Read The Light of Heaven for Free Online

asked.
    Fehr flushed slightly. "Not at all, but her beliefs on such matters are well known."
    "I know she's concerned with that which gets between Man and God. I don't believe a child does that, do you?"
    "The pursuit of pleasures of the flesh does." Fehr snorted. "Still, everything is set, and the Anointed Lord has given her blessing, so I will give mine."
    Rhodon and Voivoide exchanged relieved glances, while Kesar's features remained bland. As their meeting broke up, he remained where he was, keeping that bland expression; it had taken him many years to perfect it, and it was too useful a weapon to leave unused.
    Kesar didn't relax until he was alone in the room, then he smiled. Tomorrow would prove to be an interesting day.
     
    The shooting cell was cramped, but it was well hidden, and that was the most important thing to the man inside. A person could stand right outside the base of the tower and look straight up at it, and see nothing but stone and wood, with no sign of the opening that looked out at the Esplanade. To see the opening, an observer would have to be a magician, hovering at least twenty feet in the air.
    The shooting position itself was a bare two feet high, forcing him to lie flat, with a small loophole giving a good field of vision. Thankfully there was a small cubby-hole behind it, just large enough to stand up in and stretch. He made sure to do this at least once an hour during wakefulness. He knew better than to let himself become cramped or numb and so miss the shot when the time came.
    He had placed a covered chamber pot and a knapsack of provisions in the cubby hole. He also had a bucket of earth next to the chamber pot, to hide the smell with. It would be embarrassing, as well as fatal, to be discovered because of an out-of-place stink. He had spent one night sleeping in the cell already, and there would be another before his chance would come. He had known that when he first entered the cell, but the timing had felt right. It was better to already be in position, waiting, than to try to slip in when the target was already on the way.
    The cell granted a good view of the esplanade that fronted the castle, a blank white expanse with a cliff face to the right, and tradesmen's stalls and shops in a descending terrace to the left. Despite the chill weather, there were people on the streets below. Most were tradesmen going about their business, or hawkers selling their wares to sailors and fishermen selling the day's catch. A dog stood out stark black against the snow and a cart rumbled out of the castle.
    The assassin had a keen eye, and was confident that he could put an iron-tipped bolt through the chest of anyone in the esplanade below. But he was after one target, and one only. Besides, some of the people below were there to confuse and confound any pursuers while he escaped and he didn't know who they were. They didn't know him, he didn't know them. It was safer for all of them that way.
    The man in the cell smiled and aimed his crossbow at a couple standing near the dog. The woman was pretty enough, the man not sufficiently handsome for her, in the shooter's opinion. The man looked on his woman proudly, as if he wanted any observer to see what a catch he had made. Then, for an instant, he looked up at the clouds, and his throat was an inviting target. He would never see his death coming. However, the man in the shooting cell settled for cocking a finger at him instead.
    A madman - a role in which he was certain the aristocracy, if not the Final Faith, would cast him, until they knew better - could create great terror and confusion from this position. A few seemingly random bolts from the blue piercing heads and hearts would create outrage across the nation. Shoot the dog too, and the populace would really get into a frenzy. There were people who would get a thrill of pleasure from that. He wasn't one of them, but for a moment he could understand them. He shivered, thinking that this was a sort of