The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

arms. Flipping the dagger in my hand, I cocked back my arm
and threw it. The blade struck under the mask, and the
attacker pinwheeled backward, clutching at his throat.
Movement caught my attention. A wave of masked
assailants raced across the Temple. Silvery-white light
edged into my vision as I heard a voice—a woman’s voice—
whispering inside me. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
In a flash, I saw her, hair like moonlight as she thrust
her hands deep into the ground. Some inherent knowledge
told me that she was where this Temple now stood, but in a
different time, back when the world was an unknown place.
She threw back her head, screaming with a kind of pained
fury that throbbed relentlessly inside me. Silvery-white light
drenched the soil, radiating out from where she touched.
The ground cracked open, and thin, bleached-white fingers
dug out from the dirt all around her, nothing more than
bones. Her words reached me once more. I am done with
this, all of this.
As was I.
I shuddered, the image of the woman fading as I tossed
the sword aside. In the emptiness of my mind, I pictured the
glittering cords peeling off the columns. They did so before
me, draping over a dozen of the attackers like fine webbing.
I wanted them to feel as I did inside. Broken. Twisted. Lost.
Bone cracked. Arms and legs snapped. Backs broke.
They fell like shattered saplings.
Others turned away from me, to run. Flee. I would not
allow that. They would pay. All of them would taste and
drown in my wrath. I would bring this structure down and
then rip the entire kingdom apart to ensure it. They would
feel what was inside me, what they wrought. Threefold.
Rage poured from me in another scream as I stalked
forward, lifting my arms. The cords rose from the floor. In my
mind, they grew and multiplied, stretching out beyond the
Chambers of Nyktos to the trees and the city below. I
started to rise—