Blood in Snow Read Free Page A

goddamned thing!”
    Becky stepped in front of the newcomer and lifted her lip, revealing a long white canine.
    The man backed away.
    “We was told there was a town or something up here!” a third said from a safer distance. “But there ain’t nothing!”
    Everybody began talking at once. Everybody but a well-dressed man sitting by the door, expensive boots propped up on the table, as if he were enjoying a show. He smoked an ivory pipe.
    Edmund immediately thought he looked like nobility. Then he wondered what would happen if nobility wanted to resettle in the area. Would he let them stay with the understanding that the status of nobility meant nothing in the Highlands? Or would he send them back south?
    Deal with him later.
    A baby held by an apparently exhausted woman joined in the commotion, its wails slicing through Edmund’s aching head.
    Climbing onto a bench, he raised his hands. “Okay! Okay! Let me explain! Please, let me explain!”
    The din continued unabated.
    “Please!” he repeated.
    “Be quiet!” a guard yelled.
    Everybody but the baby settled down.
    “First of all,” Edmund began, “w-welcome to Rood!”
    “There ain’t no—!”
    “Secondly!” Edmund shouted over the man’s protests and the infant’s cries. “Let’s get some food in you all. I’m sure the journey was a difficult one.” He waved at the cook, who peered in from the kitchen. “Gabe! Get everybody something hot, okay? Impress them with your culinary skills!”
    “Cul-a-what?” said somebody in the crowd.
    “I’ll bring something sweet for the little ones,” the fat cook called back, wiping his hands on a stained apron.
    “You’re a godsend.” Edmund rubbed his temples, wishing the baby would stop screaming.
    “How much is this hot meal going to cost?” asked a stout man at the back of the group. “I don’t got much money, and it looks like none of you here do either, judging by this place.”
    “The meal is on us,” Edmund said, his voice for some reason taking on their accent. “And it ain’t charity.” This statement kindled even more disbelief. “Just settle down and listen to me. Please! Please s-s-settle … settle down. Settle down!”
    Again they quieted. Gabe returned from the kitchen and gave each of the children some sweet bread. To Edmund’s immense relief, the infant stopped screeching.
    Rubbing his temples again, he studied their faces. Most of the newcomers seemed to be unskilled laborers. A couple of middle-aged men looked like farmers, their skin brown and leathery from countless days in the sun. By contrast, the man sending streams of grey smoke into the air by the door, was probably a wealthy merchant who’d never gotten his hands dirty.
    “As you can see,” Edmund said, hoping to sound more upbeat than he felt. He gestured to the crooked windows flanking the room and to the barren plots beyond them. “As you can see, our town, Rood, has had better days. It burned down a couple of years ago.”
    He decided not to divulge any details. Though nothing would damage his credibility more than lying, mentioning the twenty thousand goblins infesting the northern mountains would likely send most of the men scurrying back southward—and Rood needed as many strong hands as it could get.
    “We want to rebuild,” Edmund continued. “And we are willing to treat anybody who helps us like nobility. Everybody. If you can work, we want you. And we’re willing to give you what you’ve always dreamed of.”
    “Does that mean—?” But the woman was immediately hushed by a man who might have been her husband.
    “It means”—Edmund anticipated the forthcoming reaction—“that we’ll g-g-give, we’ll give you land in exchange for hard work.”
    There was a rumble of disbelief.
    “Hold on! Hold on! What do you mean, ‘hard work’?” one of the laborers repeated skeptically. “How long are we going to be indebted to you? I don’t want to be no indentured servant. Not again.”
    “And