The Grey God (War of Gods 4) Read Free Page B

world will fall to the Black God if you aren’t there to protect it. What would Darian tell you to do?”
    Damian’s shoulders shook.
    “He’d tell you to fulfill your duty, Damian.”
    “Build a pyre here,” Damian whispered at last. “He deserves a decent burial.”
    “Take her to a Healer,” Jule ordered, motioning to Claire. “We’ll find out what happened later.”
    Claire’s horse was led away. She watched the Guardians gather wood in the eerie light of the bloody sun and start the funeral pyre for her father’s body. Exhausted, she closed her eyes, Jule’s  words to her from earlier echoing in her thoughts.
    Czerno’s marked you .
     

     
    Day of the Schism
    Immortal World
    Peasant quarter of the imperial city
     
     
    Duty, honor, courage, selflessness. Jenn, the only daughter of a low-ranking noble’s servant, repeated the mantra of the Guardians for days before taking the sacred oath. She looked around at her family and that of her mate. She steeled herself for their rejection, reminding herself she did it not for them, but to give her daughter a better life.
    “I joined the Guardians yesterday.” She braced herself for their reaction. All talk hushed around the tiny table where their families shared their first and last meals of the day. The wooden table had one leg propped up by firewood, and only three of the eight chairs matched. The tiny main room of the small dwelling was lit by one window.
    “Then you’ll unjoin,” her father said first.
    “Today,” her mate added. “You have a daughter. You can’t be so selfish.”
    She toyed with her food, gaze going to the closed door behind which her two-year-old daughter slept. Her mate and father were near the same age, over double her eighteen years. They agreed about everything when it came to her life.
    “They pay more than shoveling shit,” she said.
    “You should be grateful you shovel shit in a noble house and not a whorehouse,” her mate replied calmly.
    “There’s more to life than shoveling shit! I can create a better life for Talia in the Guardians.”
    “The Guardians are for warriors, Jenn. You’re not a warrior. The mortal world is no place for a mother of a small child,” her father said.
    “Mother, please! You must know I want what’s best for Talia. This is the way to get there,” she said, turning to her mother.
    “Do as your father says. You should be grateful for your station. If he hadn’t saved that nobleman’s child years ago, you’d have been sold on the auction block,” her mother said. “You have a comfortable life.”
    “The child should’ve settled you,” her mate’s mother chimed in. “The apothecary has calming herbs. I’ll fetch some next time I am in town.”
    “Besides, you should focus on producing more children,” her mother added. “You have a noble master who will find places for all your children.”
    “I don’t want more children,” Jenn said, shoving her plate around. “I don’t want the one I have to grow up like this!”
    “Be grateful,” her father snapped. “We have more now than we ever did.”
    “Mother, the apothecary is a good idea. Jenn’s mind does not work as it should. No mother should want to leave her child to go to some other world,” her mate said.
    “I’ve heard of this happening before, but normally right after birth,” his mother said. “An apothecary might not be enough for the type of medication she needs.”
    “We can appeal to our noble master for a Healer,” her mother said.
    “Healers fix the body, not the mind,” her mate said.
    Jenn slumped at the table as they talked on around her. Her gaze went to the door where her baby slept. She got up without finishing her meal and escaped into the room where Talia was. Jenn’s tension fled from her as she picked up the small child and hugged her close. She tugged off the necklace around her neck, the one marking her as the last in her father’s line. She slid it over her daughter’s head,