Dreams of Fire and Gods 2: Fire Read Online Free

Sisterhood and the ömem in Harleh since the valley had gone dark, but that was merely what the Sisterhood claimed. A lifetime of having the ömem ’s voices in his head hadn’t made him trust them. If anything, it had made him wary of their deceptions. He knew, as all samöt did, that the ömem made and broke alliances as it suited them, and were beyond even the emperor’s reach if one of their betrayals angered someone.
    Or nearly. The emperor had shocked everyone when he put out Marik’s eyes as punishment for her part in an assassination attempt almost a decade ago. The fact that he’d executed the assassin had meant little—all samöt knew a failed assassination could mean death. But to harm an ömem was almost unheard of. It had taken considerable negotiations and the transfer of an enormous amount of gold into the coffers of the Sisterhood to finally call off the death mark on the emperor’s head. Even now, it was said the Sisterhood had only granted him a temporary reprieve and would one day send the samöt for him.
    Marik, herself once a woman of great beauty, had retreated from the court, unable to bear the pity of the men who had once admired her. But rather than spend her days hiding from the world, the woman had put her Sight to use aiding cutthroats in the ruins of Old Mat’zovya. Perhaps, Donegh thought, she dreamt of revenge. But only her sisters truly knew what she might be plotting, and they remained silent on the matter.
    Donegh had no love for the emperor—few did—but he had been contracted by the emperor to assassinate Vek Worlen and his son, Sael, who by now must have ascended to Dekan of Harleh. Donegh was in the eastern half of the kingdom now, which was ruled over by the vek as the emperor’s regent. The people here were loyal to the vek and his family, and the ömem held the vek in high esteem. Donegh preferred not to rely on the nebulous code of honor between the ömem and the samöt for his safety. He was nothing more than a weapon in a deadly power struggle between the two most powerful men in the kingdom, and the odds of his survival were small. But if he was going to die, then he would do so honorably… after he had succeeded in his task. He had no intention of allowing someone to slit his throat before he even reached Harleh valley.
    “Don’t be a fool,” Nedegh chided him as he thanked her and made ready to venture out into the night again. “You’re safer here than in some squalid tavern.”
    “I wasn’t planning on staying in Mat’zovya. I want to get across the lake and camp in the forest.”
    Nedegh snorted at this idea. “You have to go through leagues of swamp before you reach the forest. And no fishing boat is going to take you out on the lake at this time of night.”
    Donegh bit back a sharp retort. He knew about the swamp and found it insulting that she didn’t give him that much credit. But admittedly, passage across the lake was the bigger problem. It would be foolish and risky to haunt the docks for several hours at a time when there were few townsfolk about and his presence would raise suspicion.
“When can I book passage?” he asked.
    The old woman shrugged and waved a hand dismissively. “Some of the fishing boats go out before daylight. But you have several hours until then. You might as well sleep, rather than push yourself to stay awake all night.”
    Donegh was exhausted, and he couldn’t deny that sleeping now would help keep him more alert for the lake crossing and travel through the treacherous swamp to the east. He finally acquiesced to Nedegh’s offer of a room and allowed the ömem to lead him upstairs to a small guest room. Nevertheless, he threw the bolt on the door. It was a flimsy contraption made of sliding pieces of worn wood that would splinter the moment anyone threw the least bit of weight against the door, but it would hopefully provide Donegh with enough warning if anyone tried it. Not that he could seriously picture Nedegh