The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Hanrahan EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available For Free Download
- Author: Gareth Hanrahan
- Language: English
- Genre: Dragons & Mythical Creatures Fantasy
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
You stand on a rocky outcrop, riddled with tunnels like the other hills, and
look over Guerdon. From here, you see the heart of the old city, its palaces
and churches and towers reaching up like the hands of a man drowning,
trying to break free of the warren of alleyways and hovels that surrounds
them. Guerdon has always been a place in tension with itself, a city built
atop its own previous incarnations yet denying them, striving to hide its past
mistakes and present a new face to the world. Ships throng the islandspangled harbour between two sheltering headlands, bringing traders and
travellers from across the world. Some will settle here, melding into the
eternal, essential Guerdon.
Some will come not as travellers, but as refugees. You stand as
testament to the freedom that Guerdon offers: freedom to worship, freedom
from tyranny and hatred. Oh, this freedom is conditional, uncertain—the
city has, in its time, chosen tyrants and fanatics and monsters to rule it, and
you have been part of that, too—but the sheer weight of the city, its history
and its myriad peoples always ensure that it slouches back eventually into
comfortable corruption, where anything is permissible if you’ve got money.
Some will come as conquerors, drawn by that wealth. You were born in
such a conflict, the spoils of a victory. Sometimes, the conquerors stay and
are slowly absorbed into the city’s culture. Sometimes, they raze what they
can and move on, and Guerdon grows again from the ashes and rubble,
incorporating the scar tissue into the living city.
You are aware of all this, as well as certain other things, but you cannot
articulate how. You know, for example, that two Tallowmen guards patrol
your western side, moving with the unearthly speed and grace of their kind.
The dancing flames inside their heads illuminate a row of carvings on your
flank, faces of long-dead judges and politicians immortalised in stone while
their mortal remains have long since gone down the corpse shafts. The
Tallowmen jitter by, and turn right down Mercy Street, passing the arch of
your front door beneath the bell tower.
You are aware, too, of another patrol coming up behind you.
And in that gap, in the shadows, three thieves creep up on you. The first
darts out of the mouth of an alleyway and scales your outer wall. Ragged
hands find purchase in the cracks of your crumbling western side with
inhuman quickness. He scampers across the low roof, hiding behind
gargoyles and statues when the second group of Tallowmen pass by. Even if
they’d looked up with their flickering fiery eyes, they’d have seen nothing
amiss.
Something in the flames of the Tallowmen should disquiet you, but you
are incapable of that or any other emotion.
The ghoul boy comes to a small door, used only by workmen cleaning
the lead tiles of the roof. You know—again, you don’t know how you know
—that this door is unlocked, that the guard who should have locked it was
bribed to neglect that part of his duties tonight.
For More Read Download This Book
EPUB
[quick_download_button title=”Download Now” color_bg=”#ffc107″ open_new_window=”true” url_external=”https://zeroupload.com/9212f160035e2bf972e782ba42e20495″]
[quick_download_button title=”Download Now” color_bg=”#ffc107″ open_new_window=”true” url_external=”https://zeroupload.com/ad06ecb8a5305c82e5fbe6cebc3f7257″]