Free Path of the Crushed Heart: Book Four of the Serpent Catch Series by David Farland Page A

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    Fava heard gunshots and shouting, and saw a blue flash of lightning from the bracken.
    Phylomon stood there alone, sword flashing, among hundreds of Blade Kin, and they were fighting him.
    Phylomon pleaded, shouting a cry of “Freedom,” but the Blade Kin became like mad wolves who have circled a bear and lost all sense.
    She watched some Blade Kin shoot Phylomon a dozen times, and his symbiote withstood the bullets.
    She had no idea whether he could keep it up. The Starfarer’s skin had already turned from its normal blue to a pale gray that looked half-dead.
    He stepped back and blew at his enemies, and a cloud of smoke issued from his mouth. Hundreds of Blade Kin, touched by the cloud, dropped.
    Fava remembered the black cube he had swallowed days before, and realized that he exhaled some kind of potent poison.
    Phylomon leapt into the wake of his cloud, rushed through the shadows.
    A lone man in red armor leapt in front of Phylomon, and the two struggled for a heartbeat before Phylomon tossed him aside. Guns fired, hurling Phylomon to the ground.
    Darrissea shouted to the Blade Kin, “Wait! He came to save you! Stop!”
    Phylomon began to crawl, and the Blade Kin faded back from the black cloud and fired through it, again and again, until the Starfarer collapsed.
    Still they continued to fire.
    The flames from the capitol, leapt into the air, and in the red light Fava squeezed the ivory button to her Fader, hoping it had had time to recharge.
    Nothing happened.
    She squeezed it again while the Blade Kin shot Phylomon. She could see now that his blue skin had faded to white, and finally one Blade Kin shouted for his men to stop firing.
    An old Blade Kin commander, a man with a black robe and an eye patch, went to the white body of Phylomon, kicked him onto his back.
    The commander stood gazing down for a long moment, grinning.
    Darrissea sobbed, tried to pull away and rush to Phylomon.
    Fava grabbed her arm and said “Listen!”
    The gunfire had stopped, and they turned and peered back over the city. On the hill, their view unobstructed, they could see that everywhere thousands of fires lit the streets and slaves were issuing from hovels, hacking the dead Hukm, leaping for joy and shouting in celebration.
    “They don’t understand,” Fava whispered. “They don’t understand what we tried to give them. They think they’ve won. It’s the end of the world.”
    Fava grabbed Darrissea’s wrist, and together they faded back into an alley, away from the fires, and stopped to hold each other.
    ***

Chapter 10: The Promise
    Tull lay in his cell, not knowing whether it was night or day. He’d wakened to a tremble, thinking a quake had struck, but the trembling soon ceased.
    An hour later, he heard the guards shouting, jubilant voices, and went to the cell door and gazed down the hall.
    It was choked with men, armored guards in heavy woolen cloaks. They came to his cell in a knot, shouting and talking excitedly, one of them saying, “Careful, careful,” and someone else explained, “I have his foot. I have it!” They opened a door to the cell across the narrow hallway from Tull, and deposited their prisoner.
    At first Tull thought it a corpse, for he saw only a long, narrow, ash-gray hand, yet as they turned the corner by his cell, he saw the thin face, the hairless brows, and recognized Phylomon.
    The guards dumped the Starfarer in then cell, then slammed the door and made it sure with chains.
    “Phylomon?” Tull called once the guards had left, but the Starfarer did not answer. Tull watched, unsure if Phylomon were breathing or if he only imagined it.
    At long last, Phylomon moved a single finger. Tull heard the clanging of metal doors, heavy boot steps, and the hallway filled with people again.
    Mahkawn came into the prison, leading a tall man who wore red robes with a deep hood. Tull somehow hoped that Mahkawn would speak to him, but the Black Cyclops ignored him, and instead the two stood looking