Between Life and Death by Jaclyn Kot EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Jaclyn Kot
- Language: English
- Genre: Sword & Sorcery Fantasy eBooks
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 3 MB
- Price: Free
Screams reverberated through dead village streets.
If it were any other day, the downtown core of Meristone would be
bustling with the steady thrum of merchants and buyers. Bartering and
trading. Exchanging goods for coin. But today was different. The azure sky
was stained with crimson banners—waving and flickering, pronouncing the
king’s claim over these lands.
Not a soul, not one, walked the cobblestone roads of the little village.
Most of the villagers had run home, locked themselves up and barricaded
their doors. As for the ones who had not, they were standing in the village
square—grouped together, frozen by fear, unable to look away. Me
included.
Silence gripped at each one of us as we watched the fair-haired girl, not
much older than fourteen, be dragged by two armor-clad soldiers towards
the pyre. She wore the iron collar, the rusty nails on the underside sunk in
like teeth into her pale, delicate flesh. A necklace of dried blood adorned
her slender neck, disappearing under the ceremonial white garb they forced
her to wear—a cheap piece of cloth—not that the king would spend good
coin on something meant to burn.
The king. That is all I referred to him as. Because anyone willing to do
this—willing to have such a blatant disregard for human life—they did not
deserve to be called by their personal name. Because they were not a person
at all. They were a thing. A bloodthirsty figurehead.
A woman, with the same honey-colored hair as the girl, pushed her way
through the crowd. She clasped her hands together and fell to her knees, a
frantic prayer for mercy falling from her cracked, pale lips. A soldier
sporting the eagle crest of the king—talons stretched out, ready for the kill
—stalked towards her, his bootheel the answer to her plea.
The girl wailed as she watched the woman crumble to the ground, the
heavy blow rendering her unconscious—a merciful state to be in,
considering the circumstances. The girl fought against the soldiers’
unyielding grips as they strapped her to the wooden stake. She was a rabbit
among wolves—the Cursed among the clean.
“Please! Please! I do not bear the Curse!” she cried out as tears raced
down her bruised cheeks.
Her voice was immediately silenced as the taller soldier propped her
mouth open, brandished his knife, and cut out her tongue. The soldier
dangled the dripping, bloody slab in front of the girl’s face before he threw
it at her feet, taunting her. Horror painted her eyes as blood seeped down
her chin—the butchered nub twisting grotesquely in her mouth as she
attempted a gurgled, unnatural scream.
I turned away.
For More Read Download This Book
EPUB