Read Online Empires of Moth (The Moth Saga, Book 2) by Daniel Arenson - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Daniel Arenson
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every bed, Koyee paused and held out a bottle of
silverdream, a milky medicine of mushrooms in deep caves. It would
not cure these people, for there was no cure for the Sunlit Curse,
but it could ease their pain. She dripped two drops into every mouth
and whispered a prayer.
"The stars of the night
will bless you, child of Eloria. The moonlight will glow upon you. We
are the night."
Her words and medicine sent them
into shivering, feverish sleep, their eyes moving behind their lids,
their gums smacking, their curling fingers reaching out to those
stars, awaiting their journey to the world beyond.
More creaks and clanks rose in
the hall. Other Sisters of Harmony, humanoid birds with their beaks
and hats, moved between the beds. The sisters prayed, soothed, and
poured their medicine. They moved like clattering marionettes,
wheeling out the beds of those succumbed to the illness, angels of
death escorting famished, rotted bodies into the darkness.
As Koyee stood above a young
girl, praying as the child's breath faded into stillness, tears
splashed her lenses. She missed The Green Geode. She even missed
living in the alleyways, scrounging through trash to survive. But
inside her beak, she tightened her lips and raised her chin.
In
The Green Geode, I played music for those who brought this curse upon
us, she thought. Here
I heal their victims. Here I suffer. Here I am noble.
The Sunlit Curse killed Madori
the yezyana; a Sister of Harmony rose from the ashes, a phoenix of
leather and glass.
After passing by every bed,
Koyee left the hall and walked down dark corridors, nodding her beak
at those sisters she passed. She had been serving in the Sisterhood
for twenty turns now—not yet a moon—though it seemed like a year.
In all this time, she had not even seen the faces of her sisters, for
they dared not remove their beaks unless alone in their chambers.
She reached bronze doors where
two sisters stood, their robes and beaks black, and they held not
medicine but halberds of cruel, twisting iron. As Koyee approached,
they nodded, opened the doors, and watched her through their glass
lenses as she passed. Twice since Koyee had joined the Sisterhood,
patients had tried to leave the hospice's eastern wing. Twice had
these guards, sisters trained not to heal but to kill, slain the
dying.
"Bless you, my sisters,"
Koyee said.
"Bless you, Sister of
Harmony," they replied in unison, voices muffled inside their
beaks. "Seek solace in shadow, for the sun rises."
She repeated the chant—the
words of the Sisterhood—and stepped into a second hall. The doors
closed behind her, sealing the screams, the pain, and the miasma of
death.
In this new chamber, bronze
baths stood full of steaming water. Soaps and brushes hung from pegs.
Slowly, buckle by buckle, Koyee removed her outfit. She placed her
brimmed hat upon a peg. She unlaced the mask that enveloped her head,
emptied the beak's spices into a bowl, and hung the device upon a
rack. Finally she removed her thick robes and boots, remaining nude
in the chamber of steam.
She stepped into a tub and
scrubbed her skin raw, removing any hint of the disease that might
have invaded her suit. She did not know what caused the illness,
whether it was evil spirits, an invisible cloud of black magic, or a
stench that invaded through the nostrils. Whatever the case, she
would scrub every trace off, even as her skin turned raw and red. In
wisps of steam and ripples in water, she thought she glimpsed Eelani
bathing too, her invisible friend—no larger than her hand—scrubbing
off the illness.
After toweling herself dry,
Koyee dressed herself in the simple, white robes the sisters wore in
their chambers. The silk caressed her skin, soothing the sting of the
brushes.
She left the bathing chamber,
walked upstairs, and entered her small chamber. It was no larger than
her room in The Green Geode—a humble cube containing a bed, a table,
and a chair, all forged of the same unadorned iron. A painting
silverdream, a milky medicine of mushrooms in deep caves. It would
not cure these people, for there was no cure for the Sunlit Curse,
but it could ease their pain. She dripped two drops into every mouth
and whispered a prayer.
"The stars of the night
will bless you, child of Eloria. The moonlight will glow upon you. We
are the night."
Her words and medicine sent them
into shivering, feverish sleep, their eyes moving behind their lids,
their gums smacking, their curling fingers reaching out to those
stars, awaiting their journey to the world beyond.
More creaks and clanks rose in
the hall. Other Sisters of Harmony, humanoid birds with their beaks
and hats, moved between the beds. The sisters prayed, soothed, and
poured their medicine. They moved like clattering marionettes,
wheeling out the beds of those succumbed to the illness, angels of
death escorting famished, rotted bodies into the darkness.
As Koyee stood above a young
girl, praying as the child's breath faded into stillness, tears
splashed her lenses. She missed The Green Geode. She even missed
living in the alleyways, scrounging through trash to survive. But
inside her beak, she tightened her lips and raised her chin.
In
The Green Geode, I played music for those who brought this curse upon
us, she thought. Here
I heal their victims. Here I suffer. Here I am noble.
The Sunlit Curse killed Madori
the yezyana; a Sister of Harmony rose from the ashes, a phoenix of
leather and glass.
After passing by every bed,
Koyee left the hall and walked down dark corridors, nodding her beak
at those sisters she passed. She had been serving in the Sisterhood
for twenty turns now—not yet a moon—though it seemed like a year.
In all this time, she had not even seen the faces of her sisters, for
they dared not remove their beaks unless alone in their chambers.
She reached bronze doors where
two sisters stood, their robes and beaks black, and they held not
medicine but halberds of cruel, twisting iron. As Koyee approached,
they nodded, opened the doors, and watched her through their glass
lenses as she passed. Twice since Koyee had joined the Sisterhood,
patients had tried to leave the hospice's eastern wing. Twice had
these guards, sisters trained not to heal but to kill, slain the
dying.
"Bless you, my sisters,"
Koyee said.
"Bless you, Sister of
Harmony," they replied in unison, voices muffled inside their
beaks. "Seek solace in shadow, for the sun rises."
She repeated the chant—the
words of the Sisterhood—and stepped into a second hall. The doors
closed behind her, sealing the screams, the pain, and the miasma of
death.
In this new chamber, bronze
baths stood full of steaming water. Soaps and brushes hung from pegs.
Slowly, buckle by buckle, Koyee removed her outfit. She placed her
brimmed hat upon a peg. She unlaced the mask that enveloped her head,
emptied the beak's spices into a bowl, and hung the device upon a
rack. Finally she removed her thick robes and boots, remaining nude
in the chamber of steam.
She stepped into a tub and
scrubbed her skin raw, removing any hint of the disease that might
have invaded her suit. She did not know what caused the illness,
whether it was evil spirits, an invisible cloud of black magic, or a
stench that invaded through the nostrils. Whatever the case, she
would scrub every trace off, even as her skin turned raw and red. In
wisps of steam and ripples in water, she thought she glimpsed Eelani
bathing too, her invisible friend—no larger than her hand—scrubbing
off the illness.
After toweling herself dry,
Koyee dressed herself in the simple, white robes the sisters wore in
their chambers. The silk caressed her skin, soothing the sting of the
brushes.
She left the bathing chamber,
walked upstairs, and entered her small chamber. It was no larger than
her room in The Green Geode—a humble cube containing a bed, a table,
and a chair, all forged of the same unadorned iron. A painting
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