The Warlord Gena Showalter (primary phonics TXT) 📖

Forest of Many Names. Long ago, Kaysar had relocated centaurs, ogres and trolls into the wilds. For anyone not bearing his seal, moving from kingdom to kingdom had a high likelihood of ending in disaster.

“I have no desire to leave,” she said, then sighed. “Don’t you want love, accolades and respect?”

“No,” he replied, and he meant it. Highborn and lowborn alike often accused him of being cruel and heartless, obsessed and maddened. The adjectives he preferred. Why change?

Her shoulders sagged, as if she’d failed him. “If you don’t let go of your vengeance, Kaysar, you won’t grab hold of your woman, the only person who can give you what you long for most. And it isn’t vengeance!”

Had the visions addled her brain? “I have no woman, I want no woman and I long for vengeance.” His only form of satisfaction. What did he care about a specific bedmate? A lover was a lover, one the same as any other; they simply wore difference faces. The least important feature.

In what seemed like desperation, Eye burst out, “You could have a woman. You could have more than loneliness.”

Lonely? Him? “I’m beginning to question your sanity, Eye.”

“If you continue on this path, you will condemn yourself to a misery unlike any you’ve ever known,” she stated, a flash of sympathy in her dark gaze. “You will lose everything that matters to you.”

“I have already lost everything that matters,” he grated. “Now I merely repay.”

“But—”

“No!” Enough of this. “The Frostlines planted seeds of hate in the rich soil of my heart. For twelve months, the king and princes watered those seeds, ensuring they sprouted up and grew roots. Yet here you stand, daring to complain to the tree for producing its harvest? How dare you? The Frostlines will eat the fruit, that I swear to you.” Temper verging on dangerous, he leaped to his feet. “You would do well to mind your tongue, Eye, before I add it to my collection.”

Yes, he displayed severed tongues in jars, on special shelves in his bedroom. He displayed other organs, too. What made a better trophy than a literal piece of his foes?

Before he did something he might possibly consider regretting at some later date far in the future, Kaysar flittered, then appeared in the Forest of Many Names. In a location he’d recognized from Eye’s vision.

He turned his focus to his mission—hurting Prince Jareth in the worst way imaginable.

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Copyright © 2021 by Gena Showalter

ISBN-13: 9781488077777

The Warlord

Copyright © 2021 by Gena Showalter

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are eitherthe product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblanceto actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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