Witch King

Begin Reading Table of Contents About the Author Copyright Page To Felicia DRAMATIS PERSONAE KAIISTERON: Prince of the Fourth House of the underearth (called Witch King) ZIEDE DAIYAHAH: High Teacher in the Mountain Cloisters of the Khalin Islands (called the Scourge of the Temple Halls) TAHREN STARGARD: an Immortal Marshall of the Blessed Lands (called the Fallen) DAHIN: Tahren’s Lesser Blessed sibling GRANDMOTHER: An ancestor of the Saredi of the grassplains, once a Captain of scouts, who negotiated a treaty with the forces of the underearth and married a demon prince The Present SANJA: a street child of the Mouth of Flowers TENES: a Witch of unknown origin, captured as a familiar by Aclines BASHAT BAR CALIS: Current Prince-heir of Benais-arik, foremost of the Rising World Coalition Council, soon to be Emperor RAMAD: personal vanguarder to Prince-heir Bashat ASHEM: a cohort leader for the Rising World, stationed in the Arkai MENLAS: an unfortunately ambitious expositor ACLINES: an expositor of great power SAFRESES AND KINLAT: lords of the court of Nient-arik SAADRIN: an Immortal Marshall of the Stargard line, estranged from Tahren FAHARIN: an Immortal Blessed NARREIN AND SHIREN: Lesser Blessed of Faharin’s House KAVINEN: Lesser Blessed of the Stargard line TANIS: eldest daughter of Ziede Daiyahah The Past BASHASA CALIS: the Prince-heir of Benais-arik, sent to the Summer Halls as a hostage for his city’s good behavior (called the Great) ADENI, VARRA, AND ILUDI: cousins to Enna, of the Kentdessa Saredi CANTENIOS: an expositor of the Hierarchs’ court at the Summer Halls ARN-NEFA: a demon of the Kanavesi Saredi TALAMINES: a High Expositor of the Hierarchs’ court at the Summer Halls, originally conscripted from Irekan HIERARCH’S VOICE RAIHANKANA: the servant-noble charged with speaking the Hierarchs’ will to those too low to listen to the Sacred Voice ARSHA, TELARE, NIRANA, HARTEL, CERALA: Ariki soldiers who followed Bashasa to the Hostage Courts of the Summer Halls, later seconded to Kaiisteron Fourth Prince ARAVA, VASHAR, TRENAL: Ariki soldiers of Bashasa Calis’ personal cadre SALATEL: Second Shield Bearer to Prince-heir Bashasa, later leader of the cadre assigned to the Fourth Prince THE TESCAI-LIN: Great Sage of Enalin and Light of the Hundred Coronels LAHSHAR CALIS: maternal cousin to Prince-heir Bashasa of Benais-arik DASARA: the son and heir of Lahshar Calis HIRANAN: First Daughter of the Prince-heir of Seidel-arik VRIM: Second Son of the Prince-heir of Descar-arik ASARA: Second Daughter of the Prince-heir of Bardes-arik STAMASH: maternal uncle of the Prince-heir of Renitl-arik KARANIS CALIS: paternal cousin to Prince-heir Bashasa, who was selected by the Hierarchs to usurp the rule of Benais-arik ONE Waking was floating to the surface of a soft world of water, not what Kai had expected. Reaching out in that darkness, he found a cold, black sea ebbing and flowing, dropping away like a tide rolling out. Something was wrong with his body, everything was impossibly distant. He stretched out a thought and called, Ziede? She was slow to answer, her voice low and strange. He couldn’t see her. She whispered, I’m sleeping, Kai. You’re not sleeping, you’re talking to me. He should know where she was, he always knew where she was, she had a drop of his blood hardened into a red pearl buried in her heart. I told you not to wake … She stopped. Her languid voice turned alert and urgent. Kai. Where am I? I can’t move. None of this made sense. He reached out as far as he could stretch, searching for something, anything solid. He made his inner voice sound calm, though a sinking sensation told him he wouldn’t like the answers to any of his questions. I’m not sure where I am, either, he told Ziede. Some terrible revelation loomed but he kept it at bay; better to just focus on finding her. He pulled in the parts of himself that drifted in the dark water that perhaps wasn’t water, to concentrate his being back into his own body. Except his body wasn’t there. Kai squelched a spike of panic. Panic had to be postponed. Her mental voice astringent, Ziede said, Take your time, Kai. Wherever I am, I can’t see, I can’t move. I’m breathing, but I can’t feel … I can’t feel my chest move. He could hear the suppressed fear as she added, I can’t find Tahren, she doesn’t answer. Something had cut them off from the outside world. He told her, Don’t try to move. Just wait. If Kai could think, he wasn’t helpless. He pulled all his focus in until the black sea yielded and resolved into dark stone walls, a large circular chamber, water running down from the upper shadows. Mossy weeds furred the gaps between the stones, light crept in from somewhere behind him. He needed to move, but swimming around in the air as an amorphous cloud was new and deeply disconcerting. He imagined his body around him, pulled his arms in, and spun himself to look down. At his own body. It lay on a raised plinth in a glass coffin box. His face was visible, the rest wrapped in dark fabric. His cheeks, the flesh below his eyes, were drawn and sunken but still recognizable. It’s been months … maybe a year? If someone had done this to him, what had they done to Ziede? Ziede, you said you can’t move, can’t see. In this terrifying, unfamiliar place, there was no other box, nothing large enough to conceal her. The water drained away through diagonal vents in the floor. Water. It must have filled the chamber to keep Kai inside his inert body. When the level dropped he had been able to drift out and wake. Insubstantial, he had no sense of motion, so was the chamber lifting up out of the water? And what did it matter when Ziede might be entombed alive and he had no way to release her. He groped for some way to get more information. What do you smell? Nothing but fabric … Like old silk? She