The Glass Breaks by A.J. Smith

Author:A.J. Smith [Smith, A J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 2019-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

The world came into being and it didn’t change.

From its first moment until its last it will have a master.

When the master blinked, men appeared.

Men grew, warred, learned and existed all within that blink.

One day the master will see again, and our blink of the eye will end.

Manos Bowyer, Spirit-Master of Four Claw’s Folly

Part Six

Adeline Brand at the Bay of Bliss

16

Arthur and I had never been taught to fear. From our first days of training in the Pup Yards of the Severed Hand, we were taught to kill, to focus our wyrd, to use our arms, our power and our wits to defeat any foe. But never to fear them. What was there to fear for a duellist of the Severed Hand? The Eastron were superior men, the Sea Wolves were superior Eastron, and the Brand twins were superior Sea Wolves. Tomas Red Fang and his spirit-masters could speak for hours about the threats of the void, but I’d never seen anything to fear. As long as my mind and my blade remained sharp, the world would do well to fear me. But I’d never truly seen the world. I’d seen the great hold of the Sea Wolves, I’d seen Moon Rock, and I’d seen the void around both. I’d seen the Inner Sea, the Outer Sea, and the decks of a dozen ships. But I’d never seen the world. Young Green Eyes was right – the Kingdom of the Four Claws was little more than a handful of holds and the sea in between. I was a few days’ travel from the Severed Hand, and a million miles from the world I knew.

Jaxon and I had been restrained, and beaten into unconsciousness. I think I’d hurt several of the hybrids before my eyes closed, but it didn’t change the outcome. When I awoke, I was being dragged through cold, brackish water, with irregular stone blocks overhead. A passageway of some kind, with the salty water and pungent smell of fish all around me. The hybrids hissed and babbled, their voices coming to my ears as a series of pops and sucking sounds, containing no meaning. I was struck unconscious several more times, and awoke each time with cloudier vision and a more painful headache. The hybrids appeared incapable of punching me hard enough to send me to a longer sleep. Or maybe they enjoyed beating me. Certainly their frog-like murmurings rose in pitch as I was struck. Perhaps it was laughter.

When the passageway ended, and I regained enough wits to maintain a facade of torpor, we entered a huge square stone edifice, and were thrown onto a wet floor, riddled with mould and seaweed. The Wisp was next to me, his body quivering and his eyes staring. Two dozen hybrids came with us and spread out into the dark chamber, their grotesque heads held low, as if in reverence. Ahead, we were greeted by the maniacally smiling face of a Pure One. He was no hybrid, but appeared to be a normal man of the Mirralite.

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