Reckless (Free Preview) Read Free

could be found
belowground.   Just a few gas lamps lit
the vaults that now housed, instead of supplies and dusty trophies, the general
staff of the King of the Goyl.
    Kami’en . In their language, it meant
nothing more than “stone.”   His father
had governed one of the lower cities, but fathers did not count among the Goyl.   It was the mothers who raised them, and
by the age of nine Goyl were considered grown up and had to fend for
themselves.   At that age, most of them
went to explore the Lower World, searching for undiscovered caves until the
heat became too much even for their stone skins.   Kami’en, however, had been interested only in
the world above.   For a long time, he had
lived in one of the cave cities that had been built above-ground after the
lower cities had become too crowded.   There,
he had survived two attacks by the humans, and that’s when he began to study
their weapons and their tactics, snuck into their towns and military camps.   He was nineteen when he conquered his first
human city.
    The guards waved Hentzau in.   Kami’en was standing in front of a map showing
his conquests and the positions of his enemies.   The figurines representing their troops had
been made to his specifications after he’d won his first battle.   The Goyl were carved from carnelian, the
imperials were cast in silver, Lotharaine wore gold, the eastern lords donned
copper, and
Albion
’s troops marched in ivory.   Soldiers, gunners, snipers,
riders for the cavalry.   Kami’en
scrutinized them as if he were searching for a way to beat them all at once.   He was wearing black, as he always did when he
was out of uniform, and more than ever his pale red skin seemed to be made of
fire.   Never before had
carnelian been the color of a leader.   Onyx was the color of the Goyl elite.
    Kami’en’s mistress was wearing green, as usual, layers of
emerald velvet that enveloped her like the petals of a flower.   Even the most beautiful Goyl woman would have
paled next to her, like a pebble next to polished moonstone, but Hentzau always
impressed upon his soldiers not to look at her for too long.   Her beauty was like a spider’s venom, and not
for nothing were there many stories of Fairies who,
with a single glance, had turned men into thistles or helplessly wriggling
fish.   She and her sisters had been born
of water, and Hentzau feared them as much as he feared the seas that gnawed at
the rocks of his world.
    The Fairy gave him a cursory glance as he entered.   The Dark Fairy.   The darkest of them all.   Even her own sisters had cast her out.   Many believed that she could read minds, but
Hentzau didn’t think so.   She would have
long killed him for what he thought about her.
    He turned his back on her and bowed his head to his King.   “You summoned me.”
    Kami’en took one of the silver figurines and weighed it in
his hand.   “I need you to find someone
for me.   A human who is growing petrified
flesh.”
    Hentzau cast a quick glance at the Fairy.
    “Where should I start?” he replied.   “There are already thousands of them.”
    Man-Goyl.   In the past,
Hentzau had used his claws for killing, but now the spell of the Fairy let them
sow petrified flesh.   Like all Fairies,
she could not bear children, so she gave Kami’en sons by letting every strike
of his soldiers’ claws turn one of his human enemies into Goyl.   Nobody fought with less mercy than a Man-Goyl
fighting against his former race, but Hentzau despised them just as much as he
despised the Fairy who had created them with her sorcery.
    A smile had snuck onto Kami’en’s lips . No . The Fairy could not read Hentzau’s thoughts, but his King
could.
    “Don’t worry.   The one
I want you to find can be easily distinguished from the others.”   Kami’en placed the silver figurine back on the
map.   “The skin he is growing is jade.”
    The guards exchanged a quick look.   Hentzau, however, just sneered.