Free Shrouded Sky (The Veils of Lore Book 1) by Tracy A. Akers Page A

“Why are there two?” he asked.
    “Do you not know?”
    Tygg straightened his back. “My great-grandsire,” he said. “But why are they the same?”
    “You wish to make restitution for his dark deed, do you not? You must do what he could not.”
    “Kill the host and return the Kee to Adjo.”
    “Aye. The stars are shifting.”
    Tygg’s eyes shot to his. “How soon?”
    “A lifetime, no more.”
    “But the Kee and the host are surely well guarded.”
    “That is why you need the Pedant. You befriended him as you were meant to?”
    “Aye.”
    “And the Imela, the one of our blood, has been found?”
    “She is with the Pedant as we speak.”
    “Then your Qwa t’sei is clear,” the old man said. “You must escort them to Syddia.”
    “Syddia? But surely I will be slain the moment I set foot there.”
    “The Pedant will keep you safe for a time,” Yatka said. “That is how he will repay his debt to you. But your safety will last only until he is once again under the control of Marcassett.”
    “So I am to escort the Pedant and the Imela to Syddia. Then I am to find a way to steal back the Kee from a creature who would love nothing more than to have my hide tacked to her wall. And if I fail?”
    “Then we are lost.”
    “You make it sound so final.”
    “When the stars shift into their final alignment, the gods will return. We do not know who leads them now, for it was many generations since they were last here. During their first departure, Bastet gifted us the Kee, not only to keep us veiled from Sister World, but to keep the portals of A’niha open.”
    “And only one portal remains,” Tygg said grimly.
    “Aye, and Marcassett must not learn of it, for if she does she will destroy it as she did the others.”
    “But if it was the Kee that kept them open, why did she simply not destroy it?”
    “Marcassett did not know its purpose. It was molded by Bastet into a form she would not recognize, so it is believed she stole it only because it was gifted to us by the gods, whom she despises. Marcassett is an elusive, cunning creature with the ability to transfer her life force into the physical body of another. This is what kept her hidden from the gods when she fled after her mutiny, and is one of the reasons Sister World must never learn of us. For if they do they will seek us out, giving Marcassett an opportunity to move beyond our realm.”
    “I do not understand why the gods gifted us only one weapon.”
    “The Kee was never meant to be a weapon,” Yatka explained. “Perhaps Marcassett knows this, perhaps not, but still she uses it as a means of bloodshed. The last time the stars shifted, our people were without the Kee. During that time a great battle was fought between many tribes and Marcassett, who was in the form of a Tearian king. But she slipped into the form of another and took the Kee with her. That is the event your great-grandsire failed to prevent. If the gods return and realize the Kee is still in her possession, that she is once again in power and that Imelas are reaching our shores, they may feel we cannot be salvaged.”
    “But they spared us before, did they not?”
    “They did, at the last full shift of the stars, but only by the charity of a pure soul, a boy not of our tribe. He convinced them to give us more time. Through him the gods were swayed. But they will return. And when they do they may not be so easily convinced. If we fail . . .” Yatka shook his head.
    Tygg felt a dark cloud loom over him. “What must I do?” he asked.
    “After you arrive in Syddia, Marcassett, embodied as the Sovereign, will send for you. You are Taubastet. She will wish to torment you, to learn what she can of us. And that is when you must make your move. But I warn you: do not let her touch you.”
    Tygg narrowed his eyes. “You mean do not let her reach into my mind.”
    “Aye. Marcassett will try, but you must slay the host before she can find her way into you.” Yatka pulled a