The First Law Trilogy Boxed Set: The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, Last Argument of Kings
Page 190
The water came up to meet him. It hit him in the side like a charging bull, punched the air out of his lungs, knocked the sense out of his head, sucked him in and down into the cold darkness . . .
Acknowledgments
Four people without whom:
Bren Abercrombie, whose eyes are sore from reading it
Nick Abercrombie, whose ears are sore from hearing about it
Rob Abercrombie, whose fingers are sore from turning the pages
Lou Abercrombie, whose arms are sore from holding me up
Then, at the House of Questions,
all those who assisted in this testing interrogation,
but particularly:
Superior Spanton, Practical Weir,
and, of course, Inquisitor Redfearn.
You can put away the instruments.
I confess . . .
A Gollancz Ebook
Collection copyright © Joe Abercrombie 2012
The Blade Itself copyright © Joe Abercrombie 2006
Before They Are Hanged copyright © Joe Abercrombie 2007
Last Argument of Kings copyright © Joe Abercrombie 2008
All rights reserved.
The right of Joe Abercrombie to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in Great Britain in 2012 by
Gollancz
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Orion House
5 Upper Saint Martin's Lane
London, WC2H 9EA
An Hachette UK Company
This eBook first published 2012 by Gollancz.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 0 575 08622 7
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
www.joeabercrombie.com
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Table of Contents
Cover
Dedication
Title Page
PART I – ‘Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge.’
The Poison Trade
Being Chief
This Noble Business
The New Man
Feeding Time
So Much in Common
Honesty
Ghosts
Bad Debts
A Ragged Multitude
Beloved of the Moon
Flowers and Plaudits
Too Many Knives
Best of Enemies
Fortunes of War
The Kingmaker
The Trap
Horrible Old Men
Prepared for the Worst
The Habit of Command
The First Day
Such Sweet Sorrow
Picked Up A Shadow
Questions
The Fourth Day
The Perfect Couple
The Seventh Day
Too Many Masters
Sweet Victory
Rude Awakenings
PART II – ‘Last Argument of Kings’
The Number of the Dead
Leaves on the Water
Authority
The Circle
Greater Good
Skarling’s Chair
Leadership
A Rock and a Hard Place
Charity
Better Left Buried
Tomorrow’s Hero
Nightfall
Questions
The Day of Judgement
Sacrifices
Open the Box
Dark Paths
Reckonings
After the Rains
Answers
The Wounded
Patriotic Duties
The First Law
Tea and Threats
Behind the Throne
Good Men, Evil Men
Not What You Wanted
Loose Ends
Does the devil know he is a devil?
Acknowledgements