The Fate of the Fallen (The Song of the Tears Book 1) Read Online Free

but before Nish could move,
his father held up his right hand. ‘Forgive me, beloved son, but you’ll
understand that I must test your word. I trust you , of course, yet faithless men with black hearts have sworn to
me before.’
    ‘Test me?’ said Nish. A chill spread through him. His father
knew everything; he couldn’t possibly deceive him.
    ‘It’s the smallest trifle,’ said Jal-Nish. ‘Just look upon
this image as you swear to serve me.’
    He reached out towards the right-hand tear, whereupon Reaper
pulsed and swelled until a filament streamed out of it, to hang in the air
before Nish. It slowly formed into one of his starvation-induced
hallucinations, only far more real. This one showed his beautiful Irisis on her
knees, gazing lovingly up at him, but before he could look away the
executioner’s blade flashed down, ending her life and his dreams. He saw the
horror of it, over and over and over, and though he fought harder to contain
himself than he’d ever fought before, to ignore the provocation, Nish snapped.
    ‘I’ll never bow to you!’ he screamed, propelling himself
forwards so violently that he took Jal-Nish by surprise. Leaping onto the
table, he hurled himself at his father. ‘I curse you and all you stand for, and
I’m going to tear your evil world down.’
    He got so very close. He had his hands around Jal-Nish’s
throat, below the platinum mask, before Jal-Nish could move. But as Nish’s
hands closed on something hot and inflamed, his clearsight saw right though the
mask to the horror that lay beneath and which, for all his father’s power, he
hadn’t been able to repair. As Nish’s fingers tightened, Jal-Nish shrieked.
Involuntarily, Nish’s grip relaxed and the instant it did, he was lost. It
wasn’t in him to harm his father and Jal-Nish now knew it.
    He tore free, knocked Nish onto the table and stood over
him, breathing heavily, the mask askew. But again Jal-Nish hesitated. He must
care!
    ‘You little fool. I did everything for you.’
    ‘You had me whipped!’ Nish choked. ‘You killed Irisis. You
sent me to the most degraded prison in the world –’
    ‘You were weak; a prisoner of your feelings for others.’ Jal-Nish spat the word at him. ‘What I’ve put
you through has made you strong, as all I’ve suffered has made me what I am.
I’ve given you the strength to become the man you’ve always wanted to be
– a leader like me.’
    ‘I despise everything you stand for. I’ll never –’
    Jal-Nish didn’t hesitate now. He thrust one finger towards
Reaper, which brightened and grew. As the song of the tears rose to a shrill
wail, pain such as Nish had never felt sheared through his skull. It was an
agony so complete that he couldn’t think, couldn’t act, couldn’t even stand up.
He rolled off the table onto the floor, curled up into a tight shuddering ball.
    Dimly, Nish saw his father wipe his throat fastidiously with
a silk cloth and adjust the mask. ‘Traitorous son! Once more you betray me, as
your mother did, and everyone I’ve ever trusted, and most of all, her .’
    He stabbed his forefinger towards a hanging curtain, which
slid out of the way. A crystalline coffin stood behind it, its walls and lid as
clear as if they were made from frozen tears. The coffin drifted towards them,
stopped an arm’s length away and stood on end.
    Nish looked through the lid and screamed. Inside lay the
perfectly preserved body of his beautiful Irisis, unchanged from when he’d last
seen her alive. Unmarred save for the thread-like red seam where her head had
been cunningly rejoined to her body. Her eyes were looking right at him and he
imagined that her pupils dilated, though that had to be another of his father’s
torments. She had gone where no living man could follow.
    ‘I was wrong about you, Son. You still don’t have the
strength to take what you’ve always wanted. Before you can be reforged, you
must go back to the furnace. Ten more years,’ said Jal-Nish,