Weapon of Fear Read Online Free Page B

know how everyone here died. 
Use whatever resources you—”  Turning, ready to be away from all this death, he
spied one more victim, and choked on his words.
    What
lay on the stone slab didn’t look human—at least, not anymore.  Arbuckle stared
at the corpse, willing himself to believe that the person had been dead when the
skin had been peeled away in strips, the joints twisted, the bones exposed, the
pearly nerves bared by careful dissection.  But deep in his soul, he knew that
she had been alive.  This was his father’s depravity flayed and displayed for
all to see.
    “Good
Gods of Light…”  Arbuckle strode to the side of the table, heedless for the
first time of the blood.  There however, with the scent of death in his
nostrils, staring down at her tortured body, bile burned the back of his throat. 
“Oh…”  Arbuckle turned away and fell to his knees, heaving painfully, as if
expelling any hope that his father had been a decent man.  A hand touched his
shoulder.
    “Milord
Prince, you must go.”  Ithross waved, and blademasters came forward.
    “No!” 
Arbuckle wished with all his might that he could retreat to his room and his
books—his sanctuary—but he had already disgraced himself enough.  This was the
emperor’s doing.  Only a son could atone for a father’s sins.
    Wiping
his chin with his sleeve, Arbuckle lurched up to stand over the slab where the
poor woman lay.  Had she been beautiful ?  Had someone loved her ?  Were they waiting for her to come home ?  He welcomed the rage that
burned away the last thread of feeling that he had for his father.  It straightened
his back and stiffened his resolve.
    “Your
cloak, Sir Fineal.”  Arbuckle held out a hand, and the knight immediately
unclasped his cloak and handed it over.  The crown prince carefully draped the
deep-blue cloth over the woman’s mutilated corpse.  Bowing his head, he mumbled
a prayer that the gods would ease her tortured soul.  “Master Corvecosi, take
care of her.”
    Master
Corvecosi bowed.  “As you wish, Milord Prince.  I’ll also see that your
father’s body is properly attend—”
    “No!” 
Arbuckle glared one last time at the heap of dead flesh that had been his
father, then looked deliberately away.  “Divest him of any accoutrements of his
former office, then burn his corpse and cast the ashes down the nearest
cesspit!”
    The
crowd shifted and Corvecosi seemed struck dumb, standing with his mouth
gaping.  Only Ithross summoned the courage to speak.
    “Milord
Prince!” the commander stammered.  “To disrespect His Majesty’s body would
be…tantamount to treason.”
    “No,
Commander Ithross, that is treason!”  Arbuckle pointed to the shrouded
form on the slab, his hand shaking with rage.  “That is an abomination !”
    “But,
Milord Prince!  The nobles…  They will expect a royal funeral.”
    “Then
we’ll bury an empty casket!  I’ll not have the House of Tsing or the soil of
this empire further contaminated by his corpse.”
    “Milord
Prince, your father was—”
    “My
father was a living piece of shit , Sir Fineal!” Arbuckle rounded on the
knight, biting back his rage, though he could not suppress his disgust.  “It’s
only fitting that he spend eternity amongst his peers.”
    Ignoring
the shocked murmurs, Prince Arbuckle headed for the door.  A last thought
stopped him in his tracks, and he turned back.
    “After
Master Corvecosi’s investigation is complete and the bodies have been removed
with all due reverence, send for me.  I’ll see every vile machine in this room
destroyed and the door sealed forever.  Is that clear, Commander Ithross?  Sir
Fineal?”
    “Crystal
clear, Milord Prince.” Fineal bowed low, then rose with a grim smile on his
chiseled features.  “It will be my pleasure.”
    Ithross
glanced about the room in disgust and nodded. “It will be done as you command,
Milord Prince.”
    “Good.” 
Arbuckle turned and strode from