LITMIR.BIZ

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she said as she rubbed her wrists. “I’ll… behind you!”

      Royce spun and thrust his blade into the chest of a sailor who was running at him. Even unsteady, barely able to stand, Royce had the strength to drive the crystal sword right through the man. The sailor’s sword cut down, and Royce felt something impact on his armor even as the sailor stood transfixed for a moment, and then collapsed.

      Royce continued cutting the others free, and another sailor ran at them. This time, Ember swooped down to claw at his face, holding him still long enough for Bolis to kick him back over the side.

      Then the ship hit the rocks with a screech of wood like a forest being uprooted, and the whole deck turned sideways.

      Men screamed as they toppled from it, down into the waters below. Royce saw something rise up from that water, long and snakelike, fan-finned and knife-toothed, to meet them. The creature came up out of the water, rising like a tower from it, a man caught in its mouth and screaming as those needle teeth clamped down. Another was wrapped in its coils, and Royce heard the crack of bones as the movement of the great beast crushed him.

      Royce had a moment to simply stare at the cruelty of the death, then he slid along the deck toward the edge, toward the sea serpent’s waiting maw.

      He grabbed for the railings, barely holding himself in place. Beside him, Mark, Matilde, Bolis, and Neave clung on for their lives, while the ship continued to tear itself apart.

      “What exactly was your plan?” Mark asked.

      “This is pretty much it,” Royce admitted. Crash the ship and then try to work out what to do next. It had been a move founded on nothing more than hope, and now it had left them on a ship that was slowly tearing in half, its two parts ready to topple them down to the rocks, or worse, drag them into the depths.

      “What do we do now?” Neave asked. She had one arm wrapped around the railings, the other around Matilde.

      “I think…” Royce said, trying to think through the fog of his thoughts. “I think we need to jump!”

      “Jump in that?” Bolis said. “Are you mad?”

      “If we stay, we’ll be tangled in the wreckage and dragged down,” Royce said. “We need to get clear, and the only way to do that is jump!”

      There was another reason to jump, too. Men were advancing along the deck, and there were too many to fight in his weakened state. In any state. Gwylim was there, blood around his mouth as he growled, but what could even a creature like him do about a situation like this?

      There was only one choice left, so Royce made it for his friends. Without hesitating, he pushed Bolis and Mark over the side. Matilde looked as though she might try to stay, but Neave dragged her off the rail. Gwylim stepped up to it, the bhargir growling before it leapt clear.

      That just left one thing to do. Royce stood up on the railing, looking down to where the water frothed and swirled below. He put the crystal sword back in its sheath, hoped the armor he’d found in the tower was as light as it felt…

      …and leapt.

      CHAPTER FOUR

      Raymond stood at a crossroads on the edge of the old duke’s territory with his brothers, knowing that he ought to press on, but at the same time not wanting to split away from the others just yet. Soon, he, Lofen, and Garet would have to go off and undertake the things that Royce needed; that all of them needed.

      “Nervous?” he asked the others.

      “Of course not,” Lofen said, the bravado obvious. Lofen was always ready for a fight, and maybe that would serve him well in going to seek out the Picti, but even so, Raymond found himself thinking that it would have been better if he’d had more than a map and a general idea.

      “I’ll do what we need,” Garet said, obviously trying to look as brave as his brothers. Raymond wanted to tell him that he knew Garet was brave—he’d seen how strong the others had been when they’d been trapped down in Altfor’s dungeon. “I’ll get the bannermen for our cause.”

      “I’ll find you the ones who will help,” Moira said, her horse next to Garet’s. Raymond wasn’t sure what to think about her presence there. The fact that she was a noble would help in getting the nobles on their side, and she had volunteered to help, but Raymond could already see the way Garet was looking at her, and he just knew that was going to be complicated.

      “See that you keep safe,” Raymond said to his youngest brother. He turned his attention to Moira. There was no denying she was beautiful, and he wasn’t going to blame her for having been taken by the nobles, but even so, there was something about the way she’d volunteered for this that made him uneasy. “See that you keep him safe.”

      “I’m not a child,” Garet said. “I’m a man, and I’ll do a man’s work of this.”

      “Just so long as you get us the people we need,” Raymond said.

      “I’ve the easy part,” Garet insisted. “You’re the one who has to persuade people to rise up.”

      Raymond nodded. “They’ll rise. They’ll do it for Royce.”

      He’d seen the way his brother had been able to persuade people to fight harder, and how Royce had been able to overcome the most dangerous of foes. He’d cut down a master warrior like Sir Alistair, and had rallied Earl Undine’s forces. People would rise up in Royce’s name.

      “I guess this is goodbye then,” Lofen said. There wasn’t much emotion obvious in it, but Raymond knew it was there under the surface. Raymond just hoped his brother could make a more emotional plea when it came to the Picti. He also hoped his brother would be safe, because they’d all seen what the wild people of the land were capable of, up on the healing rock.

      “It’s not goodbye for long, I hope,” Raymond said. “Just remember—”

      “Gather them at Earl Undine’s castle, not at the old duke’s,” Lofen said. “Aye, I know. You’ve said it enough times on the way so far.”

      “I was going to say remember that I love you both, brothers,” Raymond said. “Even if you are an idiot, Lofen, and Garet’s too wet behind the ears for any sense.”

      “At least we’re not a mother hen clucking over everyone,” Garet shot back. He turned his horse and heeled it forward. “I’ll see you soon, brother, with an army!”

      “I’ll keep him safe,” Moira said, turning her own horse to follow Garet.

      “See that you do,” Raymond called after her.

      “You’re being hard on her,” Lofen said, as the two rode away.

      “It’s more the part where Garet’s soft on her that worries me,” Raymond said.

      He saw his brother shrug. “At least he gets a beautiful woman with him who knows the people he’s going to see. Why I couldn’t have that Neave come with me…”

      Raymond laughed at that. “You think she’d be interested in you? You’ve seen her with Matilde. Besides, Picti will be easy enough to find. Just wander the wild places until one of them shoots something at you.”

      Lofen swallowed then. “You’re joking, but you’ll feel bad if I come back filled with arrows. Still, I’ll do it, and I’ll bring back my own army, see how people like fighting the wild folk.”

      He turned and rode in the direction of what they thought would be Picti lands, which left Raymond waiting by the crossroads alone. Compared to his brothers, it felt as though he had the easiest task: persuade people who were already discontented throughout the kingdom to join their cause. After so many years of being abused by nobles serving under King Carris, they should be tinder dry kindling, waiting for the spark of his words.

      Even so, as Raymond turned his horse in the direction of one of the villages and kicked it into a canter, he found himself wishing that his brothers were coming with him.

***

      The

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