Sliding Void Read Online Free Page B

That was the price of his honour.’
    ‘Ah, Prince Calder, last of the House of Durk,’ smirked the sorcerer. ‘Reduced circumstances, then?’
    Calder had to suppress himself from shouting at the sorcerer. The assassins would be close enough to hear them in a minute. ‘I have followed your plans, and I have been reduced in all things. Four armies lie dead in front of the walls of Narvalo. My crew and I have spent a year in foreign parts voyaging home, fighting creatures and monsters and enemies so sodding strange it would freeze the veins of lesser men. Now all I have been left is this dagger, Noak here, and my honour.’
    ‘Well,’ said the sorcerer. ‘Top tip for next time, your highness. You would have done better keeping your armada of schooners intact and losing the blade, rather than vice-versa.’
    ‘You dog,’ cursed Calder. ‘I built the giant wooden wolf like you instructed, left it outside their walls. You know what the enemy did to it? They dragged it out onto the sea-flows, set barrels of oil alight in a circle around it, melted the ice and drowned every man hiding inside.’
    ‘Yeah, heard about that one,’ said the sorcerer. ‘Hey-ho. You got to give it to their priests. Stupid, they aren’t.’
    ‘This is your doing!’
    ‘Kid, I warned you. There were other ways of getting you crowned high king that were open to us. The subtle kind, bribery, corruption, backroom shenanigans. Wizards like me, that’s where we do our best work. But oh no, you couldn’t keep it in your pants. You wanted the big dynastic marriage to Sibylla. Well, guess what, your highness, getting even against her ancestral enemies was the price for that sweet booty.’
    ‘You dare to talk about Sibylla like that…’
    ‘I hate to burst your bubble, boy, but your sweet girl is lining herself up a selection of nice rich Narvalak noblemen to seal her future with.’
    ‘Liar! They are blood enemies. Her council would never accept such a marriage.’
    ‘Don’t have lot of choice anymore, theirs was one of the four armies that got iced last year, if you forgive the pun, remember? Oh, and the girl’s used the engagement ties between your country and hers to declare your ass dead while annexing your lands. Not too sloppy. Guess there’s more of her mother in her blood than I gave her credit for. That’s my way of saying she had me fooled too, not that it’s much consolation to you right now.’
    For a second, Calder was almost mute with fury. ‘You fucker, you lying, false—’
    ‘I’m sending you my apologies, my prince,’ shrugged the sorcerer. ‘Along with something a little more substantive. Sure as shit didn’t think things were going to pan out this badly.’ One of the eyes in the ghostly dark apparition winked at Calder. ‘Compared to you mayflies, I’m almost immortal. Think a man would have learned by now, right?’
    ‘My prince,’ hissed Noak, his eye pressed to a gap in the thatch. ‘Halvard’s people are here.’
    The evil witch-light winked out inside the hut, leaving Calder and his manservant alone. His honour wasn’t armour, Noak wasn’t up to much in a brawl, so that just left the hunting dagger. Calder drew it out, keeping the bone handle tight against his sweaty palm. A hand’s length of steel, against what? Seven armoured men were coming down the slope, large as trolls, swords sharp enough to slice ironwood. Killers all, rattling with blades and crossbow bolt bandoleers. Their faces were hidden beneath steel wolf masks riveted into the front of their horned helms. As if they need to look any more fearsome given the size of them.
    Noak still held the iron pan. It was just heavy enough to brain a man, if you got lucky. ‘My prince,’ he whispered. ‘If I’m favoured enough to be allowed to follow you into the Halls of the Twice-risen, will you grant me a boon?’
    Calder nodded.
    ‘Pension me the fuck out of this job.’
    ‘Follow me out of this hut, and you’ll have earnt it.’
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