Tribute to Hell Read Online Free Page B

yourself!’ snapped his friend. ‘Here, carry the novice.’
    â€˜I’ll destroy her too.’
    â€˜Just don’t look at her,’ said Roget, enveloping Astatine in his cloak. ‘If you do, I swear I’ll run you through.’
    Greave was thankful for the darkness, for the soft weight in his arms was temptation enough. Had he been able to look on Astatine’s lovely face, nothing could have saved her, or himself.
    Hours later they hid among the tumbled boulders on a barren hilltop and he lay her down.
    â€˜Sleep, little one,’ said Roget, putting a minor charm on her.
    They sat watching the distant flames until, not long before a chill and windy dawn, the abbey had been reduced to cinders. As the sun rose, the cavalcade of red-clad monks rode away.
    â€˜Fistus isn’t going back to the city,’ said Roget. ‘He’s heading into the drylands. I wonder why?’
    â€˜I couldn’t give a damn.’ Greave stretched himself on the hard ground and closed his eyes, knowing there would be no sleep for him.
    Â 
    â€˜He’s going to work a miracle!’ Astatine sat up so abruptly that she whacked her head on the pebbly overhang.
    The headache came shrieking back, then the smoke, the crackle of fire and the abbess dying beside her. Astatine groaned and opened her eyes to find herself alone on an arid hilltop scattered with boulders of conglomerate.
    Boots grated on grit and Roget appeared, breathing heavily. Greave was close behind.
    â€˜Did you call out?’ said Roget.
    â€˜I saw the Carnal Cardinal,’ said Astatine.
    â€˜What, here?’ Greave said sharply, eyes averted.
    â€˜In a dream.’ She rubbed her throbbing forehead, realising that she had not been dreaming, for the images remained clear in her mind. ‘No, it must have been Hildy’s gift.’
    Greave swung around. ‘What are you talking about?’
    Astatine jumped up and moved away, watching him warily. ‘Before the abbess died, she passed her gift to me …’ What gift, though? Herecstatic vision? ‘She sees — saw things — bad things that might come true.’ Like the evil Covenant Astatine had to find and destroy. ‘And I just saw Fistus, clear as a raindrop.’
    â€˜When he caught the god-bone, he looked triumphant,’ said Roget. ‘Getting it mattered more to him than our sacrilege. What kind of a priest would act that way?’
    â€˜Perhaps one who seeks power for himself,’ said Greave. ‘What else did you see, Novice?’
    â€˜He was on a barren hill.’ She looked around. ‘A bit like this one —’
    â€˜There are a thousand barren hills in these badlands.’
    â€˜There was a huge, ruined shrine on top. It looked as though it had been hacked in two by a monstrous axe … one that had cut halfway through the hill itself.’
    Greave and Roget exchanged glances. ‘The Cloven Shrine,’ said Roget, his fingers curling.
    â€˜I’ve never heard of it,’ said Astatine.
    â€˜The truth was too shocking to be told. Few people know the story.’
    â€˜Fistus does!’ Greave said darkly.
    â€˜The shrine was destroyed when the Great God, the original ruler of Elyssian, was defeated and cast down in the Second Coup. He crashed through the shrine, nearly splitting the hill in twain.’
    â€˜And died there?’ Worms were dancing along Astatine’s backbone.
    â€˜The Great God could not be killed,’ said Roget. ‘He could only die at his own hand and, in despair at being cast out of Elyssian, that’s what he did.’
    Astatine trembled. She knew about the First Coup, when Behemoth had rebelled, yet, inexplicably and at the moment of victory, turned his back on Elyssian and set up his own rival kingdom, Perdition. Was he behind the Second Coup? Were the gods passing away? Was that why the world was so sick?
    â€˜What “miracle” is