Kings of Paradise (Ash and Sand, #1)

by Richard Nell

“They sleep underneath. And when spring comes and the sun rises high and bright in the East and warmth seeps into the soil, they wake back up.” Ruka the child had considered this and frowned. “Why don’t we do that?” She laughed, which always made him laugh, too. “I wish we did.

“Didn’t figure they taught princes to swim.” Kale returned the look. “It’s how we get away from farmers. After we’ve fucked their daughters.” Thetma’s eye twitched. He shifted and cleared his throat. “That’s sensible.” “I think so. Have any sisters?”

“If you ask a priest, ‘what is the sun?’,” said Amit, in a tone and cadence almost like an actor of sebu plays, “He might say, ‘It is God, shining in the heavens’. But if you ask a philosopher, he is likely to say, ‘I have no idea.’

Ruka decided not to tell him wealth wouldn’t matter when he destroyed the world.

But you must never trust too much, or love too deep, because as a king or a prince or just a man sometimes you must give up the things you love.”

“I am the last Rune-Shaman. And I do not lead the living to paradise. I lead only those with glory in their hearts to greatness before the doom. Will you take these gifts and serve me until our deaths in the last inferno?” “Yes,” came the reply from every mouth. Louder. “Will you come with me to the mountain of all things, and show these traitors and deceivers the wrath of vengeful gods?” “Yes,” they all but screamed. “Then I call you my brothers!”

“I want a world where love is not a crime, Priestess, a world where children are not doomed to misery because they are different. I want only laws with mercy, and justice, and wisdom. That is what I want.”