Reign of Iron: Iron Age Trilogy: Book Three

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Reign of Iron: Iron Age Trilogy: Book Three Page 47

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.

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  First ebook edition: September 2015

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  ISBN 978-0-316-39982-1

  E3

 

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