THE FIRST TONGUE

Coldmere neve

f-human and half-damned. The hallways whispered as if wind moved through unseen mouths, and the staine

her like armor. Her dreams were not dreams-they were memo

's sc

iled as the flame

e calling out from a place where

n had not yet broken. She couldn't sleep. Not here. Not knowing that just

e blanket as

The cold wrapped around her ankles like water. As she made her way down the s

but something tugge

nges g

tood a broken altar, its cloth moth-eaten and stained. The cross above it had b

eyes was the writing

La

guage she h

deep, burned i

udient confess

not hear the li

e backed away from the

that message mad

-

stone bench beside the boy's body. A small oil lamp flicke

asleep," she

t earned

a low tombstone, arms cross

said. "I think he

d. "Do you bel

er-and then said, "I believe there

ed. That w

thing upstairs. A chapel. Abandoned. T

traighter. "Wh

watching his face as she did. The

does i

when you confess a lie. The heavens st

s-those priests-had th

lse repentance. Some of them must have seen what Thorne truly

lies are intentional, Elias. S

f can be the cruel

amp. Then Elias added, almost to himself, "I think it's t

-

council had

eat crucifix again, flanked by two robed

oes beyond heresy. Beyond personal sin. What has

d to Elias

fragments, surviving witnesses, and-most crucially-the marks bor

lver circlet around his brow. Archbis

o you propo

nced at Elias.

e through t

"Cleansing? You mean

orne's doctrine spread-wherever his followers still operate-we must expose them

nce se

poke. "It wo

s rarely is,"

other priest asked. "We've he

"Yes. We have names. Hints. But it's a web. C

wly. "Then you w

in silver-plated armor, marke

with you. Guard you. An

spering to Elias, "We'r

it," he said. "Because we don't

-

ere under a sky the

he name in the margins of the ledger before it burned, circled in red ink. There, Tho

-watchful. Elias kept his hood drawn. Clara walked beside him with her blade hidden

hey reache

found was.

No voices.

smoke long cold. But then they saw the signs: every doo

pered, "Wh

didn't

of the square, its doors wide

, it w

not

t at the a

r. But his hands were stained-both

oo

as they enter

ome far,"

blade. "Where a

widened. "They'v

ped forwar

he fl

s lu

met

unt frame. He dodged, twisted, struck. One of the kn

opened-too wide-and

hu

natu

ed glass

but Elias pushed forwa

cry-and

collapsed

robes-was carved the sam

as So

-

ht who had fallen, Clara asked

d from his hands

we do unt

d up at

ep wal