Page 186 of Sins of the Heart

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Looking for payment. Lokan turned his head, only now

noticing the endless line of shuffling mortals who moved

toward the boat, each paying their pennies in turn.

Glancing down, he realized for the first time that he

was naked. No clothes. No pockets. No coins to pay the

fare.

That complicated things.

Well, he’d just have to trade on his father’s name to

pay for passage. Not that he liked that plan. But he

didn’t want to take the time to come up with a better

one, given that he was feeling a whole boatload of urgency to get back inside Sutekh’s borders.

Back to his brothers. The prospect brought a dark chill

to his heart, and he couldn’t explain that. Couldn’t say

why.

Stepping forward, he rasped, “I am Lokan Krayl,

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SINS OF THE HEART

youngest son of Sutekh, Lord of Chaos.” Like this father

needed any introduction. He was the boss of all bosses.

Despite the impressive introduction, the ferryman

didn’t so much as turn his head. Just held out his skeletal hand to the next mortal in line. Lokan saw now that

the bones were held together by cobwebs. Tiny spiders,

black and glistening—thousands upon thousands of

them—crawled along the gossamer strands, past small,

squared wrist bones to disappear in the long black

sleeves of the ferryman’s robe.

Cobwebs and spiders. He frowned. Shook his head.

That wasn’t right, was it?

Each in turn, the mortals dropped two coins in the

ferryman’s hand as they boarded, and he tucked them

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