Death's Collector - Sword Hand: A Snarky Dark Fantasy Novel (Death-Cursed Wizard Book 5) by Bill McCurry

Author:Bill McCurry [McCurry, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Infinite Monkeys Publishing
Published: 2021-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Three

Pil and I paused before we walked onto the valley floor. Ludlow was waiting out there for us to come and wheedle him out of some horses. I doubt that was his plan, but once mounted, we could keep distant from him as we all fled toward the river.

Yesterday, before Ludlow had come to consider me a mouthy, murdering ingrate, he had told me about the Empire’s fortifications at the Fargold River. No one had ever breached them, and he predicted that the Hill People would smash against the fortress like an egg against a wall.

I almost called him an overoptimistic ass, but that seemed gruff. Instead, I asked, “Why is it named Fargold?”

Ludlow had smiled. “There are gold mines upriver. And it’s far away. Do you see? Far. Gold.” He used gestures to clarify his answer, as if I were a child or lived in a tree on a distant island.

I nodded. “I see. I see perfectly.”

The man was courageous and loved the Empire, but he didn’t understand sarcasm worth a damn.

Now Ludlow waited, standing in the valley with a smile I didn’t expect. He and three of his men had dismounted. Two of them held torches since the sun was setting. The rest sat their horses, arrayed on each side of him in two lines that curved toward us.

“Please come drink with me,” Ludlow called out, lifting two wooden cups.

He must have expected us to bumble our way up to him like toddlers running to a toy.

Pil whispered, “We can still run away. That will give them the pleasure of chasing us before they kill us.”

I sighed and whispered back, “No, let’s go meet him. I’ll protect us. It’s not as if I’m trying to save power. What would I do with power, anyway?” I circled just a fingertip to pull two yellow bands, which I used to get the horses’ attention. “If things go to crap, protect me for five seconds.”

Pil nodded.

Still smiling, Ludlow gestured toward us with the cups. We walked right up to him, ignoring his soldiers. The cups were half full of something that smelled like a burned-down house.

“To victory!” Ludlow said, draining his cup in two swallows.

I matched him, and I saw Pil doing the same.

The drink tasted like the chimney in that burned-down house. It was merely nasty, though, not poisoned. If Ludlow had tried to poison us, he would have gotten a surprise. Pil and I had both used magic to save ourselves from poison before. If he had given me poison, I would have fallen down, convulsed a little, and called on the horses to kick the shit out of every soldier there.

Ludlow said, “I want to thank you two for wiping out those Hill People. I’ve never seen anything like it. I admit we were a little scared of your work at first, but that was just startlement.”

I glanced around. None of the soldiers looked startled. They looked scared.

“The Empire will reward you for what you’ve done here, and it won’t be stingy.

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