Gods of Blood and Fire - A. J. Strickler Page 0,194

while, but there was no way she would stay inside the tunnel any longer than she had to, the place just felt wrong.

Isabella was moving much faster than she was and it was hard for Raygan to keep up. From the light of the flicking torch, she could see runes carved on the walls of the tunnel. They were strange and made her feel odd just to look at them. Who would have spent so long cutting those into the solid rock and why?

She was getting tired and hurting worse and was just about at the end of her endurance when they stopped.

Raygan saw Isabella was pulling on a lever that jutted out of the rock wall. “I followed Siro down here once and found this place,” the girl said.

Raygan saw a sliver of light, the blonde girl pushed a door open, and they stepped out into the daylight.

Raygan realized that they had come out of a huge old tree. She could see the tower only a short distance away. That was not all she saw. There was a woman stand just off to their right.

She was dressed in a simple white dress. Her beauty was undeniable, even Raygan was captivated by the woman. Long hair, black as a crow’s wing, fell in beautiful waves well past her shoulders. The white dress she wore was modest but showed the remarkable shape of her body. Raygan noticed the woman was also barefoot, but it was her dark eyes that caught the Queen’s attention. They were a bottomless pit that seemed to swallow her with their intense beauty. She smiled at them and Raygan thought if she were a man she would have just fallen in love.

“I’m glad to see you ladies have escaped the tower. My name is Octavia, and I have a favor to ask.”

***

“A ship call the Witches’ Song sailed into Grey Harbor; it was captained by a man named Nasir Sana, a Sidian. He had come far to the north looking for exotic slaves. Captain and crew came to the Heavenly Hole for a night of drinking and whoring. When this Nasir saw your mother, he had to have her. He ordered her taken aboard his ship. When the other whores tried to stop him, he and his men killed them all. Then the slavers sailed out of Thieves Port under the cover of night.”

Kian looked away from the wizard. “Then my brother must have been killed by these slavers as well?”

The Dark One shook his head. “No, who do you think told me the story?” Kian’s head whipped around.

“You knew my brother?”

“Yes, I will get to that, do you wish me to finish or not?”

Kian nodded eagerly. He so very much needed to know what happened to his family, he almost forgot who was telling the tale.

“Well, from what I understand, your brother followed the slavers. It took him several years to reach Sidia; apparently he had several misadventures along the way, some nasty business with pirates, and he mentioned a brief encounter with the Circle of Thirteen, but that is another matter and not important. Your brother was very long-winded in telling his tale and a bit on the dramatic side for my taste. Anyway, he reached Sidia and began to search for your mother and Nasir Sana.

“Late one night while drinking at a tavern in the Sidian city of Bosic, he heard that Nasir had taken a special slave to the city beyond the black gate. Your fool of a brother followed the information he had overheard and passed through the black gate into that dreaded city.

“If you have never been there, you cannot understand what kind of place it is. There are no words to describe what goes on there. The only one that comes close is evil. The very ground of that city stinks of it.

“To his credit, your brother survived the dangers of the Beast’s domain. He searched through the place for months. Finally, your brother made the place his home, finding a vocation and settling into a daily routine.

“He never stopped looking for her though. He hounded the residents of the city for information, he even got under the skin of some of the local wizards that make the city their home.

“That is when I first learned of him. I was an assassin. I had just become a member of Kabash Sar, the heartless ones. I was instructed to become your brother’s friend and gain his trust. You see, he had