountains.”
“I didn’t know the Red Emperor had a daughter,” Rin had said, stupidly. For some reason, she’d found this the most striking detail. History only remembered the princes—the Red Emperor’s sons.
“No one does. He would have erased her from the record, after what happened. She became pregnant by the beast but couldn’t find any means of expelling the fetus from her womb, not while she was its prisoner, so she gave birth to a little brood of half-men and raised them in the mountains. Years later the Red Emperor sent his generals to chase them out of the Empire, and they fled to the longbow island.”
Rin had never heard that iteration of the story, but it made sense. The Nikara did like to compare the Mugenese to monkeys. Half-men, they called them; short and little—even though when she had finally seen a Federation soldier with her own eyes she wouldn’t have been able to tell him apart from a Nikara villager.
Altan had paused then, watching her, waiting for her response.
But she’d only had one question, which she hadn’t wanted to ask, because she’d known Altan wouldn’t have an answer.
If they were beasts, how did they kill us?
Who decided who counted as human? The Nikara thought the Speerlies were beasts, too, and they’d made them warrior slaves for centuries. The enemy was not human—fine. But if they were animals, then they must be inferior. If the Mugenese were inferior, though, then how could they have been the victors? Did that mean that, in this world, one had to be a beast to survive?
Maybe no one was truly a beast. Maybe that was just how murder became possible. You took away someone’s humanity, and then you killed them. At Sinegard, Strategy Master Irjah had taught them once that during the heat of battle, they should regard their opponents as objects, abstract and disparate parts and not the sum, because that would make it easier to plunge a blade into a pumping heart. But maybe if you looked at someone as not an object but an animal, you could not only commit the murder without flinching, you could let yourself take some pleasure in it. Then it felt good, the same way kicking down anthills felt good.
“Monkeys raping humans. Half-breed brats. Beastly freaks. Stupid savages.” Altan had said the last words with bitter relish, and Rin had thought that perhaps it was because those were the same words so many others used to describe him. “That’s where the Mugenese come from.”
Rin carved her way through the camp in minutes. The Mugenese presented almost no resistance. The soldiers she’d faced at Sinegard and Khurdalain had been well trained and lethally armed, with lines of glinting swords and an endless supply of chemical weapons they hurled into civilian centers at will. But these soldiers ran instead of fighting, and they died with an ease that astounded her.
This was all too simple, so simple that it made Rin slow down. She wanted to savor this power differential. Once I was your screaming victim, begging for your mercy. And now you cower before me.
She shouldn’t have slowed.
Because once she slowed, she noticed how unprepared they were. How utterly unlike soldiers they seemed. How young they looked.
The boy before her had a sword, but
<<Previous page The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 1 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 2 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 3 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 4 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 5 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 6 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 7 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 8 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 9 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 10 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 11 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 12 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 13 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 14 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 15 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 16 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 17 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 18 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 19 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 20 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 21 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 22 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 23 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 24 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 25 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 26 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 27 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 28 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 29 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 30 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 31 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 32 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 33 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 34 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 35 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 36 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 37 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 38 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 39 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 40 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 41 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 42 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 43 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 44 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 45 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 46 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 47 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 48 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 49 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 50 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 51 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 52 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 53 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 54 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 55 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 56 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 57 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 58 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 59 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 60 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 61 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 62 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 63 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 64 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 65 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 66 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 67 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 68 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 69 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 70 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 71 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 72 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 73 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 74 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 75 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 76 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 77 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 78 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 79 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 80 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 81 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 82 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 83 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 84 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 85 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 86 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 87 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 88 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 89 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 90 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 91 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 92 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 93 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 94 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 95 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 96 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 97 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 98 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 99 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 100 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 101 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 102 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 103 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 104 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 105 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 106 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 107 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 108 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 109 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 110 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 111 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 112 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 113 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 114 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 115 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 116 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 117 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 118 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 119 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 120 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 121 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 122 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 123 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 124 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 125 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 126 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 127 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 128 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 129 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 130 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 131 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 132 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 133 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 134 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 135 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 136 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 137 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 138 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 139 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 140 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 141 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 142 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 143 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 144 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 145 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 146 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 147 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 148 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 149 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 150 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 151 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 152 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 153 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 154 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 155 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 156 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 157 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 158 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 159 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 160 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 161 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 162 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 163 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 164 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 165 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 166 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 167 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 168 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 169 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 170 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 171 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 172 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 173 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 174 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 175 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 176 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 177 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 178 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 179 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 180 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 181 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 182 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 183 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 184 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 185 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 186 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 187 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 188 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 189 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 190 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 191 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 192 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 193 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 194 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 195 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 196 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 197 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 198 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 199 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 200 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 201 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 202 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 203 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 204 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 205 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 206 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 207 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 208 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 209 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 210 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 211 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 212 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 213 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 214 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 215 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 216 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 217 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 218 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 219 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 220 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 221 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 222 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 223 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 224 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 225 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 226 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 227 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 228 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 229 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 230 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 231 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 232 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 233 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 234 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 235 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 236 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 237 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 238 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 239 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 240 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 241 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 242
Next page>>