Shadowdeath wind episode.., p.31
Shadowdeath Wind: Episodes & Excursions: Book 1, page 31
“Enough of your whining. And enough of your foolishness. There was never any chance of that. This war is necessary.”
Omen stared hard at Rodonovan. All of the meetings they’d taken in the aftermath of the Vermillion Grottos skirmish, the subsequent battles for the Pyramid Islands and Blustery Atoll, the defeat at Zero’s Edge, the deaths of hundreds of sailors in his name, Rodonovan gave no indication. “So that was really your plan? At Vermillion Grottos?”
“I seized an opportunity,” the captain said, meeting Omen’s sharpening gaze.
“An opportunity?” Omen said. “I murdered two people.”
“Well, I had no idea it’d be this easy. I thought once the Folks had been assassinated, we’d have to first convince the Mayor to go to war against us. The Folks’ subterfuge worked in our favor.”
“Our favor? Your favor maybe. I am a murderer. Sin almost died. Red Night Magus’ Scorpion Fish flies over Black Tombs now. And who’s ‘us’? Not me, I’m running. A handful of independents who’ll drop your standard once their interests are secured?”
“Now is not the time for this conversation.”
“No. The time was before you decided to tear up the Myriads.” Tear down my life. Esther watched him from his dreams now, face always distorted, sometimes slightly, sometimes radically, from the force of impact.
“You will see, Omen, how it is sometimes necessary to break down what needs to be rebuilt.” Rodonovan looked to Uriah Bloodangel. “You’ve chosen your men?”
Uriah nodded, pointed toward two figures coming down the gangway. “Two volunteers.” A smile barely tweaked Omen’s face, an easing of tension like false dawn.
Sinister and Jester Dan approached and dropped their gunnysacks. Sin, scimitars framing his drawn and pale face. He was somehow even thinner; he’d fought hard.
“I’ve always wanted to see the big lands, Captain,” Jester Dan said brightly, curly hair jaunting about his head.
Rodonovan arched an eyebrow. “I see. And Sinister, you yearn for the endless dirt too?”
Sinister cleared his ruined throat. His words came out like a low, slow grinding of stone crumbs: “I only wish to protect your son, my friend.”
“From himself, mostly,” Jester Dan said.
Rodonovan nodded curtly and started for the gangway, Mantra settling on his shoulder with a warble. “You do that,” he said without looking back.
Omen jumped into the go-go. He had junk in his head now too. He didn’t watch his father exit. “Let’s head east,” he told his friends, intently double-checking that he had his knife to hide the trembling in his hands and voice.
Dan Edelman, Shadowdeath Wind: Episodes & Excursions: Book 1
