Cursed by Ice (eBook)

chapter one Garreth walked into the command tent and immediately dropped his burden on one of the cross-legged tables within. He wore full armor, so every time he moved the sound of metal striking metal was made. It was a sound he had grown to love over his lifetime. The sound of a man ready for whatever battles might come his way. A sound he once thought he would never hear again. 'Well, little brother, how goes things with the troops?' Garreth turned to face Dethan. 'Well, elder brother,' he said with a tight-lipped smile, 'they are bored out of their skulls.' 'I thought you were sending out hunting parties.' 'I did. And we've game aplenty now. But these men have come for a fight and they are itching to do battle. I cannot say I blame them. The summer wears on, and soon you will be returning to your wife and child, taking half our forces back with you to winter. They want to see at least one more glorious battle before they go.' 'Outside this tent and a few strides away is that glorious battle to come.' Dethan moved to the front of the tent, looking out the opening and toward the city they had chosen to sack in Weysa's name. That was their part of the bargain, the deal that had freed the two brothers from their torments after they had drunk from the fountain. Dethan, Garreth had learned, had been thrust down into the darkest, hottest pit of the eight hells, cursed to burn to the bone over and over again, just as Garreth had been cursed to freeze. But almost a full turning of the seasons ago, the goddess had freed Dethan. Weysa needed warriors to fight in her name. She and the other gods had grown weak as the people turned away from their faith and belief in them, for they needed the love and devotion of the people in order to gain power. And now that the twelve gods were at war, split into two factions of six, they desired power more than ever. Weysa's faction consisted of Hella, the goddess of fate and fortune, Meru, the goddess of hearth, home, and harvest, her brother Mordu, the god of hope, love, and dreams, Lothas, the god of day and night, and Framun, the god of peace and tranquility. They warred with the opposing faction of Xaxis, the god of the eight hells, Grimu, the god of the eight heavens, Diathus, the goddess of the land and oceans, Kitari, the goddess of life and death, Jikaro, the god of anger, deception, and storms, and Sabo, the god of pain and suffering. However, Kitari, the queen of the gods, was being held by Xaxis's faction against her will, a fact they had discovered only last winter, when Dethan had traded away his immortality in order to discover her true intent. It had been a risky proposition, one that could easily have backfired and meant a permanent end to Dethan, but instead it had freed him fully from his curse, made him mortal, and allowed Garreth to be freed from his icy hell as well. Somewhat. For every night, between dusk and the juquil's hour, Garreth was cursed to freeze again. A reminder, he thought grimly, of what he had done and of the gods' discontent with him. Weysa had only freed him to fight, she had not been willing to release him entirely from his curse. But that did not matter. All that mattered was that they and their army perform well. They had Hexis, the city where Dethan's wife ruled with Dethan, and they had conquered one other city already, this past spring, erecting temples to Weysa within its walls and filling their army with more soldiers from that city. Now it was coming on the end of summer and out there, only a short distance...