The Wheel of Osheim by Mark Lawrence

Author:Mark Lawrence [Lawrence, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780008171001
Published: 2016-06-01T23:00:00+00:00

18

I came to myself with a start, bewildered for a second, then guilty, hoping I had only rested in the chair a few moments. I stood and patted the empty scabbard at my hip. The room held no replacement sword.

‘Surprised you there, you old witch!’ I couldn’t manage a smile over the victory. It’d been a moment of madness, regretted almost immediately. Still, I hoped Martus had survived. How else would I take the credit for it at every opportunity for the rest of our lives?

‘Lisa!’ I meant Micha and Nia as well, but it was Lisa’s name that broke from me as the sudden realization hit me and I was off and running. If Hertet had gathered every guard in the compound to his side then the Inner Palace would be the place to go for safety. The DeVeer sisters would be there, sheltering under the new king’s wing with Darin’s child.

Nobody in the dark hall of the Poor Place foyer, no guard on the door. I took the front steps in one leap. The landing reminded me how badly my knee hurt. A sprint-hobble took me across the courtyard, through a passage, and across another courtyard bringing me to the Inner Palace. I angled for the guest wing.

‘Stop!’ A booming voice. ‘Stop right there!’

I halted ten yards shy of the entrance to the guest wing and turned to see a tall palace guardsman approaching, a squad of a dozen wall guards at his back, spears over their shoulders.

‘I need to see—’

‘Nobody can break the curfew.’ The man’s voice was the kind of deep that sounds as though it must hurt. ‘By order of the king!’

I eyed him. Young, thick-thewed, a gleaming breastplate, his face the variety of handsome that declares an unabashed lack of imagination. ‘Your name, Guardsman?’ I tried to sound in charge. Technically I was.

‘Sub-captain Paraito.’

‘Look, Sub-captain, I’m Prince Jalan.’ I hadn’t the energy to put on my royal roar. ‘I need to check on my family, then I’m going to see Hertet so—’

‘Put him in the cells with the other dissidents.’ Paraito waved his men forward. Four of the chain-armoured wall guards came forward. I reached for my absent sword, something that was becoming both a habit and a liability.

‘Look!’ I found my roar as the four men reached for me. ‘I’m the marshal of this entire fucking city, appointed by the Red Queen herself, and in case you hadn’t noticed – Vermillion is under attack. Half of it’s burning and there are dead things stalking this very palace.’ I slapped away the closest hand. ‘So if you plan on living to see the dawn I strongly advise you to bring me before my uncle. Right now!’

The sub-captain stared at me as two of his minions took my arms. The frown on his handsome brow suggested that I might perhaps have put a small dent in his surety. ‘We’ll take him to the court and let the king decide if he wants to see him.’ He turned and led off.

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