Read Online Seven Kings: Books of the Shaper: Volume 2 by John R. Fultz - Free Book Online Page B

girl was sensitive to her mother’s moods. He must remain aloof, silent, strong … ever the King … ever the Giant-Lord, the Son of Vod.
    All day he sat upon the high rock, so deep in his own thoughts that he did not notice the sun eventually setting at his back. Elbows on his knees, chin on his crossed forearms, he sat well into the evening until the white fox came. It scrabbled up the hillside noisily so that he heard its coming. He knew its perfume before he ever saw it. The jasmine scent reminded him of cold snow and hot skin.
    Starlight shimmered on the fox’s pale coat as it loped near to him, pink tongue lolling, black nose steaming in the night. Its dark eyes blinked as it rubbed its cheek across his outstretched hand. It licked his face and whimpered. A sudden mist rose from the hilltop and Alua leaned against him now in her true form. His lips met hers in a deep kiss, followed by a flurry of lesser ones. Freed from the prying eyes of the royal court, their passion danced like a flame stoked by burning winds. They spoke no words; their bodies said everything of importance. After the lovemaking they lay together in the moonlight, arms and legs tangled, blades of torn grass across their thighs.
    “Why did you seek me here?” he asked.
    She rested her head upon his brawny chest. “Why did you leave in the middle of the night?”
    He sighed. What to tell her? “I was troubled,” he said. “I dreamed … a sea of blood.”
    She stiffened against him.
    “What have you come to tell me?” he asked.
    She hesitated, pulling away from him, running hands through her thick blonde hair.
    Suddenly his thoughts fell to their daughter. “Where is Maelthyn?”
    Alua turned her narrow black eyes to him. “She is safe – six Uduri guard her chamber.”
    He nodded, glad of it. Yet there was something she had not told him yet. Something that drew her from the child’s side and across the deep forest to this lonely crag. He felt it in his bones. He waited for her to say what it was.
    “Your dream was true,” she said, staring at the silver disk of moon. Her voice was heavy with concern. “Last night in a tavern on the Street of Vines, eleven legionnaires were slain. They were off duty and enjoying themselves. Three serving girls and the taverner were also killed.”
    Vireon’s brow knotted. Street violence was rare in Udurum. In such a prosperous city the citizens had little reason to kill one another. And the presence of the Ninety-Nine Uduri kept most Men in line.
    “A quarrel with the sellswords of some foreign merchant?”
    Alua shook her head. “No. They were slaughtered by some kind of beast.”
    Vireon stood and pulled on his mail shirt.
    The madness spreads …
    “What beast could enter my city?” he asked. “Do we have witnesses?”
    “None,” said Alua. She rose to stare at him, her hand on his bare chest. “Somehow … nobody saw the killing.”
    “Then how can you be sure it was a beast?”
    “Or beasts,” she said. “I saw the remains. Nothing human could have … Their
hearts
were missing. Torn from out of their breasts.” She looked away to the south. The towers of Udurumwere lost in deepening night. “Some new sorcery has arrived. I
feel
it.”
    He wrapped his arms around her. “So do I.”
    He said nothing of the Curse of Fangodrel, though he was sure it had begun.
    They came down and met the Uduri camped at the foot of the hill. Vireon ran with the Giantesses while Alua kept pace as the white fox. Before sunrise they reached the gates of the city. Early crowds of laborers shuffled aside to make way for Vireon and his tall escorts. He went directly to the Street of Vines to inspect the scene of the massacre. The hinged sign hanging above the tavern’s wooden door depicted three white horses prancing on a green background. A squad of human sentinels stood about the wooden building in black bronze corselets and pointed helms gilded by the new day’s sun. The soldiers were haggard, having