Ghost in the Throne (Ghost Exile #7) by Jonathan Moeller Page A

bow.
    “Yes,” said Cassander. “It shall be.” 
    And if not, Callatas would learn to his sorrow what happened to those who crossed the Umbarian Order.
     
    ###
     
    The woman who now called herself Kalgri listened to Cassander’s commands with half an ear, her mind elsewhere. 
    Specifically, she was thinking about a compass she had seen long ago, a very special compass. A needle of ghostsilver had floated on a bed of enspelled mercury, housed within a brass casing carved with sigils. The needle had swung back and forth constantly, but Kalgri thought it might be pointing in one direction now. 
    She might need it later. 
    The Voice hissed and snarled and whispered in her thoughts, slithering within her like a restless serpent. The Staff and Seal had been found, the nagataaru seemed to say, and she ought to go to Callatas at once. Then there would be death, so much death, and she could feast as she never had before…
    Kalgri was not so sure. 
    There might be opportunity for more death first. 
    For Cassander was wrong. Caina Amalas was still alive, healed or perhaps even resurrected by the explosion of silver fire in Rumarah. Kalgri did not entirely understand how it had happened. Yet she knew Caina was alive, and if Kalgri’s suspicions were correct, the Ghost would be far more dangerous than before.
    She was not someone Kalgri wanted to confront directly, not yet. Especially not while Kylon of House Kardamnos followed Caina around with that damned valikon. 
    And now Kylon had twice as much reason to wish Kalgri dead. 
    She smiled a little at the memory of Kylon’s scream of fury as his pregnant wife had died, of the look on his face as he burst through the door to see Caina dying upon Kalgri’s sword…
    Her smile soured.
    Caina had survived. Somehow, she had survived.
    Perhaps Cassander was the solution to that. 
    For Kalgri had told Cassander the truth upon the steppes. He hadn’t understood it, of course, else he would have tried to kill her then and there. Not even Callatas completely understood. Kalgri did not care about Callatas and his Apotheosis. She did not care about Istarinmul or the war between the Emperor and the Umbarian Order. 
    She only cared about feasting upon torment and death.
    And in Cassander, she saw an instrument to bring about a tremendous amount of death.
    The Voice hissed its approval.

Chapter 5: To Catekharon
     
    Caina awoke before dawn, Kylon asleep next to her.
    She felt…rested. 
    Better than she would have expected, really. She looked at Kylon and saw the faint shimmer of his power around him, saw the white light waiting within the pyrikon at her wrist. Caina’s fingers strayed to the golden ring hanging from her neck. That, at least, did not put off a glow of sorcerous power. 
    She had changed. 
    Maybe it was time to see just how much she had changed.
    Caina swung out of bed, stretched, and started working through her unarmed forms, moving through the High strike, middle block, lower kick, and a score of others. The Ghosts of the Vineyard had taught her the movements long ago, and she had practiced them every chance she could get, over and over until they had been imprinted upon her muscles and she could perform them without thought. They had saved her life time and time again, allowing her to move a half-second before her enemies could react.
    As far as she could tell, she could still perform the unarmed moves correctly. Of course, that could just be her imagination. There was another way to test her strength, so she dropped to the floor, spread her arms, and started doing pushups. The last time she had practiced the unarmed forms, on Murat’s ship as they approached Pyramid Isle, she had been able to do one hundred and six pushups before she had to stop.
    Today, she got to one hundred and thirteen. 
    Caina pushed away from the floor and sat at the edge of the hearth, breathing hard, and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She shouldn’t have been able to do that.