by Angus Watson
Apparently satisfied, though nothing in her expression gave so much as a whisper of her thoughts, that blade descended to her side. She shook the notched shield on her other arm and resettled her hold upon it. She looked away.
Drann rolled off Creel of Mondoon, and found that the fighting was done. Dead and wounded littered the ground around the rocky knoll, and stretched back towards the silent, still trees below. Here and there, a few survivors were limping, or running, or staggering back towards the safety of those woods. The two southerners, swordsman and archer, had dismounted and came striding up to stand beside the woman, all three of them staring down at Creel, who was grunting and muttering but did not seem injured. They paid no heed to Drann, sitting there in a state of amazement at the way his heart kept beating, the air kept easing in and out of his chest, and he kept living.
The tallest of these three, the first to have come, leaned and extended a big hand to Creel.
“Can I help you to your feet, lord of Mondoon?” he asked, with just the faintest hint of mirth in his voice.
Creel glowered at him, but reached to clasp hands. Drann glimpsed a fleck of movement in the sky, over the southerner’s shoulder. A dark scratch against the blue, skimming down towards them.
“Arrow…” he started to say, hoarsely, but he need not have spoken.
The woman was already glancing up and casually lifting her shield arm. No other part of her moved. She simply caught the arrow upon the wooden circle. The loud, sharp crack of it smacking in made Drann blink. No one else gave the smallest sign of surprise or alarm.
The archer sniffed, and took an arrow from his own quiver.
“You want me to do something about that?” he asked, staring back along the path of the offending shaft, at some target Drann could not see from where he sat.
“Is he going to try again?” the swordsman asked, still bent over and holding Creel’s hand in his.
“Not likely,” the archer reported. “Running like a hare now.”
“Let him go, then,” the swordsman said, and hauled Creel, one-handed, to his feet.
“You’re a sight-boon,” Creel grunted as he wiped the flat of his sword across his breeches.
“I imagine so.”
“Where’re the rest of you?”
“Coming along. We three thought it best to hurry when we caught the sound of the hunt.”
“Well and good,” Creel muttered. “You can follow us back. Make your own camp. Outside, mind. Keep a little ground between us, yes?” He shot a sharp, meaningful glance at the southerner, who said nothing. “Come and find me in my tent tomorrow morning.”
“I will.”
The lord of Mondoon sheathed his sword, flexed his wrist and rolled his hand around.
“I’m not dying today, then,” he mused. “That’s something of a surprise.”
“Of course you’re not dying,” the bald-headed warrior smiled. “You’ve not paid us yet.”
And with those words Drann belatedly understood what, and who, these people were. And realised that he would, after all, have a story worth the telling if he ever got back to his village.
ALSO BY ANGUS WATSON
Iron Age Trilogy
Age of Iron
Clash of Iron
Reign of Iron
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Prologue: The Aegean Sea, 85 bc
Part One: Britain and Gaul 56 and 55 BC
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Part Two: Britain and Gaul Late summer 55 BC
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Part Three: Britain, Rome and Gaul 55/54 BC
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Part Four: Britain 54 BC
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Part Five: Britain 54 BC
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Epilogue
Historical note
Acknowledgements
Extras
Meet the Author
A Preview of The Blade Itself
A Preview of The Free
Also by Angus Watson
Orbit Newsletter
Copyright
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by Angus Watson
Excerpt from The Blade Itself copyright © 2006 by Joe Abercrombie
Excerpt from The Free copyright © 2014 by Brian Ruckley
Cover design by Ceara Elliot
Cover illustrations by Larry Rostant
Cover © 2015 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
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First ebook edition: September 2015
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ISBN 978-0-316-39982-1
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