A Blackbird In Silver (Book 1) by Freda Warrington

heart. The shock and sorrow in her eyes turned them, momentarily, to Miril’s eyes, and as the blood welled from her body onto the floor, his black fury bled into nothingness with it.
    The room seemed pale then, expansive, as though he could walk across it forever and never reach the door. Meshurek had risen to his feet and the fleeting grimace on his face showed all the sorrow he was capable of feeling. Looking at Ashurek, shaking convulsively as he stared at the blood-soaked sword, Meshurek said, ‘Don’t weep, brother. It matters not. She was only biding her time, waiting to seize power from both of us. It would have had to have been done eventually.’
    ‘You live in another world, Meshurek,’ Ashurek said through bitter tears. ‘Power – what is that? You have caused the deaths of father and mother, made a slave of your sister, turned me into a mass murderer – for what? The sake of the Empire? No – you are destroying the Empire. You have undone all father’s work, and surely now it deserves to be destroyed. For your own personal power, then? You fool – Meheg-Ba is gaining the power, not you.’
    ‘You are wrong! I have my own power!’ cried Meshurek, coming forward to face his brother. In despair, Ashurek knew that nothing he said was getting through to the demon-possessed Emperor.
    ‘It doesn’t matter to you, does it,’ he cried, ‘that thousands of people die every day for the sake of the Shana’s lust? That your own family have been destroyed, the only beings in the world that should have meant something to you? Once I thought you a victim of an affliction, a paranoia which was not your own fault. Now I know – my eyes have been opened – we are all victims of the Serpent, but you and I are conscious, willing ones. We are guilty, you and I – as guilty as the Serpent itself. Don’t tell me not to weep!’
    But Meshurek was not listening. He was staring at Ashurek’s throat, reaching towards it – and Ashurek realised Meshurek had sailed the ocean not to see him and tell him of their mother’s death, but to steal the Egg-Stone.
    That he could not permit.
    With a howl that might have made the Serpent itself shudder, he struck Meshurek down with the flat of his sword and fled.
    Ashurek ran from the palace, seized a horse and forced it at a punishing gallop away from the battalion, from his insane brother and his beloved dead sister. He rode, fighting the evil pull of the Egg-Stone at every stride, until at last he was lost among the forests and mountains of Tearn; far beyond – so he thought – pursuit or retaliation.
    It was a strange time, those years spent wandering alone in Tearn. Ashurek tried to avoid all humans, and those he met responded to him with a fear and hatred with which they might have greeted the Serpent itself. He became an utter outcast.
    Meshurek meanwhile was in a torment of fury, made worse when the demon punished him for attempting to steal the Egg-Stone. The punishment over, Meheg-Ba forgave him and together they plotted the recovery of Ashurek and the Stone.
    Ashurek then found himself continually pursued by agents of the Serpent – misshapen creatures, or disturbances of wind and weather, or sometimes actual demons. But with skill and fierce determination Ashurek fought them, and remained free. The Egg-Stone was a paradoxical element in this, because although it darkened him and tried to bend him to its evil will, he also found he could use its power against his pursuers. And because it gave him more power than a demon, Meheg-Ba could not catch him.
    Meshurek ruled uneasily in Shalekahh. Rumours ran wild about Melkish’s plot against him, her death, and the disappearance of Prince Ashurek and his sister. Always unenthusiastic about this Emperor, now the people of Gorethria became openly hostile.
    Only Meheg-Ba’s power kept him in control of the throne, crushing his enemies with malicious cruelty and bending his soldiers to his will. But without the Egg-Stone’s