The Daylight War (The Demon Cycle, #3)

by Peter V. Brett

“Sharum do not bend.” Inevera looked up at that. “Eh?” “They do not bend, they do not weep,” Kenevah said. “These are luxuries Sharum cannot afford in the Maze, when life and death are a hair’s breadth apart. Where we bend before the wind, Sharum embrace their pain and ignore it. To the untrained, the effect seems much the same, but it is not. And as a great wind can break even the most supple tree, there are pains too great for Sharum to hold. When this happens, they hurl themselves into its cause in hopes they might die an honorable death with no submission on their lips.” “Cashiv wanted such a death,” Inevera said. “He and my brother were lovers.” Kenevah sipped her tea. “Other Sharum lock their loved ones away in the Undercity at night when they go into the Maze. Push’ting stand side by side with them. They fight more wisely because of this, but also feel the loss more keenly when one of them is taken.” She looked at Inevera. “But you denied him this death. And your father, too, though the Evejah demanded it.” “The Evejah gave me a choice,” Inevera said, “and why should Cashiv be given a release from suffering over Soli’s death when I am not?” Kenevah nodded. “We have become too free with death in Krasia. A frequent but unwelcome visitor has become like an old friend, greeted with open arms. Three centuries ago there were millions of us, filling this great city and all the lands beyond. We fought among ourselves even then, but a few lives lost over stolen wells was not...