The Flame King’s Captive by Chloe Chastaine EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Chloe Chastaine
- Language: English
- Genre: Sword & Sorcery Fantasy eBooks
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
Isavelle
reezing winds from the northern mountains whip across the clearing,
driving flurries of snow and ash into the air. Two Brethren Guard have
a merciless grip on my upper arms as they drag me toward the
towering funeral pyre. Heat scorches my face, and my bare feet stumble
over the frozen, rocky ground. My hands are bound and my mouth is
gagged.
I can’t run.
I can’t scream.
My body is covered in bruises and cuts, and I’ve been deprived of food
and sleep for three days. From behind my long veil, I glimpse dozens of
Brethren in their robes, hands buried in their sleeves, and Brethren Guard in
battle-scarred armor. The air is thick with the
acrid scent of burning flesh
and incense.
The Brethren drone on, chanting their hymns as the guards drag me
through the watching, silent crowd. The mood is more like a funeral than a
wedding, which is fitting considering my bridegroom is ashes and charred
bone atop a burning pyre. There will be no vows spoken today. I’ll be
joined forever with my husband, King Alaster, when they throw me atop the
burning pyre, my fiery death the last hope the Brethren have to turn this war
around.
What a great privilege it was that I was chosen above all others for this
sacred duty.
I spat in the High Priest’s face when he told me that, which earned me a
fresh coating of whip marks. I know why, of all the Veiled Virgins, they
chose me to wed King Alaster. Because of my disobedience. My impiety.
My insolence. The High Priest is so fragile, so paranoid, that he couldn’t
bear my contemptuous glances and small acts of rebellion, like mouthing
the words of my prayers instead of saying them.
He’s watching me now with a gloating smile twisting his lips. His gray
eyes bore into me as firelight glimmers on his short, silver-flecked beard.
With my hands bound and my mouth gagged, I’m finally what he’s always
wanted me to be. Willing. Silent.
Defeated.
At the last harvest equinox over a year ago, I was wrenched from my
home and family as part of the tithe that the Brethren demand from every
village in Maledin. One-tenth of the harvest and livestock. If there is not
enough food to sustain everyone that coming winter, they take daughters of
the village instead. The harvest failed, and the animals were sickly, so I
knew they’d be coming. I hid my sister, two other girls, and myself, but I
didn’t hide well enough. I was dragged onto a cart and sent to live in the
monasteries where I became a Veiled Virgin and was forced to serve the
men I hate most in the world.
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