Tribute to Hell Read Online Free

god-bone.’
    â€˜If they had, it would not have opened for mine.’
    Greave searched her, roughly, knowing he was hurting her, though she maintained a stoic silence, her gaze fixed on the icons. He found nothing, though of course she was only a novice. The abbess would have the contents now.
    He picked up the lantern but put it down again. He had sworn to torch the abbey, and could not defy his god, but neither could he bear to think of the little novice being burned alive. Far better that she die swiftly and painlessly here.
    As he drew his knife, Astatine turned towards him. Frost had formed all over her, yet her eyes were unflinching in the face of death and it shook him, for he could not have done the same. He cursed; though he was a heartless seducer and a blasphemous oath-breaker, he was not a murderer.
    In a frenzy of despair he slashed his chest, spilling his blood before the icons. It was the best sacrifice he could make, though he knew it would not appease K’nacka. He was standing over Astatine, his blood dripping from the knife, when the abbess opened the door.
    â€˜And I thought you’d already plumbed the depths.’
    The Abbess’s voice dripped contempt; evidently she thought he had killed the novice. Hildy limped across and struck at him with her cane, but as he turned to protect himself she stumbled and his knife slid into her side.
    Greave felt such a pain that the blade might have pierced his own flesh, but he fought it down. The god had given him an order and hehad to obey. ‘Where are the contents of the casket?’
    â€˜I swear by the Seven Gods that the casket was empty,’ said Hildy, holding a hand to the wound. ‘Now get out!’
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    As Greave stumbled away, his lantern shaking, Hildy pulled Astatine close. ‘Listen carefully. I’ve had another vision, a worse one.’
    The smell of blood was overpowering; unless the bleeding was stopped, the abbess would die. ‘Please, Hildy, sit down. Let me bind the wound.’ Astatine tore a strip from her habit and pressed it against the gash.
    â€˜Hush, little sister; it’s too late for me, but the fate of Hightspall lies in the balance and only you can save it.’
    â€˜I’m just a novice. I don’t know anything.’
    â€˜You’re the one person I can trust.’
    And yet you’re throwing me out. ‘W–what did you see?’
    In the gloom, Hildy’s old face was a crumpled rag, her eyes dying embers. ‘A dreadful Covenant between K’nacka and Behemoth, the Prince of Perdition —’
    Astatine cried out in disbelief, for Behemoth hated the gods and everything she believed in. But then she remembered K’nacka shouting, Where is the Covenant? ‘Abbess, K’nacka and Behemoth are the bitterest of enemies — aren’t they ?’
    â€˜Oh, yes. Eternal enemies.’
    The pad was red with blood. Astatine dropped it and made another. ‘What does the Covenant say?’
    â€˜I dare not speak the words. Only K’nacka and Behemoth know where it is hidden, but if it is ever revealed, it will be the end of the gods.’
    That thought was unimaginable; abandonment multiplied a thousand times. ‘The gods are almighty and everlasting,’ Astatine chanted.
    â€˜If only they were,’ Hildy whispered.
    â€˜Abbess?’ said Astatine, alarmed now.
    â€˜Why do you think Hightspall has grown so wicked and depraved these past twenty years; why no one cares any more?’
    Because of the corruption I carry inside me, Astatine wanted to say, but that would only earn her another slap. ‘Hightspall is the last islandleft of the old Empire, and the ice is coming to end us.’
    â€˜Stupid girl! It’s got nothing to do with the ice. The balance has been tilted — the gods are waning, while Perdition grows ever stronger and, if this Covenant is revealed, must soon topple Elyssian.’
    Astatine could not come