Arm Of Galemar (Book 2)
Read Arm Of Galemar (Book 2) Online
Authors: Damien Lake
Arm of Galemar
Book Two of
The Chronicles of
the Crimson Kings
By
Damien Lake
ARM OF GALEMAR
Copyright © 2014 by Damien Lake
Written by Damien Lake
Cover and maps created by Kryslin Franks
Version 1.2
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places
and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business
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Thank you for purchasing an authorized copy of this
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Dedication
This novel, my second and in many ways trickier than
the first, is dedicated to my mother. Her success in writing inspired me to
chase the dream. Many times I might have abandoned the endeavor if she hadn’t
shown me that starting something is easy, but finishing it is the hardest part.
Hundreds of palms beat rhythmically on small drums.
The pulse echoed through the cavern in a titan’s heartbeat. Torches blazed
around the altar, their flickers spawning shadows that danced on the edge of
vision. Wet heat turned skin sweaty and sticky beneath acid green robes.
Secunda’s neck shivered in anticipation.
She was not alone in that, but no one disrupted the
undercurrent by slowing their steady pounding. Every man and woman in the
cavern’s gloom wore ceremonial daggers swinging from chains around their
necks. The sharp edge seemed to cut through robe and skin every time the instrument
swept across her chest.
Throughout the hidden underground world, acolytes
clawed at their left breasts with their free hand when the ceremony peaked.
Fingernails dug cruelly, the congregation scratching as if to tear out their
own hearts. Secunda did likewise, and was thankful that her robe, thin as it
was, protected against her long nails even as she shook with the desire to dig
deeper into her flesh.
The drumming beats twined around Cardinal Xenos as he
finished anointing the Offering. Stretched taut across the stone altar lay a
naked man. Though Xenos’ ritual words were soft, they drowned the Offering’s
terrified shouts.
Once the last water droplets poured over tortured
flesh, Cardinal Xenos laid aside his silver pitcher. On the man’s limbs had
been etched divine symbols, branded inch by inch using the razors heating in
the coals of the altar’s braziers. The dark silhouettes marked his fate.
Twin knife handles protruded from the Offering’s
shoulders. Bulges under his flesh marked where the blades twisted meat away
from the bone. His feet were scarlet lumps, the toes a ragged bird’s nest of
ruin. Blood welled from innumerable contusions.
The Offering screamed through broken vocal chords and
struggled when the cardinal took up his stone knife. It went unnoticed by
those assembled.
Secunda was caught in religious ecstasy. She felt the
raw power of god coursing through her. Her breath came in shorter hitches
while she watched.
Xenos laid his hand on the Offering’s chest. He
increased the amount of priestly power infusing the prone man. Throughout the
ceremony, a lesser amount had denied the man escape into unconsciousness. The
cardinal’s god-power would keep the man aware during the final rituals. As a
Sacred Offering, he must acknowledge the tremendous honor being bestowed upon
him. To give all that he was to god, to offer every fragment of one’s self;
such ultimate service must be realized before entering the eternal darkness.
Despite her understanding of this holy truth, Secunda
shivered at the thought of being the one to end up on the altar. During each
ceremony she vowed to cast away her fear, to embrace god and accept the Ritual
of Offering with proper gratitude if her time ever came. After every service
she glowed with the pure desire to Offer her life. And yet somehow, selfish
fear crept into her soul in the days between.
Cardinal Xenos rested his obsidian knife against the
man’s left breast. Specially crafted, the stone knives of the true believers
could slice as precisely as the finest steel. Careful, exact, Xenos opened the
chest cavity over the heart. The Offering writhed in religious fervor,
everyone assembled noted, calling out to god as was proper. He’d been a
heretic snooper found investigating their caverns. Now he discovered god’s
truth in the end. His lost soul was being saved. Secunda’s shivering ecstasy
built at witnessing this salvation.
The cardinal’s power kept the Offering conscious while
he peeled back skin and muscle, then broke away the ribs protecting the heart,
the core of the body’s life energy. He paused before the congregation for the
ceremony’s culmination. Xenos was magnificent before their eyes. Secunda’s
own mage tallent felt his power gather when he raised his right arm.
His hand slowly morphed. The fingers elongated. The
muscles bulged. His fingernails grew to three inches, sharp as daggers, harder
than steel. Veins bulged through his flesh until the digits looked like
vine-wrapped tree branches. Unseen to all in the crowd except the mage-talented
Red Robes, the cardinal also touched the Offering with his power, drawing the
man’s awareness up past the intense pain.
