Free 04c Dreams of Fire and Gods: Gods by James Erich Page B

the horse had disappeared.
    Koreh waved back at his da, still remembering how the man used to come home each night in Dasak weary and exhausted. He was a moderate-sized man, little taller than Koreh was now, and very lean. Even though working in the fields had put some muscle on his thin frame, he’d never been suited to a life of hard labor. Here, at last, Koreh’s father seemed content, his handsome face full of laughter and his body overflowing with energy. He was never too tired to wrestle with Emik or take his wife’s hand in a dance around the fire.
    Koreh adored him, as he adored everyone in his family. Seeing them made whole and happy at last warmed him more than he could ever express. If it weren’t for missing Sael so much, he would have been content to stay there forever with the people he loved.
    But the restlessness inside him was growing and wouldn’t allow him to settle in. The day was fast approaching, he knew, when he would be forced to leave.
     
     
    M ARIK ’ S men hadn’t mourned her disappearance for long. Her Sight had given them a powerful advantage over other bands of outlaws in Old Mat’zovya, but from what Donegh could overhear while he hid in the shadows, they had already given her up for dead. Her men speculated about rival bands kidnapping and killing her—or worse. She had many enemies. Or perhaps someone had finally decided to collect that tempting bounty on her head. Perhaps the emperor himself had sent an assassin.
    Donegh found that last particularly amusing.
    A burly, unpleasant man named Kessikh had stepped into her place. He wasn’t particularly bright or possessed of any great leadership abilities, but the others feared him. When he sat his broad backside upon Marik’s ornately carved wooden seat—of the sort reserved for royal ömem —no one dared object.
    Except Marik, who was seething over it.
    “Kill that arrogant bastard!” she ordered Donegh when he reported back to her. They’d moved back to the cellar for safety while Marik recovered from the pain of the separation. “If I’m to help you, I need my men. It’s been hard enough keeping them under control without disappearing for days. I know Kessikh. Now that he’s had a taste of power, he’ll be impossible!”
    Thuna clucked at her. “We do need your men—all of them. Surely there’s a way to put him in his place without killing him.”
    “Fine!” Marik snapped. She turned to stab a finger at Donegh. “Just get his ass off my high seat!”
    Donegh smiled. All of this sitting around had been getting on his nerves. He’d been itching for a fight. “Leave him to me.”
    As an assassin, he’d been trained to be cautious. He would never have attacked a man in a room full of people but waited until the man was alone. But he wasn’t going for a quick, silent kill this time.
    He was going for drama.
    He waited until Kessikh was holding court, planning to ambush travelers along the road to Mat’zovya. It wasn’t a particularly good plan.
    “You’re ’xpecting us to just… sit there an’ ’ope somebody happens along?” one of the men asked incredulously.
    Kessikh literally growled at him like a dog. It suited his appearance—ugly and gnarled, his jowls covered in bristles and his face scarred from countless fights. “You ’oping they’ll jus’ walk in ’ere an’ ’and it to you?”
    “Marik knew—”
    “Marik’s dead!”
    “What if she ain’t? What if she’s workin’ for another gang?”
    “An’ leave all ’er men behind? Everythin’ she’s worked to build?”
    “Now that’s the most intelligent thing you’ve said all evening,” Donegh said.
    The room was suddenly silent. All eyes turned to see Donegh step forward out of the shadows. But Kessikh didn’t remain silent for long. He leapt to his feet and shouted, “We’ve got an intruder! Kill ’im!”
    The man to Donegh’s right lunged for him. He didn’t have a weapon—just his bare hands. Apparently he was stupid enough