Lunatic Read Free

grabbed Marak by the collar, and pulled their faces close. "I want those albinos dead. All of them, no excuses. And since you can't seem to do the job yourself, not only will you be taking Sucrow's help, you will report to him."
    Marak bit back something rash. Sucrow was listening with his silent gloating, his eternal sneer plastered on his face, and it drove Marak mad. Over his dead body would he take orders from a priest.
    "My lord, there is no need-"
    "Do you require further penalty, General?"
    Marak braced himself, swallowed his pride. "No, my lord."
    "You had better hope not, General."

arsal's eyes flew open. She lay half on her back, half on her left shoulder. Silvie whispered to her, strong hand shaking her to consciousness.
    "You hit your head." Silvie's voice was breathy, barely audible.
    Right in Darsal's ear.
    A crack of light penetrated through a hole in the floor and one window. Dim yellow beams revealed a low, slanted ceiling. Outside the window were spindly brown tree branches, filtering down to two large trunks.
    Dust filled her nostrils. An attic.
    The rank morning breath of someone's ragged, heavy breathing sounded in her ears. Johnis, his face only inches from hers, peered through a crack. He was shaking, face white and taut, lip firmly clenched between his teeth. The light shone across his straining brown eye, making it gleam like a fish's, huge and round.

    Darsal smelled the familiar stench of rotting meat. She gasped and rolled into a crouch.
    "Shh!" One of Silvie's hands clamped on her shoulder, the other over her mouth, trembling. The slender blonde pulled Darsal backward and forced her onto what felt like a wooden crate against her legs and beneath her rump.
    Silvie was cold and stiff. With one hand she still clutched Darsal's shoulder. With the other she now covered her nose and mouth. "We're-we're here." She stifled a sneeze, red faced and looking somewhat sick, as if allergic to something in their little prison.
    Darsal was glad she had not returned alone. But knowing that didn't alleviate the tension. Even ten years hadn't spoiled that smell. Horde. The Horde stench was making Silvie nauseated.
    "Where is here?" Darsal tried to take in the attic space. She'd hoped they would arrive in Middle, where Johnis grew up. Where Thomas Hunter lived and where they were heroes among the Forest Guard, just like Silvie and Johnis promised.
    Instead they were in an attic just above a pack of Scabs.
    The space was only about eight feet wide, with an uneven ceiling possibly seven feet high at the zenith and as short as five feet at its lowest point. Dust particles drifted along in the light. Brooms, boxes, and rope littered the small workspace.
    Johnis didn't budge from the hole in the floor. Half-panicked.

    "Johnis," Darsal hissed. When he didn't move, she shoved him aside and peered through the hole.
    She saw what looked like an odd-shaped war room. The top of an old Scab's head shone white and round beneath them. He was screaming at a young officer who wore tan and reddish yellow. Desert colors. The officer looked dirty, as if he'd just come from a fight, from what Darsal could see.
    A third stood near a torch, covered by a pointed black hood.
    She nearly bolted through the ceiling.
    "Qurong!" Johnis reeled back. "Qurong. And I-I know ... I know where we are."
    Qurong and his new priest and his new general all in one place.
    A knot formed in Darsal's throat. Elyon. Why are we less than ten feet from Scabs? Is this your idea of a joke? "Then that means-"
    Johnis darted for the window, kicking up attic debris. Silvie snatched at him, wild-eyed herself. He fought her, bent on the window.
    "Johnis!" Silvie hissed, pinning one arm. "Quiet!"
    Below them, all conversation stopped. Darsal imagined them gawking at the ceiling, eyes fixed on the small hole above them.
    Johnis, Silvie, and Darsal didn't dare breathe.
    "What's that sound?" Qurong asked.
    Pause.
    "General, continue."
    And Darsal knew. Knew from Johnis's