Read Online Sunbolt (The Sunbolt Chronicles) by Intisar Khanani - Free Book Online Page B

 
    “Welcome, ghost-boy,” he says. He tilts his head to study me. The soldiers have pulled my hood back, exposing my face. Thankfully, with my hair shorn short and my grubby tunic and trousers, I look as much a boy as I do a girl. The additional layer of my cloak conceals anything my tunic doesn’t. Apparently, Blackflame’s sources aren’t as informed as they seem: he doesn’t realize that I’m the wrong race.
    “Oh, it’s my pleasure,” I say, keeping my voice as low as I can. I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to keep up the pretense of being the Ghost, but I intend to give my friends as much time as I can. “It’s good to know you’ve been losing sleep over me. Or do you make a habit of personally receiving your prisoners in the middle of the night?”  
    His nostrils flare, and I sense the soldiers shift behind me. I doubt too many people mouth off to him. But then he laughs, and I find I much prefer him angry to amused. “Say what you like now, boy. I’ll hear you screaming for mercy before I’m done with you. I’ll have every name of every person who so much as smiled in your support out of you.”  
    I swallow hard, trying to look unconcerned. I’m not so stupid as to think I’ll last long against a skilled torturer.
    “Nothing to say to that? Ah, I thought you had a bit more courage. You might roar like a lion, but you haven’t the claws to prove it. More of a puppy, I think.”
    “Easily said when you’re standing free with your mercenaries at your beck and call,” I snap. “I’ve never bought my loyalty.” Not that I’ve ever had anyone loyal to me, come to think of it. Not the way he means.
    “A pity. If you had, you might not be here now. I always said you were a fool to trust every man in need of saving.”
    “Degath did need saving.” I try to push myself to my feet. The soldiers holding me shove me back down by my shoulders. “ You turned his daughter against him.”
    He laughs. “Where is the precious girl? Don’t tell me she died with her parents.”
    “No, Master Blackflame,” the captain says. “We’ve done as you ordered. The children are all alive.”
    “As you ordered?” Saira’s voice wavers with disbelief. I can’t imagine how she’s held on for so long. I suppose the alternative, the reality of what she’s done, is too much for her to accept. Twisting my head, I can just make out her form as she clambers down from the prison carriage. “But you promised me my parents would be spared!”
    “You must have misunderstood, my dear. I said I would spare Lord Degath’s life. And, if I’m not mistaken, there he is behind you.”
    Saira wheels around to see her brother at the foot of the carriage, helping Alia down with his good arm. Tarek raises his gaze to Blackflame, squaring his shoulders. “If you think I’m more likely to ally myself with you than my father, you are mistaken,” he says, his voice shaking with fury. “I would rather slit your throat.”
    “How charming.” Blackflame chuckles, shaking his head as if Tarek were a child showing off a new trick. “Little Lord Degath, you are not half so quick as your father. Let me clarify your situation. You are, by all accounts, dead—or whisked off by the League, perhaps. No one will know where you are; no ally will come to your support. No Ghost . I think a few years behind stone walls followed by an execution would do you good.”
    “You’re a monster!” Alia shrieks, holding tight to her brother’s hand.  
    I close my eyes. Blackflame hadn’t mentioned her. Why did she have to draw attention to herself?
    He smiles. “No, little Degath, I am not. But I will be sure to introduce you to one shortly.” He turns to the captain. “Put them in the cages.”

    We are marched down to the dank underbelly of Blackflame’s mansion. The wide room might have felt spacious had it not been for the cages lining one wall and the torture table and instruments set out in the center. Additional