Angel Fire East Read Free Page A

until he was ready. She felt Wraith stir awake inside, sensing her danger.
    “Let me just say a few things to you, Miss Freemark, and then I’ll go,” Findo Gask said, a bored sigh escaping his lips. “We are not so different, you and I. When I said I know what you are, I meant it. You are your father’s daughter, and we know what he was, don’t we? Perhaps you don’t care much for the reality of your parentage, but truth will out, Miss Freemark. You are what you are, so there isn’t much point in pretending otherwise, though you work very hard at doing so, don’t you?”
    Nest flushed with anger, but Findo Gask waved her off. “I also said I was a minister of the faith. You assumed I meant your faith naturally, but you were mistaken. I am a servant of the Void, and it is the Void’s faith I embrace. You would pretend it is an evil, wicked faith. But that is a highly subjective conclusion. Your faith and mine, like you and I, are not so different. Both are codifications of the higher power we seek to comprehend and, to the extent we are able, manipulate. Both can be curative or destructive. Both have their supporters and their detractors, and each seeks dominance over the other. The struggle between them has been going on for eons; it won’t end today or tomorrow or the day after or anytime soon.”
    He stepped forward, kindly face set in a condescending smile that did nothing to hide the threat behind it. “But one day it will end, and the Word will be destroyed. It will happen, Miss Freemark, because the magic of the Void has always been the stronger of the two. Always. The frailties and weaknesses of mankind are insurmountable. The misguided belief that the human condition is worth salvaging is patently ridiculous. Look at the way the world functions, Miss Freemark. Human frailties and weaknesses abound. Moral corruption here, venal desires there. Greed, envy, sloth, and all the rest at every turn. The followers of the Word rail against them endlessly and futilely. The Void embraces them, and turns a weakness into a strength. Pacifism and meek acceptance? Charity and goodwill? Kindness and virtue? Rubbish!”
    “Mr. Gask—”
    “No, no, hear me out, young lady. A little of that famous courtesy, please.” He cut short her protestation with a sharp hiss. “I don’t tell you this to frighten you. I don’t tell it to you to persuade you of my cause. I could care less what you feel or think about me. I tell it to you to demonstrate the depth of my conviction and my commitment. I am not easily deterred. I want you to understand that my interest in Mr. Ross is of paramount importance. Think of me as a tidal wave and yourself as a sand castle on a beach. Nothing can save you from me if you stand in my way. It would be best for you to let me move you aside. There is no reason for you not to let me do so. None at all. You have nothing vested in this matter. You have nothing to gain by intervening and everything to lose.”
    He paused then, lifting the leather-bound book and pressing it almost reverently against his chest. “These are the names of those who have opposed me, Miss Freemark. The names of the dead. I like to keep track of them, to think back on who they were. I have been alive a very long time, and I shall still be alive long after you are gone.”
    He lowered the book and put a finger to his lips. “This is what I want you to do. You will have no trouble understanding my request, because I will put it to you in familiar terms. In the terms of your own faith. I want you to deny John Ross. I want you to cast him out of your heart and mind and soul as you would a cancer. I want you to shun him as a leper. Do this for yourself, Miss Freemark, not for me. I will have him anyway, in the end. I do not need to claim you as well.”
    Nest was buffeted by so many emotions she could no longer distinguish them. She had kept quiet during the whole of his noxious, execrable presentation, fighting to keep herself