KING DEATH: A Grimdark Epic Fantasy by S C KERR

Author:S C KERR [KERR, S C]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-06-20T04:00:00+00:00

42

Spit Roast

Women know when the eyes of men are upon them. It was dark, a cold dark for mid-Junia, due to clear skies, but Silvia could feel her father’s eyes upon her, hot as a barn owl’s on a vole, before the swoop.

And, she could sense Nyle’s glances, shot like furtive arrows through the flames of the campfire. She turned the spit over the fire, kept her eyes locked on her task. Grease from the last two chickens they’d scrounged hissed on the flames, became orange smoke.

Faran bit into a drumstick, tore the dark meat from the chicken thighbone. ‘What is it with mancers, Wyn? They must have more air in their lungs. I’ve never heard anyone talk as much as Mancer Bede.’

‘Mancer Bede wanted to test Alderman Horn’s mettle,’ Wyn said. ‘We don’t want to walk slap-bang into a trap tomorrow, do we?’

Faran belched loudly, threw the bare bone on the fire. ‘I know but the plan to take the gates is simple. We all know if we don’t get in, a siege will break us. To talk it over and over and over.’

Wyn shrugged. A siege would indeed break them. There were too many mouths to feed. Ravening hunger would devour them in days. They had no supply lines, no baggage train as such. He’d sent out scavengers to steal animals and provisions from the summer manors of the rich, but he could not plunder the farms of the poor, to feed his troops, like in Salia. He would not loot or scorch Angland, as Bastard Knelles had torched Salia, turning half of it into ashes and dust. ‘That chicken roasted yet, Silvia?’

‘Not yet, Father.’

Nyle couldn’t help looking at Silvia. She was so beautiful. She had such natural grace. The way she moved doing her chores, it stirred him deep.

‘And another thing, Wyn,’ Faran said, ‘Why is Mancer Bede ranting on about the Victuallers Guild. He’s got the horn for Alderman Horn.’

‘If he says walking around the walls farting into horns will get us into Odon, I’m not going to argue. We’ll need all the help the King of Kings can give us.’

Faran sighed. ‘The man talks out of his arse. That’s it. He can say so much because he has two mouths. Top and bottom.’

Nyle laughed at Faran the puppeteer, mouthing his hands at his mouth and his arse.

Wyn turned and gave the boy a hard look. ‘Would you turn the spit? I want a word with my daughter.’

‘I will.’ Nyle sprang to his feet, knelt by the fire, and took over turning the spit.

Silvia had been dreading this moment. Did her father know what she had done with Nyle? He had probably guessed. What would he do?

‘Walk with me,’ Wyn said to Silvia.

Silvia looked at Nyle. She was rewarded with a smile that gave her courage to stand up for herself. She was not a child anymore. She was the daughter of Captain Wyn Rinkar, and she owed him her life, but she was a woman now, free to make her own choices.

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