Watcher of the Dead by J. V. Jones

Author:J. V. Jones
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780765319791
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2010-06-14T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

Lost Men

THEY WALKED FOR an hour through the darkness. A group of Maimed children followed them. The eldest, a girl with stringy blond hair and missing teeth, threw a stone. A single look from Mallin prevented any further missiles from being loosed. The ranger cut quite a figure, Bram realized. Tall and lean in his long saddle coat, he moved like a man who knew what to do in a fight. Bram tried to follow his lead, keeping his chin high and his back straight. This was his first proper mission with Mallin and he didn’t want to make any mistakes.

The cliffs were mined with caves. People came out of them to watch Mallin and Bram pass. A large bonfire was burning on one of the upper ledges and Argola led them steadily upward toward it. After two days without sleep, Bram’s eyeballs ached and his leg muscles protested the climb. Mallin must have been weary too but you wouldn’t have known it. He seemed focused and alive.

“Always one for a pretty hat, Hew.”

They’d reached the bonfire and a big bear of a man with a deep scar dissecting his face, and bullhorns wrapped around his bare forearms stepped ahead of the crowd of men to greet them.

“Stillborn,” Mallin replied, inclining his head. “I hear you’re calling yourself the Scar Chief now.”

The one called Stillborn took a quick glance at his men. “It’s a name. Some of us have many of them.”

Mallin didn’t take the bait. “Are matters well here?”

“We live by a godforsaken hole-in-the-earth. You tell me.” Stillborn’s voice was hard and his hazel eyes glittered in the firelight. Bram sensed the man felt threatened.

Mallin made no reply and the two men appraised one other in silence. “Hew and his friend brought meat,” Argola said. “Two carcasses. A goat and a sheep.”

For the first time Stillborn turned his gaze on Bram. “That must make you the sheep.”

Bram felt the heat rise in his cheeks. Men with parts missing from their bodies and faces laughed at him. They were heavily and grotesquely armed.

“I’m Bram Cormac.” His voice cracked a bit but sounded all right.

“And what clan did you fall out of?”

Was it that obvious he was clan? Acutely aware that Mallin was watching him, Bram said, “I fell out of a couple. What about you?”

For a wonder the Maimed Men laughed. Bram didn’t dare take his eyes off Stillborn, but in the corner of his vision he could see that Mallin was perfectly still.

The bonfire roared as it burned, pumping out smoke and heat. “They threw me out of Scarpe. Me very own sister did the chucking. A lovely lass.”

Was it possible this man was brother to the Scarpe chief, Yelma Scarpe?

Stillborn winked at him.

Bram concentrated on not letting his mouth fall open.

He could be me. The thought filled Bram with unease so strong it was almost panic. He did not want to end up here, desperate and out of choices like these men.

There was a tooth embedded in the scar flesh of Stillborn’s neck.

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