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Chapter 312: Kill the Nameless Lords:
Torvin studied him with narrowed eyes. Slowly, a thin, reluctant smile crept across his face. “It is a terrible idea,” he said. “I like it.”It took an hour. They rode back, retrieved the carcass, strapped it across Elliot’s saddle, and rolled in the mud for good measure. When they returned to the ford, they looked like a ragged, filthy, fly-bitten family of poachers, with the stink of old blood trailing behind them like a flag. Maximus, who had wrapped his head in a scrap of sacking, slumped in the saddle with his mouth open, doing his best to look slow-witted.“Halt!” a Scribe shouted.“Aye, sir, we are halting,” Elliot said, in a thick, bumbling drawl. “Beg pardon, sir. Is there a toll?”“State your business.”“Selling a deer, sir. A fine one. A buck. Took us three days to track.” He patted the stinking carcass proudly. “My brother and my cousin and my uncle. We are bound for the market at Thistlewood.”The officer, a lean, narrow-faced man with a perpetually curled lip, rose from
Chapter 311: The hidden tunnels:
“Someone was.”“Elder Williams. The boy, Thorne. They will tell you.”“Do you know?”“Only what I heard.” Torvin hesitated. “That he asked for his lord to be told the stew needed more salt.”A strangled sound escaped Maximus. It was nearly a laugh. “The stew.”“Yes.”“That is him.” He pressed the heel of his hand against his mouth. “That is exactly him.”“He also said,” Torvin went on carefully, “to tell you he kept his post.”The boy went very still.“I do not know what it means,” Torvin said. “Perhaps you do.”“I know.” Maximus’s eyes had filled again. “When I left for the border, three years ago. He said, a guard’s whole job is to keep his post. Not to win. Not to be strong. Only to stay where he was put, until someone relieves him.” His throat worked. “I told him it was a stupid philosophy. That it was for people who could not think of something better.”“And he said?”“That it was the only philosophy that had ever kept anyone alive.” Maximus bent over his knees, shoulders shaking
Chapter 310: Blue Calderas:
They went. The gate boomed shut behind them. For a long while, the only sounds in the yard were the wind in the gallery and the harsh, ragged breathing of the boy on the ground.At last the Master stepped forward. His boots crunched on the packed earth. He stopped beside Maximus and stood looking down, and in the grey light, his weathered face seemed to age.“Odegard,” Torvin said, in a low voice. “I did not expect—”“Who died?” the old man asked.“Kester. The steward of Elder Williams of the Blackwater Clan.”“His brother.”“Yes.”“How?”“A sorceress’s spear. In the defense of the island. He took the blow meant for the one we are all sworn to protect.” Torvin drew a breath. “I will tell you everything, Master, if you wish. But the boy must hear it first.”“He will hear it.” Odegard bent, with a creak of old joints, and laid his gloved hand on Maximus’s head. “Boy.”Maximus did not look up.“Maximus. Look at me.”Slowly, brokenly, he lifted his face. His eyes were swollen, and tears s
Chapter 309: The Black Sentry:
The sentry hesitated, then waved him through.The training yard lay behind the fortress, a wide, packed-earth rectangle ringed by high walls and a covered gallery. A dozen young guardsmen were drilling there in the pale morning light, their breath smoking, their wooden swords clattering. At the center of the yard, a gaunt, weathered man with a patch over one eye and a leather glove where his left hand should have been shouted orders in a voice like gravel.“Again! You hold the line like a drunk holding a lamp! Feet, Elliot! Feet!”A broad-shouldered young man with a mop of sandy hair and a round, good-natured face grinned sheepishly and shifted his stance. Beside him, a lean, dark-haired girl with a quiver on her back clicked her tongue in disgust. And at the front of the line, a little apart from the others, a slim figure in a patched grey tunic stood with his sword raised, his eyes fixed on a straw dummy.He was nineteen years old. He had his brother’s long jaw and his brother’s qui
Chapter 308: The message from the swamps:
“You sat here.”“That is the whole of the job.” Cael clapped his shoulder and rose stiffly. “Come in when you are ready. Adrian is making soup. It will be terrible. We will eat it anyway.”The soup was terrible. They ate it anyway, in the long main room, with the fire burning low and the shutters closed against the dusk. Nobody said much. Elder Corwin sat at the head of the table with his hands folded, staring into the middle distance. Master Adrian ladled out the bowls with fierce, stiff movements, as though the ladle had personally offended him. At the far end, Williams sat alone with a sheet of parchment in front of him and a quill in his fingers, and he had been sitting that way for more than an hour.“He has not written a word,” Maya whispered.“I know,” said Sablen.“Should someone speak to him?”“I would not.”“Neither would I.”At last, when the soup was gone and the fire had burned to embers, Williams set down the quill. He rose, crossed the room, and laid the parchment on th
Chapter 307: Shadow Knights:
“You should not.”“The spear was meant for me.”“Yes.”“He took my place.”“Yes.” Williams crossed the little room and stood in front of him. He did not touch him. He only looked, with that steady, unbearable amber gaze. “Listen to me. He took your place because he chose to. Not because you failed. He had been looking for the moment all week, I think. He was a soldier who had left the Watch because it forgot its purpose. He wanted to die for something that mattered.”“That is a terrible thing to want.”“It is the oldest thing there is.” A shadow of a smile. “And if you take that choice from him by wearing it as your guilt, you rob him a second time.”Thorne’s jaw tightened. He did not answer. But after a moment, slowly, his fist opened, and the vial lay in his palm, glittering faintly. He slid it back into the pouch at his belt and pulled the strings tight.“I will keep my promise,” he said.“I know you will.”“But I do not have to like it.”“No one does.” Williams turned back to the
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