The heat of rage flushed his face, but he saw the chief guard was indifferent. Without protest, he stepped forward, and at once the guards surrounded him. He started to panic then realized they were just there to watch his every move. They marched him to the royal quarters where Ickletor retrieved the book and the meteor first thing.
“You there,” he said to a passing servant, “gather my clothes and personal effects, and move them to my rooms in the temple pyramid.”
The servant girl looked at the chief guard. He nodded. She picked up an armful of clothes and a cup and walked out the door without a word.
“Well help me,” Ickletor said to the guards.
The guards remained at ease, not responding to him in the least.
“Queen Kayla said you have an hour. YOU have an hour to remove your property. Your time is running out fast,” the chief guard said without so much as a change of facial expression.
Fuming, Ickletor grabbed an item here and there as the guards indicated his time was running out. The guards ushered him out of the palace clutching a bundle of clothes wrapped around the book and meteor. He dragged a bag stuffed with items spilling out of the top behind him across the plaza. No one offered to help.
Ickletor slammed the bundle down on his desk where it spilled open, and The Book of the Underworld and The Eye of Dindak sat atop the wad. He plopped down in his chair behind the desk exhausted.
“At least I have the means to retake control of all,” he mumbled looking at the book and meteor. He put his hand reassuringly on the book.
*
“I’ve been waiting for you to return, Ickletor,” a voice said from the shadows in the corner.
Ickletor knew the voice, but the tone was deeper, ominous. He jumped up turning to face the speaker. Instantly he froze unable to move.
“You have no means of doing anything, even to save yourself?”
“Have mercy!” he managed to speak still unable to move anything but his lips.
“Did you show anyone mercy, Ickletor? Did you show my Eva mercy?”
Long-clawed fingers slowly drew the high priest’s robe aside. With meticulous precision and care an obsidian blade cut through the garment at his stomach. Ickletor’s eyes swelled, staring down at the blade. He looked up at Nokmay cold as death staring into his face. Her hand methodically sliced through Ickletor’s gut. His bowels tumbled out onto the floor.
She stood indifferent staring as he tried to squirm but her spell held him immobile. The witch watched him desperately trying to move. She waited until he realized he had no escape, no hope, and stopped squirming. The glistening surface of his bowels began to dull as they dried. Terrible pain showed in his facial expression.
Only then did Nokmay reach up through his gut, shove her hand through his diaphragm, grab his beating heart, and rip it out of his chest. It took him a while to die in excruciating pain.
Nokmay wiped his blood from her arm. As he watched, she picked up The Eye of Dindak and slid it in her rags. She picked up The Book of the Underworld and tucked it under her arm before casually walking out of the temple pyramid and the city. The few occupants saw the blood on her tattered robes and froze. She left Octar unimpeded walking south.
*
When Toda returned to Octar, Queen Kayla had rewarded him with the office of High Priest of Yingnak which he renounced. He told Queen Kayla of the god’s falseness, but they decided the people needed a god to rally to in the current chaotic times. Toda went to the temple to clean out his few possessions. He could no longer serve there. Then he remembered the plan he’d tucked back into the hidden drawer in Ickletor’s office. He retrieved it and took it to Queen Kayla in the palace.
“I think this will answer the questions about your father’s death. Ickletor was the fiend behind that as well.”
He handed the document to Kayla and left the city traveling south to Tigmoor and his only true friend, Prince Malladar.
*
The End
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About the Author:
Craig Coleman was born and raised in Kinston, North Carolina, USA. He earned his BA in History and his MBA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a tour of duty in the United States Air Force in between. He currently resides in Greensboro, NC where he wrote this book and The Neuyokkasinian Arc of Empire series. Visit his website at
http://www.ccraigcoleman.com
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