Page 28 of Four Ruined Realms (The Broken Blades #2)

Euyn

The Temple of Knowledge, Khitan

I never expected to haul as many corpses as I have with Mikail. We bring the priests out of the temple, up the stairs, and onto the ice. It’s easier said than done with their robes, wounds, and the winding staircase. It takes a while, but we get all nine onto the shore.

Now we have a new quandary of creating a funeral pyre in all this snow. The four of us stand, puzzling over it, but I keep looking around. We need to move. We’re too exposed out here, and I can’t shake the sensation that we’re being watched.

“Can’t we just use the books as kindling?” Royo asks.

I think the priest might faint from the suggestion. He shakes his head vigorously, and his breath comes out in spurts.

“I mean the ones they tore apart…” Royo adds and then trails off, kicking at some snow.

The priest continues to shake his head, a man of few words even when he’s not under his vow. I assume he’s going to salvage what he can and rewrite all the materials that were destroyed—if he lives that long. Something tells me he will not.

“We can take apart the warming hut and use it,” Mikail says. “It might just be enough.” He stares down the shore and then at me. “Euyn, cover us. The priest says he hasn’t been here in a week. It’s hard to say when the others were killed, but I estimate it’s been less than a day.”

“Yours in this life and the next,” I say, lifting my bow.

He doesn’t say it because he is busy directing Royo and the priest. Or at least that’s what I want to believe.

I thought we were back to normal after the zaybear attack, but we are not. I can feel him pulling away from me, like the tide slipping through my fingers, and it’s maddening.

Regardless, I will always protect him. I take up a position on the side of the nearest slope and build a quick snow wall in front of me. I crouch behind it and wait with my bow on my shoulder. It’s cold and uncomfortable, but I am used to sitting like this from my hunting days. My legs are deceptively strong from crouching for bells and bells—it’s how I was able to lift and carry Mikail in Fallow.

Who would’ve thought that would be a simpler time?

The other men get to work on building a pyre. They bring the benches, firewood, and even drag the stove out of the hut. The stove is clever. It will help get the fire hot enough, since all nine bodies will have to burn together.

Royo lumbers back to the shed, stares at it for a moment, then rips the door off with just his gloved hands. Mikail shakes his head, laughing to himself as he carries the wood over to the pyre.

Royo swings his axe and hits the corner of the hut. The entire structure begins to buckle. A few swings later, it’s in manageable pieces.

They work efficiently, but it’s solidly dark by the time the pyre is ready. I keep a sharp eye out for any signs of danger—a lantern, a glimmer of steel, a clang of armor. Mikail estimated a day since the killers were here. I think it’s less than that—half a day at most, given the state of the bodies. I expect to see shadows creeping along, spies or assassins hiding. The hair on the back of my neck stands. But the only thing of note is a tiny moon owl circling the lake multiple times.

The priest brings a torch and a vase of oil out of the temple. He says prayers to Lord Yama for each of the priests, even the female ones. He then says another prayer to the God of Knowledge and one to the Sky King. I start to get antsy, tapping my foot as he begins yet another prayer. We really don’t have time for a full funeral, but a deal is a deal.

I just don’t understand why Mikail agreed. We had the muscle to force his hand.

Finally, the priest pours all the oil on the bodies and lights the pyre. With so little wood, the oil will help the bodies burn. In Yusan, we consider the souls released as soon as the bodies catch fire. I imagine it’s the same in Khitan.

Once the souls are released, we head back down the blood-splattered stairs. The priest asks us to wait at the doors of the temple.

“What if it’s a trap?” Royo asks. His eyes dart around as he voices my paranoid thoughts.

“Unless he has an army hidden back there, I think we can handle it,” Mikail says.

But I keep my bow ready.

The priest comes back with a cloth for us to clean our boots. Royo is the first to sheepishly comply. The priest passes us, heading to wipe down the stairs.

When we get inside the temple, the girls are still at the reading table, only now it’s covered in open books and unfurled scrolls.

They stop and look up at us.

“What did you find?” Mikail asks.

“Well, there’s good news and bad news,” Aeri says. “Which would you like first?”

My stomach sinks. Of course there’s bad news. “The bad.”

“The good,” Mikail says at the same time.

He and I pause and exchange glances.

“Well, that was weird.” Aeri looks from me to Mikail. “Anyhow, the good news is that there appear to be two exceptions to the Rule of Distance. But neither of us speaks enough Khitanese to figure out what they mean. They’re written strangely.”

“Easy enough.” Mikail saunters over to the table.

“Wait, what’s the bad news?” I ask.

Aeri pales a little. “Well, the thing is…we figured out why the king wants the ring so badly.”

I raise my eyebrows, waiting.

She opens a scroll. “It’s right here. ‘The use of multiple relics amplifies their powers as man merges with god,’” she reads.

Mikail runs a hand down his face as my stomach sinks. Joon has the Immortal Crown, the Flaming Sword, and now he wants the ring, which would make him the most powerful being in the world.