Embers of an Age (Blood War Trilogy) Read Online Free

the right one. A sigh slipped loose as he convinced himself to climb. Death on the mountain was preferable to dying at the hands of the Grol.
    He gripped a stone , which protruded from the wall , and growled at the shards of pain th at speared his hand . His fingers twitched but held strong as he reached for another handhold and pulled himself upward. He bit down, clenching his jaw to still his rebellious tongue, swallowing the scream that fought to be released. Uthul had never felt such agony, not even under the sway of the plague. The battle with the Grol had brought him to the brink, and he feared the mountain would cast him down and finish what the beasts had started. He looked up to see the wall that seem ed to go on forever , its vastness filling his vision. It seemed insurmountable, but Uthul knew what lay at the end of his journey: Zalee.
    It took only her name to spur him on.
    ~
    The fury of the Tumult grew beneath his fingertips as he clung to the wall. Pain lanced through his joints and set fire to his every muscle. They felt as stiff as the stone he clutched. His breath huffed from his lungs, blowing stale dust from the face of the mountain. It swirled about him and peppered his eyes. The heavy bag at his belt bore him down, the magic of its contents setting his stomach to roil, but he would not let the O’hra fall back into Grol hands. His body shook with constant tremors that challenged his hold, but he persevered. If he was to see his daughter again, he must endure.
    The ground had become a blur beneath him, so far down as to be nearly invisible, but he had long since stopped imagining falling . Only the summit held his gaze. The brilliant eye of A’ree peeked over the mountaintop and cast its glow upon the wall, flickers of red and orange dancing in his vision . Nu’ree hung half eclipsed behind her sister moon, her blue shimmer a dull glimmer in the background of the sky. As Uthul drew closer to his destination, wash from the Iron Ocean rained down over him in irregular spray , carried by the raging Tumult . The heat of its touch added yet another misery to the climb, wetting the rocks and making each handhold even more treacherous than the last. The moisture slowed his climb, the mountain grinding ag ainst the last of his endurance and savaging the flesh at his fingers.
    When Uthul felt he could climb no more, his body slipping into a numbness that threatened betrayal , he spied a ledge just ten feet from where he hung. It seemed miles. He dug his fingers into the stone and pulled himself toward the outcrop, hand over hand. His feet scrabbled for purchase as he pressed on. At last, his arm crested the ledge and he was able to find one last handhold to pull him to safety. He collapsed into a puddle of warm water , which had pooled in the recess, the entirety of the ledge not more than a horse span across.
    Uthul drew in the first easy breath since he’d started his climb and let his head fall back against the solid embrace of the stone. Water splashed against his cheeks as the Tumult assailed him with drops of the distant ocean. The roar of the storm shook the mountain beneath him, but Uthul was past caring. He lay in the puddle, his face to the sky, and watched the Tumult rage its last from within his earthen niche .
    After a few moments, he reached into his bag and plucked one of the purple fruits out he’d stored away when he’d first met the boy, Cael . He held it out to the side and used the last of his strength to split its hide . A greenish fog spill ed from inside , a ro tten stench clouding the air . H e waged a war with his patience to let the smell dissipate before consuming the Succor. Once the odor was gone, Uthul plucked the seed from the fruit and cast it aside without his normal care for such things , stuffing the meat of the fruit into his mouth. The taste pleasured his tongue as he lay back and let its wonder do what it could to heal his broken body.
    Cradled in the stone arms of Ree,