Atonement of the Spine Cleaver (ATONEMENT #1) by F. E. Bryce EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
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- Authors: F. E. Bryce
- Language: English
- Genre: Fantasy
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 7.4 MB
- Price: Free
PROLOGUE
“Gods above.”
Rorax blew out a breath and stepped out onto the terrace, her
eyes wide with awe as she grabbed the railing and pressed herself against
the cool stone to get a better look. The balcony, stemming off the royal
palace’s library, had a bird’s-eye view of Surmalinn, and the city was
absolutely breathtaking.
Against the still black sky, fires she and her soldiers had lit around the city
illuminated the dark like tiny fireflies glowing orange against the night. The
light from the flames reflected off the surface of the Elus River, basking
everything in a soft golden glow.
Vaguely through her admiration, she could hear the House of Death
civilians below her screaming, begging, and bartering for their lives, and
their children’s lives.
Their homes.
Their schools.
Their businesses.
All of it would burn to the ground tonight, and in a few hours their whole
existence would be turned into nothing more than ash and smoke.
The reminder caused indecision to niggle painfully in her heart.
Rorax gripped the stone railing tighter with her blood-soaked hands as the
clock tower burning in the middle of the city center collapsed into a pile of
hot coals and shooting orange sparks into the night sky as the screaming
below intensified.
Something dark grew in her chest as she watched a woman carrying a
small child wrapped protectively in her arms sprint down an alley, away
from the city center where most of her men were still stationed.
The Wolf had been wrong in coming here.
Rorax’s army had broken through the House of Death’s defenses in less
than twenty minutes, and the only souls awaiting them past the walls were
just ordinary civilians. The armies, legendary monsters, and weapons the
Wolf had told Rorax were here waiting for them in droves were nowhere to
be found. There was nothing. Most of the people here didn’t even have a
wisp of death magick. It was just a city.
The House of Death hadn’t even stationed a small national defense legion
here, for fuck sake; the only soldiers here had been members of the city
guard.
Rorax gritted her teeth, trying to slow her thoughts. Her stomach roiled as
blood that wasn’t her own trickled down the sides of her face and slid down
her limbs. She looked down to where her hands gripped the railing to find
they had been soaked with enough blood to leave two crimson handprints
on the light gray stone. The stain might as well have been on her soul.
Rorax was nothing more than a butcher here. She could stop this. Order
her soldiers to pack up and leave, tell them to stop the bloodshed and the
burning. They could all be gone within the hour.
As soon as the thought came, however, the note she had carefully folded
in her back pocket seemed to burn her through her leathers. Her brother’s
plea to free him.
No, she couldn’t stop the mission.
The blood coating her skin might feel sticky and awful, but if burning
Surmalinn to the ground meant she would eventually be able to free her
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