Phoenix in Shadow - eARC Read Free Page A

monster! I’m beyond fear of anyone, even you!”
    Its eyes narrowed, and the blue was like frozen sea. “Have a care, Condor.”
    “I have no care at all , for all that I had left to care for —once you and Shrike had done with me—is gone. I will at the least follow, for once, the true path of my name, for I want vengeance .”
    It raised an eyebrow. “As do we all, in our own way. I have hardly barred you—any of you—from hunting down this Phoenix. Indeed, I urge you all to the hunt frequently, and have begun...my own little investigations as well.”
    “NO!”
    Actual surprise showed in the falsely-human eyes when it found Skyvault at its throat, and Condor continued. “I don’t want you involved at all! Phoenix is mine! ”
    It stood still, studying him.
    “But I’m not stupid. This Phoenix killed Mist Owl, killed...killed my sirza .”
    “And Thornfalcon, but hours agone,” the creature said, its voice unaffected by the threat of the blade.
    Aran paused in his rage, momentary shock forcing him to re-evaluate the situation. He knew—none better—just what a monster Thornfalcon had been.
    But this only reinforced his current point. “So, he killed your favorite, too. Phoenix broke Shrike’s axe, carved up one...no, two other Raiments now. I’m good, but I’m not that good.”
    It reached up and gently pushed the blade down with irresistable force. “Interesting. If I choose not to take your soul for daring to draw sword on me, what then is it you want?”
    “You know perfectly well. I want power to match Phoenix’s, to out match anything that Myrionar can give its last servant. I want to face Phoenix down, myself, and kill him or her and spit on their grave. I want to rip out their guts and let them die slowly and rot on some forgotten hillside the way Phoenix would have let my father rot.” He had to force the words out through tears and a snarl of gritted teeth.
    Their leader suddenly burst out in laughter, a sound so warm and human that Aran shuddered despite his rage and determination. No wonder that no one suspects a thing.
    “And you think I can give you that power, Condor? Do you realize what Thornfalcon was? That I had already given him much power the rest of you lacked, and still he was finished—and rather handily too, or so it would seem—by this Phoenix?” It was smiling in a way that sent shivers down his spine, and a distant part of him was screaming that he should back down, change his mind, run. But in the front of his mind he saw a beloved face in a death grimace, black-caked blood around a shattered piece of metal, and flies hovering for the feast.
    “If you can’t, then you are finished too, because the Phoenix will find this place—and you—eventually, even if they don’t catch you outside when you’re fooling the rest of the world! You’ve openly mocked the Balanced Sword enough—are you going to back down? Tell me that Myrionar is, after all, more powerful than us, and we’re all doomed?”
    For a moment It regarded him, still with that gentle smile that seemed to imply terror beyond imagining. “No...no, I would not say that. Myrionar’s power is vastly diminished, for in these centuries at my work it has been eroded, slowly, surely, but nigh-completely. This is a final desperation move, the only one left to a deity in Myrionar’s position. But just as a cornered animal, even wounded, can be surprisingly dangerous, so it is with a near-ended god. All they have left will be devoted to this final Champion. I have many things to devote my own attention to, for—as you learned some time ago—this is but one small part of the grand design. I have such power, perhaps, but I cannot give it to you—especially since, alas, I have seen you are less than dedicated to our ideals, unlike Thornfalcon.”
    Condor wanted to lash out again at the urbanely-smiling mask in front of him, but he knew that would end any hope of revenge by ending his life. “So you’re saying