The Final Redemption by Michael Manning (little red riding hood ebook free .txt) 📕

Iron HeartChamber. “It sounds as though they are fairly weak then,” Inoted.

“That’s still enough to make one ofthem a serious danger to one of your knights, and there are a lotmore of them. This is aside from the fact that they are stillimmortal,” Karenth informed me.

His words were unsettlingand they sent my thoughts into a desperate spiral.What do I do? Eventhough I was dead, my family, even my nation, needed me. I hadthought I could save them but it seemed that at every turn I foundthe odds stacked against me. Moreimportantly, what would Mordecai do? Well,for starters he wouldn’t be flying in the wrong direction,prioritizing the return of Lyralliantha before taking care of hisown people. That couldn’t be helped however. My only hope offreedom was to fulfill her command and trust that she would keepher word.

And after that? How do Idefeat a legion of immortal mini-gods, their nigh-omnipotentmaster, and his human patsies—all while keeping the nation more orless intact? It was hopeless. OnceLyralliantha freed me, I should use the token she had given me anddestroy myself. At least then the ‘hero’ could go to hiswell-earned rest. I was only a poor copy. Saving the world wasimpossible. I should content myself with saving Mordecai. Let hissoul find peace wherever it was that souls went after they passedthrough the void. That was a more reasonable goal.What would Mordecai do?

Fight!

The last thought came from somewhereelse, accompanied by a painful pulse in my chest. I took anunnecessary breath and let out a sigh. “Goddammit.”

Karenth looked at mequestioningly.

“Here’s what I want you to do,” I toldhim, and for the next quarter of an hour I laid out hisinstructions. Once I had finished, I opened the ‘door’, allowing ablast of air to roar into the interior of my flyingdevice.

“What are you doing now?” heasked.

I smiled. “I’m kicking you out. Mybinding won’t let me stop, so you’ll have to make your own wayback, but I’m sure you have power enough now.”

“Right here?!” he said, startled. Hisvoice rose to a shout as I placed a hand behind him and gave him arather ungentle shove.

“Yep,” I said smugly, watching himfall for a few seconds. His body sprouted wings, and he took flightbefore he had fallen halfway to the ground.

Alone, I watched the ground fly bybeneath me for a few minutes before exploring my second idea.Closing my eyes, I turned my attention inward, seeking the blackcore of my being. It was a place of darkness, the She’Harspellweaving appeared to me like a sphere made of nothingness, ablank place that light entered but never left. Within it wasMordecai’s soul, but from my perspective nothing of its interiorcould be observed.

Lines of dark power stretched outwardfrom it, snaking their way throughout my body, and though somestopped there, many others went farther, stretching away invisiblyinto the distance—to the other shiggreth. According to my bestguesses, those lines should allow me to control and communicatewith them. I believed that they were dependent upon that link, thateventually, when I was free to destroy the spellweaving thatmaintained my existence, they would also die. For now though, I hadother uses for them.

Focusing, I sent mythoughts outward along lines that stretched hundreds of miles, in athousand different directions: Come. Youare needed. Mentally I created a vision ofthe place I wanted them to go. Giving instructions as carefully asI could, I sent more images, faces and heraldic designs, eachaccompanied by one command or the other: Kill these. Spare those.

Inevitably, I knew that there would bemistakes. The images I had used to identify friend and foe werelimited, and some innocent lives might be lost. Luckily my emotionshad ebbed to a low point. Guilt wasn’t a problem. Necessity andefficiency were all I cared about.

My biggest concern was that mycommands might be ignored, or too complicated. My own experiencesuggested that their minds might be more complex than I had assumedbefore becoming one myself, but I still couldn’t be sure. I was,after all, in a unique position.

Chapter 27

Penelope Illeniel staredat the sky for long minutes after ‘Brexus’ had disappeared with hiscargo. The others went back inside, except for her children, whostood with her, sharing the quiet melancholy. Internally she was awreck, her emotions were twisting and turning, anger mixed withsadness. How can I believe what Elisesays? He barely spoke to me.

He nearly killed Cyhan. Ifit is him in there, he’s changed. He’s become darker and moreviolent, she thought. But he didn’t hurt the children that day. Her thoughts had gone back to the day that Matthew waswounded during Moira’s confrontation with her ‘father’, if that’swho Brexus really was.

Today he had seemed justas distant, almost mechanical. He had shown no concern for her oranyone else in the house. Except for that last moment, when she hadblocked his path. I thought he was aboutto hit me. She had refused to react to histhreatening gesture, thinking to let him show his true colors. Hissudden paralysis, accompanied by those words…

He sounded like my Mordecai, if justfor a moment.

“He didn’t even look at me,” notedMatthew in a forlorn voice.

His sister tried to explain, “He isn’tquite the same, but he’s just trying to protect us. He thinks he’sa danger to…”

“Just shut up!” Matthew interruptedloudly. “Ever since you got your magic, you act as though you knowso much more than everyone else!”

Our moment of solidarityis over, thought Penny. “Stop!” sheordered. “Both of you go inside. We’ve enough to worry aboutwithout you two bickering all the time.”

She kept her eyes on the street for aminute more, then she heard someone behind her. “You should comein, Countess. The streets aren’t safe,” cautioned StephenBalistair.

She decided to heed his advice andstepped in, closing the door behind her. “I told you yesterday,call me Penny,” she rebuked him.

Ariadne had appeared two dayspreviously, desperate and seeking refuge, with Elise Thornbear anda few others. Stephen Balistair had shown up later in the same day,bringing with him some of the survivors of Lord Hightower’sgarrison. Dorian had returned later still, and his revelationregarding Martin Balistair’s part in the treachery that had killedthe King was less than welcome news.

Dorian