Torment and Terror Read Online Free Page A

a new kind of power.
    Interesting.
    While Sinway made his march of conquest, he may have missed the bigger picture. He wanted the world beneath his feet. But Sidebor believed it was the other way around.
    Heh heh.
    A soft knocking came on his door.
    His eyelid popped open. He sat up on the edge of his bed and heard the knocking again. His jailers, the Vicious, never bothered to knock. They just swung the door open and slid in the food.
    “Strange,” he mumbled, rubbing his chin. He planted his feet on the floor and stood.
    Knock. Knock. Knock.
    With a curious eye, he shuffled over. It was odd that someone would knock, seeing how the door was bolted shut from the outside. He opened his mouth to speak.
    “What kind of fool knocks on a prisoner’s door?”
    The deadbolt on the outside of the door scraped over metal and wood.
    Sidebor stepped back.
    Slowly the door started to swing in.
    Sidebor’s scowl turned into an inverted smile.
    “I didn’t want to startle you.” It was an underling woman. White haired, delicately clothed, and glorious from head to toe. Her eyes were the palest purple. “May I come in?”
    “Why?”
    She eased in with cat-like grace and offered a playful smile. “Let’s just say I’m one last thrill before he kills you.”
    ***
    Master Sinway stood in the window of a castle turret that overlooked the City of Bone. It was daytime. Hot suns beat down city streets filled with the stench of death. The last few days had been full of execution. Alone in the tower, the heavy door swung open and banged into the stone wall.
    A man, mature and beginning to grey, adorned in a warrior’s ceremonial garb, stormed in. His squared jaw had a sneer above it. A heavy broad sword hung on his belt. His knuckles were white on the pommel. “This has got to stop, Master Sinway. This is a far cry from what we agreed to.”
    “Oh, is it now?” Sinway turned to face him. Dressed in pitch black robes, his eyes were like molten iron. “You feel that I’ve overstepped my boundaries, do you?”
    Towering over Sinway, the proud warrior, Lord of the house of Kling, got ever closer, looking down on Sinway. “We agreed you would kill my enemies, not every wretch that works the streets.” He made his way to the window and pointed down at the cobblestoned road. “The rats feast. There’s blood all over the roads. Sickness and disease have started to spread. Who do you expect to clean this disaster up when all of those sorry bastards are dead?”
    “It’s no concern of mine.” Sinway drifted up higher and looked down into Ebenezer Kling’s eyes. “I’m certain you’ll get used to it. And I don’t plan on spending too much time inside this city.”
    “This is absurd!” Lord Kling’s sword started to ease out.
    “Absurd!” Sinway’s voice shook the pigeons out of the rafters. His fingertips glowed with a radiant blue fire. “Perhaps things wouldn’t seem so absurd if you were dead. And let’s not mention your family, right, Ebenezer! We could disembowel them and let sand spiders devour their entrails like we did to your enemies!” His voice cooled. “Would that be too absurd for you to stomach? It didn’t seem so then.”
    Ebenezer’s sword clicked back in its sheath. Face withdrawn, eyes blinking, he swallowed before he spoke. “No need to be so nasty. I’ll just start having them throw the dead back over the wall. But please, don’t kill any more men. We need them.”
    “Fine, but that’s going to be awfully hard on your women and children.”

 
     
    CHAPTER 6
     
     
    It was on. Three men. Three blades. A dozen ways to die. Melegal’s soft boots dug into planks beneath his feet. His face was taut. Joline still sobbed. Erin began to stir and cry.
    Pushing tables aside, Slom and Zurth fanned out. Their fine steel glimmered with death.
    Venir stooped down, knife ready, eyes sliding from side to side between his flanking opponents.
    Melegal could visualize the battle. The moves. The