Zealotry

By AJ Cooper

Two cities lay on the edge of trade routes — two cities, threatening to erupt into war. Alexius, a government official, is sent by the emperor to calm tensions. War is threatened, war — over the pronunciation of their god’s name, over a single letter. It seems preposterous to Alexius... but will it long be so?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Realms of Varda
• Release date: Jan 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005617165

AJ Cooper

Cursed at birth with a wild imagination, AJ Cooper spent his youth dreaming of worlds more exciting than Earth. He is a native Midwesterner and loves writing fantasy, especially epic fantasy set in his own created worlds.He is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop and the author of numerous fantasy novels and novellas. His short stories have appeared in Morpheus Tales, Fear and Trembling, Residential Aliens and Mindflights, among others.

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Zealotry

Copyright © 2022 Andrew James Cooper

Published by Realms of Varda

www.vardabooks.com

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any print or electronic form without permission.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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Zealotry

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Zealotry

AJ Cooper

I. My Arrival

The two cities lay before me, one by the desert and one by the sea.

In the distance they were, both of sandstone, from whose walls were rising smoke and a stench I could smell even from my perch on the cliffs.

In the desert, and by the sea they were — one called Dayyan and the other Unfeng. The journey here had not been kind to me.

The emperor had sent me, the emperor, Khandaraeus — it was he who had set me on this task. It was so like him to bother me with this, to send me on a journey of thousands of miles. Why?

Why, I had asked him.

And his yellowish eyes had gleamed, and the slightest of smiles had appeared on his face. To make peace.

The cities, one by the sea and one in the desert, were not far apart. It was my task — yes, mine — to go there, to make peace.

~

I approached the city called Dayyan, walking down the road, and particles of sand were stinging my eyes. I, a member of the emperor’s cabinet, officially titled the Maestro of Public Works, was often sent on tasks such as these, tasks in far-flung regions that were little thought of in the capital. At my side I had a sword, and the word of the emperor as my only protection. In a foreign land I walked, down the road, beside me men in desert dress and women in veils, some selling things, having set up shop in the open air. The air smelled of spices, and as I came up to Dayyan’s gate, there was a blind man sitting in the sun and shouting nonsense.

Doom! he cried in the withering heat. Look! Doom has come!

Others around him turned, but I pushed on, through the gate, borne of a purpose and a bitterness deep in my heart. It was so like the emperor to bother me with this