Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Novel Title: Empire of the Vampire
- Author: Jay Kristoff
- Genre: Dark Fantasy, Horror Fiction, Action & Adventure Fantasy
- Publish Date: 14 September 2021
- Size: 38 MB
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Status: Avail for Download
- Price: Free
OF APPLES AND TREES
‘IT ALL STARTED with a rabbit hole,’ Gabriel said.
The Last Silversaint stared into that flickering lantern flame as if into faces
long dead. A hint of red smoke still bruised the air, and he could hear each
thread in the lantern’s wick burning to a different tune. The years passed
between then and now seemed only minutes to his mind, alight with rushing
bloodhymn.
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‘It strikes me as funny,’ he sighed, ‘looking back on it all. There’s a pile of
ash behind me so high it could touch the sky. Cathedrals in flames and cities
in ruins and graves overflowing with the pious and wicked, and that’s where
it truly began.’ He shook his head in wonder. ‘Just a little hole in the ground.
‘People will remember it different, of course. The soothsingers will harp
about the Prophecy, and the priests will bleat on about the Almighty’s plan.
But I never met a minstrel who wasn’t a liar, coldblood. Nor a holy man who
wasn’t a cunt.’
‘Ostensibly, you are a holy man, Silversaint,’ Jean-François said.
Gabriel de León met the monster’s gaze, smiling faintly.
‘Night was a good two hours off when God decided to piss in my porridge.
The locals had torn down the bridge over the Keff, so I’d been forced south
to the ford near Dhahaeth. It was rough country, but Justice had—’
‘Hold, Chevalier.’ Marquis Jean-François of the Blood Chastain raised one
hand, placed the quill between the pages. ‘This will not do.’
Gabriel blinked. ‘No?’
‘No,’ the vampire replied. ‘I told you, this is the tale of who you are. How
all this came to pass. Histories do not begin halfway. Histories begin at the
beginning.’
‘You want to know about the Grail. A rabbit hole is where that tale
begins.’
‘As I said, I record this story for those who will live long after you are food
for worms. Begin gently.’ Jean-François waved one slender hand. ‘I was
born. I grew up …’
‘I was born in a mud puddle named Lorson. Raised the son of a
blacksmith. Eldest of three. I was no one special.’
The vampire looked him over, boots to brow. ‘We both know that is
untrue.’
‘The things you know about me, coldblood? Well, if you scraped them all
together and squeezed them dry, they could almost add up to a fucking
thimbleful.’
The thing called Jean-François affected a small yawn. ‘Teach me, then.
Your parents. Were they pious folk?’
Gabriel opened his mouth for a rebuke. But the words died on his lips as he
looked at the book in Jean-François’s lap. He realized the coldblood wasn’t
only writing down his every word, he was also sketching; using that
preternatural speed to trace a few lines between every breath.
Gabriel saw the
lines coalescing into an image now; a man in three-quarter profile. Haunted
grey eyes. Broad shoulders and long hair, black as midnight. A chiselled jaw
dusted with fine stubble and streaked with dried blood. Two scars were
carved beneath his right eye, one long, the other short, almost like falling
tears. It was a face Gabriel knew as well as his own.
Because, of course, it was his own.
‘A fine likeness,’ he said.
‘Merci,’ the monster murmured.
‘Do you draw portraits for the other leeches, too? It must be tricky to
remember what you look like after a while, if even a mirror won’t profane
itself with your reflection.’
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