Sky Breaker (Night Spinner Duology) Addie Thorley (best english books to read for beginners .TXT) 📖

lost was hiding in the marshlands. And if we waited patiently, it would deliver itself into our hands. Look, here you are.”

I scoff. Yatindra never accepted King Minoak’s decision, and she never intended to pray with me. She feigned an apology to lure me down to the sheep pens, knowing I’d fall into the hole she’d gouged. Knowing the animals would escape and lead us to the waiting Shoniin. The worst part is, she’ll get away with it. I’ve been so suspicious and distrustful, the shepherds and Namagaans are much more likely to believe I’m casting undue blame than to deem the supportive sister of King Minoak and devoted wife of the vice chancellor capable of such treachery.

I want to strangle her. Or obliterate her with starfire. Yatindra may think she’s protecting her family by keeping them here, but it’s maddeningly shortsighted. We’ll all be squashed by the Zemyans.

“We don’t want to make trouble with Namaag,” Temujin continues.

“Since when is helping Zemya invade Namaag ‘not making trouble’?” I challenge.

Temujin ignores me. “We have a very generous proposal.”

“Generous for you, I’m sure,” Serik snarls.

Temujin shoots him an annoyed look. “How many times must I tell you this has nothing to do with me? I am fighting for the people. I want justice for the persecuted”—he gestures to the shepherds—“and freedom for the Protected Territories. How could you possibly condemn me for that?”

“Because of your methods! You’ll never accomplish any of it with your current ‘allies.’ The Zemyans are using you—as you used me,” I spit out.

Temujin releases a drawn-out sigh. “I had hoped we could settle this civilly, but we won’t allow you to jeopardize the well-being of these good people or to threaten the stability of the entire continent with a needless, slapdash rebellion. Sagaan has fallen. The Sky King is dead. A new dawn is rising, and you can either wake up and rise with it or be left to perish in the dark.”

“The Sky King is dead?” I croak.

There was no love lost between me and King Tyberion, so this news should come as a relief—we were going to have to face him eventually, and now there’s one less obstacle between us and liberating the Protected Territories. King Ihsan has no one to fall back on now, nowhere to turn but to us and our alliance. But my feet feel like they’re sinking deeper into the boggy ground. Like the entire swamp is going to swallow me. Because the Zemyans are that much closer to seizing the continent. Despite Temujin’s grand promises, I know Empress Danashti, and Kartok, will be even more ruthless than the Sky King.

“How? When? What’s happening in Sagaan?” The words pour from my mouth like vomit. “Was it destroyed? What about the people?”

And Ghoa.

I don’t want to think about her—I don’t care what happened to her—but there she is, battling across the stage of my mind. Did she perish alongside the king? She must have. There isn’t a single scenario I can imagine in which she would be alive if he isn’t. And despite everything, the thought of her cold and vacant-eyed on the ground with a Zemyan blade through her chest makes it suddenly hard to breathe.

“Zemya possesses all of Ashkar’s major cities.” Temujin ignores my questions. “The only task that remains is quelling what’s left of the Imperial Army, which will be simple and peaceable as long as no one attempts to intervene.” His amber eyes flick deliberately to me. “If you abandon this doomed rebellion, and you and Serik return with us to Sagaan, we will allow the rest of your party to retreat to the safety of Uzul with their flocks. We will not attempt to ‘invade’ or ‘conquer’ Namaag. That has never been our goal.”

The shepherds guzzle down his lies like sap wine, and there’s an immediate shift in the air. Their feet scuffle restlessly. My ears ring with their unspoken pleas: Go. Leave us. I’m fairly certain they would grab me and Serik and physically throw us at Temujin’s feet if they weren’t frightened of our Kalima powers.

The even more outrageous part is I would let them—I would go with Temujin willingly if I truly believed the Zemyans would let the Protected Territories be. But they won’t. The shepherds don’t know Temujin like I do. They don’t know how he twists the truth to make it smell like honey-sweet sapota fruit on the outside, when it’s rotten and festering beneath the skin. And they don’t know Kartok, who siphoned my power. Who created an entire world within our own.

I raise my chin. “And if we refuse?”

“Then you’ll be responsible for even more destruction.”

The shepherds moan behind us, but I look to Serik. Just a flick of my gaze. It’s enough. He thrusts his arms forward and a pillar of white fire races toward the Shoniin. They leap back to avoid the inferno, and as soon as Orbai vaults from Temujin’s shoulder, I reach into the heavens, harness a ball of starfire, and aim it directly at his chest.

My body tenses with morbid anticipation as the starfire hurtles through the pitch black and slashes through the leaves—a furious streak of incandescent red. Just before it obliterates the Shoniin, another streak of light appears—this one flaming blue. The two balls of starfire collide, just as they did in the desert when I stopped Ziva from killing Orbai. Only this explosion is ten times larger, ten times hotter, since Temujin’s starfire wasn’t summoned by Ziva’s novice hand.

They were both summoned by me.

A pulse of violet light fills the sky, then millions of sparks sizzle down from the heavens, leaving trails of smoke. As the embers settle atop the canopy, pricks of light spatter the foliage—like the fireflies the Namagaans use to light their homes. Only these fireflies grow and multiply and spread.

In what feels like an instant, the leaves are no longer green but burning red and gold. Fire drips down the ancient tree trunks like wax from a candlestick, racing