Tower of Silence

Table of Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Epilogue TOWEROFSILENCE LARRYCORREIA Tower of Silence Larry Correia WAR RAGES AS THE GREAT EXTERMINATION SPREADS IN THE LATEST INSTALLMENT OF LARRY CORREIA'S BESTSELLING SON OF THE BLACK SWORD EPIC FANTASY SERIES.The assassination of the Chief Judge has pushed the Capitol to the edge. The Great Extermination has spread to all the land. The casteless must be annihilated.Their only hope is the fallen Protector Ashok Vadal. But Vadal is being held prisoner on the island of Fortress. In order to save those who need him most, he must escape and find his way across the demon-infested sea and return to Thera, the prophet of an illegal and forgotten god. It is she who has sent the Sons of the Black Sword to war against the warrior caste, hoping to buy time until Vadal’s return.But as the chaos swirls, Grand Inquisitor Omand Vokkan launches a coup to install Lord Protector Devedas as his puppet king. Devedas has no intention of being anyone’s puppet, but it may not matter. For Vokkan has struck a secret bargain with a demon. Vokkan will destroy the casteless for this ancient being; in exchange, he will be granted the power of the ancient gods.Ashok Vadal, Thera, and the Sons of the Black Sword face foes both human and supernatural, Byzantine political intrigue and bloody hand-to-hand combat, gods and demons alike. But Vadal is a warrior with a warrior’s heart, and woe to those who would stand in his way—man, god, demon, or otherwise! BAEN BOOKS by LARRY CORREIA SAGA OF THE FORGOTTEN WARRIOR Son of the Black Sword House of Assassins Destroyer of Worlds Tower of Silence THE GRIMNOIR CHRONICLES Hard Magic Spellbound Warbound MONSTER HUNTER INTERNATIONAL Monster Hunter International Monster Hunter Vendetta Monster Hunter Alpha The Monster Hunters (omnibus) Monster Hunter Legion Monster Hunter Nemesis Monster Hunter Siege Monster Hunter Guardian (with Sarah A. Hoyt) Monster Hunter Bloodlines The Monster Hunter Files (anthology edited with Bryan Thomas Schmidt) MONSTER HUNTER MEMOIRS Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge (with John Ringo) Monster Hunter Memoirs: Sinners (with John Ringo) Monster Hunter Memoirs: Saints (with John Ringo) Monster Hunter Memoirs: Fever (with Jason Cordova), forthcoming THE AGE OF RAVENS (with Steve Diamond) Servants of War DEAD SIX (with Mike Kupari) Dead Six Swords of Exodus Alliance of Shadows Invisible Wars: The Collected Dead Six (omnibus) Gun Runner (with John D. Brown) STORY COLLECTIONS Target Rich Environment Target Rich Environment Volume 2 Tower of Silence This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. Copyright © 2023 by Larry Correia All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. A Baen Books Original Baen Publishing Enterprises P.O. Box 1403 Riverdale, NY 10471 www.baen.com ISBN: 978-1-9821-9253-2 eISBN: 978-1-62579-905-0 Cover art by Kurt Miller Map by Isaac Stewart First printing, April 2023 Distributed by Simon & Schuster 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Correia, Larry, author. Title: Tower of silence / Larry Correia. Description: Riverdale, NY : Baen Publishing Enterprises, [2023] | Series: The Saga of the Forgotten Warrior Identifiers: LCCN 2022057967 (print) | LCCN 2022057968 (ebook) | ISBN 9781982192532 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781625799050 (ebook) Subjects: LCGFT: Science fiction. | Paranormal fiction. Classification: LCC PS3603.O7723 T69 2023 (print) | LCC PS3603.O7723 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23/eng/20221208 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022057967 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022057968 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Electronic version by Baen Books www.baen.com For Jim Chapter 1 30 Years Ago Omand watched in awe as the ocean consumed the land. His mind could barely comprehend the size of the tidal wave. Mighty Vokkan oak trees, eighty feet tall, disappeared in the wave’s shadow. It hit the beach, roaring with all the thunder in the world. There was a casteless village there. Because of the never-ending threat of sea demons, only the non-people were expendable enough to live near the shore, only it wouldn’t be demons who did these in, but the fury of hell itself. The village was obliterated in an instant. Such power. Such destruction. Omand had never been jealous of the sea before. The water was still coming at them. His fellow Inquisitors ran for their lives, but Omand remained watching. As always, he remained supremely rational, even as something so seemingly irrational unfolded before his eyes. The fear was there, but logically he knew their camp was a mile from shore, and atop the tallest hill in the area. Even as his senses screamed to flee, he knew there was no better place to go, at least none that he could reach in time. The wave would either sweep over their hill, or it would not. In the meantime, he would enjoy the show. The wave toppled and spread. Churning white turned to roiling brown as the ground was torn to pieces and swept away. An entire forest was uprooted. Fields were buried. It carried massive boulders as if they were pebbles. The watery death covered that mile in a few heartbeats. There was another settlement in its path, worker caste, farmers by the looks of them, but then it too was smashed to bits. Houses were ripped from their foundations and bounced along atop the muddy mass, rolling until they shattered. Every resident who hadn’t been