Michelle West - Sun Sword 01 - The Broken Crown Read Online Free Page A

nothing
else, had been his purpose.
    "What do you want?" she said again, the fear thickening her
words less. "Why have you—why did you—"
    It was hard not to frighten her; she was so close to the brink
of hysteria he had only to speak the right words and she would fall
over the edge. In truth, he greatly desired it, but that was the
visceral, and Isladar was known for the control that he exercised over
base impulse. Over any impulse. He handed her the leaf, taking care to
cause no contact between her flesh and his.
    Shaking, she took it, pressing it unconsciously between the
palms of her hands as if it were a flattened glove. The leaves very
much resembled wide, oddly colored hands.
    "You are about to become a part of history, Askeyia. It falls
to you to begin the greatest empire that the world has ever known."
    She was mute; she stared at the leaf, as if meeting his eyes
was painful. He pondered a moment, wondering if she could see his true
eyes. A rare self-annoyance troubled him; of course she could see them.
What other reason could she have for her terror? The healers saw much
that he had not expected. He reached out to touch her, and pulled away
as her nostrils widened. The sun was falling; the shadow was growing.
    "Askeyia," he said, his voice soft and neutral, "I do not
intend to frighten you." .
    At that, her eyes flashed. "You're lying," she said evenly.
    "Am I?"
    "Yes." Pause. "No."
    He laughed, although he knew she would find the laughter
unpleasant. "You speak truth. And it is thus with my truth: that
opposites are in equal measure valid." He frowned, fell silent. He had
not intended to say as much.
    It annoyed him.
    "What do you want from me?"
    "Everything," he said gravely, "but not for me." Her fear was
as strong as any fear he had tasted in this domain; he had, after all,
been cautious and infinitely human in his interaction with other
mortals. But this one, this girl—she would see much more than a simple
Kialli
indulgence before her life ended.
    "For—for who?" She edged away, hit the bark of a tree that
unexpectedly barred passage into the Common that she had traversed
freely for years.
    He stepped forward, coming upon her quickly, moving with all
of his speed, all grace. Her eyes widened, becoming white circles
around dilated pupils; the fear made her wild, and it was wildness that
he craved. She threw up her hands in denial, seeking to wedge them
between her body and his chest. Too late. He was upon her; his shadow
ran up the sides of her face, her throat, the back of her neck; he
caught her as she flailed, trapping the sound of her scream in her
throat; letting enough escape for his ears, for his ears alone.
    It had been millennia.
    It would be millennia again.
    How odd, that the one girl he found suitable was also, in her
fashion, the one he found most tempting. The temptation itself was an
unexpected sweetness, a small element of risk. For he needed her, and
he needed her alive. And sane. He walked the edge, carrying her as she
flailed. Knowing that he could not give her the consummation of her
fear, of her dread, of her certainty.
    He lowered his head; his face, wreathed in the shadow that
healers alone could find so corrosive no matter what its intent, rested
a moment in the crook of her neck. His lips touched her ears, and into
the shadows, into the sounds of her terror, into the crackling
sharpness of the fantasies of death that he now let run like the Wild
Hunt through her thoughts, he said, "For who? My Lord, dear child; the
only Lord that any of the kin have willingly chosen to serve.
Allasakar
."
    And although the word sank and took roots immediately,
although her fear gave the name as great a weight as her imagination
allowed, the speaking of it freed him.
    Impulse.
    Control.
    "I—apologize," he said, with some effort. "We are both
creatures of our nature." His smile was a glimmer in the darkness of
his shadow; it started and stopped almost at the same instant. She
could not see it.
    He