Xenos displayed his god-hand in front of the man’s
terrified eyes. He reached into his yawning chest. Like a raptor’s talons, the
cardinal slowly pierced the pulsing heart with five long fingernails.
New screams erupted. They were accompanied by
gurgling undertones that created a duet of salvation. Dark heart’s blood
gushed up the remaining length of Xenos’ nails to coat his hand. The cardinal
ignored the blood drenching his sleeve and continued his slow pace.
Secunda’s legs trembled. She watched with her mage
vision while the core of energy within the Offering fluctuated wildly. Xenos’
fingertips penetrated the flesh. Blood sprayed in a red blossom. Her euphoria
was nearly uncontainable. When the cardinal suddenly squeezed his fingers and
pulverized the Offering’s heart, his life energies exploded away, freed from
the heretic body that had held them prisoner.
The ecstasy erupted in orgasmic waves. Her whole body
shook. Her climactic screams were lost in the thunderous praises bellowed by
her fellow believers. Participating in god’s holy work brought her to greater
physical fulfillment than sex ever had. She fell to her knees, her faith and
zeal renewed, ready to Offer her life without hesitation. Many around her did
the same.
When she eventually returned to her senses, the drums
had ceased. Most acolytes were leaving to attend the tasks bestowed upon them
as true believers. Xenos stood by the altar with his dripping hand hanging at
his side. Secunda made to leave as well until Xenos pointed at her with one
gore-streaked finger.
“Archbishop Secunda. I have words for you.”
Hesitation meant weakness. She walked to him immediately
while inside she reviewed all the reasons the cardinal might demand her
presence.
Is it my turn then? I am ready.
She skirted the yawning pit before the altar. Xenos
casually cut the ropes binding the Offering and rolled the body off the stone
top. It tumbled into the drop where the darkness quickly swallowed it whole.
Where the pit emptied, how far the body fell, she neither knew nor cared. What
happened to the flesh after its life force had been sent to god did not matter.
Xenos spoke while his fingers twisted in every
direction, writhing like rats in a crazed frenzy, reforming into his normal
hand. “I have a task. Despite your past failings, I feel you might be best
suited for it.”
His words stung. Secunda had the spent the last eighteen
months in a mixed state of determination and fear. Fear because she had failed
the cardinal’s primary objective in the Rovasii Forest. Determination because
she had vowed to never fail him again.
“I have purged my soul of weakness, your eminence. I will
succeed in any task you set me.”
He flicked his wrist, sending away a blood arc. “This
is not a task requiring skill or talent. Or no talents beyond your
limitations. I need not misplace my faith a second time.”
Secunda felt struck.
Does he no longer think me
capable?
Instead, the cardinal suddenly reached out. He seized
her left breast harshly in his bloodied hand. She started to step back, then
barely stopped in time. His palm pressed against the hard pebble showing
through the green fabric.
“I believe you have the talent required for what I
have in mind.” His gaze studied her face. She knew he eyed the post-climactic
flush still coloring her cheeks.
“Your eminence.” Whatever he wanted, she would
deliver it with perfect results. No one would perform the job better.
“I’ve decided our young monarch would be well served
taking marriage vows. There is a chance I might need to travel in service to
our ambitions, so there must remain in place a check against his misbehavior.”
Secunda’s eyes widened in surprise. “The king?”
“Indeed. Do you not think it time he married, my dear
Marchioness? Are not the court nobles clamoring for heirs?”
“Yes, they are.”
“Then we must keep them satiated. As long as they
have a steady stream of gossip fodder, they aren’t causing trouble. And you
can use your
talents
,” he said coldly, tightening his grip, “to keep the
king in line.”
“In service to god.” She bowed her head.
“Never forget it. Do not allow your lust to cloud
your senses.”
Her flush deepened. “I’ll never fail you again.”
“See that you do not.” Xenos released her. “I will
begin bringing the king around to the idea tonight. Be in court every day from
here on. I will direct his eye toward you, and away from other candidates.”
The cardinal departed. She left as well, making for
her apartment within the catacombs. An appearance in the court required
detailed preparation. In that arena, mistakes could be as deadly as those made
down here in the hidden temple.
Xenos
did
still trust her. His distrust would
have long since placed her on the altar. Fouling this mission would be more
than an inconvenience. It could expose them all. He would never have selected
anyone in whom he harbored doubts.
She studied her reflection in the mirror, making sure
she was ready for the responsibility. The bloody handprint over her heart was
a promise on the price of failure.
