Dagger & Coin 2 - The King's Blood by Abraham Daniel

Author:Abraham, Daniel [Abraham, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781841498898
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

M

y lord.”

Dawson shifted in his cot, fighting toward consciousness. The tent was dark except for the squire’s candle. Dawson sat up on his cot and shook his head.

“ ’S happened?” he asked. “Is it a fire? Are the bastards coming? What?”

“A courier, my lord. From the Lord Regent.”

Dawson was on his feet. The night was cool but not cold. He shrugged on his cloak and stepped out. The cookfires had for the most part burned out, and the night around him was dark. The thin sliver of moon and the scattering of stars couldn’t outshine his candle. The courier stood beside his horse, satchel in hand. Dawson took the letter, checked the seal and the knotting to be sure it was authentic, and then ripped out the threads. The contents were ciphered.

“Wait here,” Dawson said to the courier, and then to his squire. “Bring more light. Do it now.”

It took an hour to decipher the text, and Dawson’s belly grew thicker and heavier with every word he uncovered. The matter was clear. It was the considered decision of the Lord Regent that the crimes against Antea were too grave and threatened the safety and sovereignty of Imperial Antea as a whole. For this reason, Lord Regent Geder Palliako, in the name of Aster, King of Antea, claimed rights to Asteril-hold and all the lands and holdings owing fealty to it. The Lord Marshal was instructed to gather together every man, woman, and child of noble birth in Asterilhold, seize and confiscate all lands and holdings, and put them all to death in as painless and humane a manner as was convenient.

Dawson sat in the darkness, bloodless. He read the words over again. Every man, woman, and child of noble blood in Asterilhold. Palliako’s bloody thumb smeared the bottom of the page. His seal was on the wax. It was an order, given by the regent to whom he had sworn loyalty. True, the regent was Geder Palliako. True, the order was bloody-minded and cruel. But honor that was conditional was not honor; loyalty offered when he agreed and rescinded when he did not was not loyalty. Dawson sat by himself in the darkened tent, the flames of his candles the only light. He ran his hand across the pages, his throat thick. His hands were trembling.

Honor demanded. It required.

And then, as if coming before him in a dream, he saw Palliako look to his pet cultist, and the cultist nod.

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