Read Online The Queen of Thieves: The Line of Kings Trilogy Book Three by Craig R. Saunders, Craig Saunders - Free Book Online

Rena for the use of her skills. He would never ask for a witch's
skills, but something was prickling his own senses...something he could not
quite put a finger on, a disturbance in the forest, maybe. Maybe it was just
the animals fleeing the wicked stench.
                But he thought not.
                'I do not know,' said
Rena. She too held her nose. Even the babe was restless, squalling from within
the snug folds of the sling under Rena's thick coat.
                'There is
something...something...like a tang on my tongue...a bitterness in the air...'
said Rena, finally.
                'Let's move closer.
Maybe we will see something that can explain this...slaughter.'
                The stench was
unbearable, but both agreed that they needed to witness the barbarity that had
befallen the village, if only to be able to tell the world of Haven's demise.
                Gingerly, they
approached the smoking pyre, stacked high with bodies. It seemed every man,
woman and child had been thrown in a heap to burn. Even through the haze of the
heat that rested in the charred bodies, Rena could see that wounds had been
inflicted on the bodies before they were killed.
                Weapons, too,
littered the snowy ground around the village. Haven had not given in without a
fight. There was no blood around in the snow, but the snow fell thick and fast
and it may have already been covered over. Whatever violence had preceded their
disposal on the pyre, it had not saved any from the final indignity of the
flame.
                'It looks as though
they did not, or could not, put up much of a fight...' said Rena, looking for
confirmation to Asram.
                Asram nodded, thinking
hard, scanning the treeline. He was loath to admit it, but this seemed to be
Rena's domain. Magic.
                What else could have
defeated an entire village? Most, too, were no strangers to violence.
                Rena echoed his
thoughts, speaking the word quietly, as though fearful of waking the dead.
                'Magic,' she said,
almost under her breath. Her babe hushed, too, for an instant, feeling his
mother's disquiet, perhaps.
                'We must go,' said
Asram, finally. He laid a hand on Rena's arm to lead her away. Rena let him.
She hardly noticed his hand resting on her arm.
                As she turned she saw
a movement in one of the houses.
                'Asram,' she said.
'Someone lives...'
                'Where?' he said. She
was thankful for his unquestioning belief. She did not think she could take an
argument. Her nerves were frayed. Her hair felt as though it stood on end. Some
echo of an unknown magic tainted the village, and the longer she spent under
its miasma, the worse she began to feel.
                It was a dark, foul
magic that hung over the village, and the feel was getting stronger.
                'In that house...I
saw...' But she didn't have time to finish the sentence, as at that moment the
authors of the horror in the village stepped forth from the borders of the
forest. They came forward, in no rush. There was no need to rush. Rena and
Asram were entirely surrounded.
                The babe screamed.
Rena tried to shush him, but little Tarn felt their fear. There was nowhere to
run. No fight to be had. Rena tried to count, but could not. It was not an
army, but there must have been a hundred...a hundred of those creatures like
those she now knew to be Hierarchs...
                And yet, these were
different. From their garb alone, Rena could see they were different. No
assassins, these creatures, but warriors. Soldiers. Invaders.
                And murderers, each
and every one of them.           
                She felt like
screaming herself. She had followed Asram unquestioningly, with her babe