One side of his lips curled ever so slightly. “Do you know this for certain? Just because you haven’t seen them doesn’t mean that one of them isn’t chained to the altar at this very moment awaiting our arrival. How do you know I haven’t ordered that done so you can see him there as you walk down the aisle?”
“You have me confused with the one marrying you.”
“It is my goal to make our unique relationship last much longer than my marriage.”
A pair of Khrynsani entered bearing ornate robes draped over their arms.
“Perfect timing, gentlemen,” Nukpana said. One of the guards held Sarad Nukpana’s shirt for him. As Nukpana buttoned it, he continued to speak to me as if they weren’t there. “Since you will play such a critical role in tonight’s ceremonies, you should know the schedule of events. If we begin at moonrise, and nothing unforeseen delays the ceremony, I should be able to take care of all of your dear ones before dawn. They will go first to ensure that enough remains of your mind for you to be fully aware of every agony they will endure at my hands before they are allowed to die. Then the Saghred will pick up where I left off, to make certain that you share your loved ones’ terror and despair as they realize that their suffering is as eternal as the Saghred. It will be a long night’s work, but worth the effort in so many ways.”
The next guard held up a purple robe for Nukpana that was embroidered in silver.
“Tamnais’s family will go first, including Kesyn Badru,” he continued. “Once I have eradicated the stain of the Nathrach bloodline, I will put an appropriate end to Tamnais. Imala Kalis betrayed me and played the late King Sathrik for a fool, which in all honesty wasn’t that difficult. Traitors deserve to endure a death as long as their betrayal. Imala betrayed us for years, so she will suffer accordingly.”
Nukpana lifted his arms so a scarlet sash could be wrapped around his waist. “As a reward for all of his valuable information, I’m allowing Carnades Silvanus the honor of dispatching one of the sacrifices. He feels that it is fitting—and I agree—that he be allowed to perform a sacrifice himself. It will also show my subjects that even though he is an elf, Magus Silvanus is a valued partner. Carnades selected Paladin Eiliesor, and I’ve granted his request. He asked for the nightingale as well, but I refused him.” He turned to the guards. “Leave us.”
Sarad Nukpana approached me again. “I have an intense dislike for leaving what I believe are called loose ends. Without your cunning, Piaras Rivalin would not have escaped death that night in Mermeia; even that magnificent voice of his would not have saved him. Thanks to you, he escaped and has lived to cause me no end of trouble, nearly as much as you yourself.” The goblin leaned in to me, his lips soft against my ear. “You will have to tell me what it feels like to have your nightingale’s soul pulled through you as the last of his life’s blood washes over the Saghred. Not only to watch, but to share in his death, then to feel his soul struggle in vain, imprisoned for eternity in the stone.” His voice dropped to caress. “But what I most want you to share with me, through each torment and every death, is what it feels like to know with absolute certainty that there is nothing,
He left me like that, shaking with terror and rage.
So much for keeping my fear from turning into mindless terror.
Chapter 20
Not that out there was much better than in here. The temple’s doors looked out over Execution Square. The Blood Moon was rising over the Mal’Salin palace, unless Sarad Nukpana had already ordered it renamed.
The enormity of what the goblin would begin tonight with Deidre Nathrach swept over me, bringing with it a wave of nausea. Innocent people were about to be slaughtered because they chose to fight rather than surrender to the whims of a madman. The men and women now filling the temple, the sheep following Sarad Nukpana, would live but only because he allowed it. For now. When he ran out of those who had the backbone to oppose him, those sheep would find themselves herded to the slaughter. Some of them had to know it; others were in blissful denial, no doubt thinking that agreeing with everything Nukpana said or did or ordered them to do would protect them. By the time they realized otherwise, everyone who could have saved them would already be dead.
At that point, no one anywhere would be safe from Sarad Nukpana once he eventually killed me and took control of the Saghred. His ego let him believe that he would be the one in charge. I’d had the Saghred living in my head for the past three months and knew differently. Nukpana and the scores who came before him were nothing but slaves to provide for the stone’s needs while believing the stone was there to serve them. The Saghred would make Nukpana its bond servant only because it knew he would feed and use it. The rock would latch onto him like the soul-sucking parasite it was, though it couldn’t steal his sanity. Not because Sarad Nukpana was strong enough to prevent it, but because the rock couldn’t take what had never been there to begin with.
No one else was coming up the temple steps from Execution Square. Everyone who was going to be allowed inside was already there. I still held out hope that Mychael, Tam, and company were somewhere among them.
Princess Mirabai was ahead of me and surrounded by eerily silent guards in immaculate formal armor. The bride would make the big entrance; I was just the flower girl. I glanced down at the manacles encircling my wrists—okay, maybe the ring bearer.
At an unspoken signal, the temple guards around me snapped to attention, and an armored hand in the middle of my back gave me a shove to get me moving. I guess Khrynsani never used words when a shove would do. I started forward, my guards spacing themselves so that they could get their hands or weapons on me, but still giving everyone we passed a clear view of their new king’s catch of the day.
I had once been inside a cathedral in southern Pengor. The only way I had been able to see the ceiling had been to tilt my head back as far as it would go. Until this moment, it had been the largest indoor space I’d ever been in. The Khrynsani temple was no cathedral; absolutely nothing was sacred about the acts committed here. The lighting was dim enough to be comfortable to goblin eyes, but bright enough that I’d be able to see everything that happened. Sarad Nukpana probably saw to that detail personally.
The floor beneath my feet was dark and polished; I was going to guess black marble, since that seemed to be an all-encompassing decorating theme in this place. Ten gigantic columns, each ringed with huge lightglobes like bands of blue stars, rose from the floor like ancient trees. I could just make out the faint outline of arches reaching like skeletal arms toward the vaulted ceiling.
The temple was completely packed with people. There had to have been thousands of them.
I had no idea Sarad Nukpana had that many friends, or that many people who were desperate that Nukpana think they were his friends. Even if my friends were still free, what could they do against thousands of goblins and probably hundreds of Khrynsani either in the temple itself or within call, all eager to prove how loyal they were to their new king? Our plan had depended on destroying the Saghred before Nukpana began his twisted ceremony, before the place was packed with Saghred-loving goblins. How the hell could we possibly pull this off now?
I didn’t realize I had stopped until I got another shove in the back. I growled over my shoulder. The goblins I could see were either in Khrynsani robes or uniforms, goblin army uniforms, or finery that only nobility could afford. No common people were to be seen. It sucked six ways from yesterday when your enemy’s support base consisted of a kingdom’s most powerful people.
Princess Mirabai’s passing had caused a ripple. I caused something just short of a tidal wave. Gasps rolled through the crowd, and the goblins I passed drew back in fear as I walked down the aisle. I was chained and still Sarad Nukpana’s allies feared me.
Apparently Nukpana hadn’t told his new subjects that I didn’t have access to the Saghred’s magic. In a way, that made sense; it was even a good call on his part. After all, it wouldn’t be impressive to force a chained mundane to come to the altar and endure eternal torture. Nukpana was having me paraded before his subjects to show how he could defeat and control even one with powers as great as mine. That would have these people thinking that if he could do that to someone like me, someone like them would be smart to shake in their handmade boots. Though what was good for the gander might be even better for the goose. If the chance came to make a break for it, I’d much rather have people too terrified to get anywhere near me, let alone try to take me on.
