Book 1 - The Silver spike Read Free

size of a small elephant.
It was most comfortable being about twice the size of a war-horse.
In the great battle it had slain many of its master’s enemies
before overpowering sorceries had driven it from the field.
    It came stealthily, again and again, despite the fear of
exposure, the pain of its wounds, and its frustration. Sometimes
the wall of its excavation collapsed. Sometimes rainwater would
fill the hole. And always there was the inescapable vigilance of
the only truly watchful guardian the victors had left.
    A young tree stood among the bones, alone. It was near immortal
and was far mightier than the night skulker. It was the child of a
god. In time, each night, it wakened to the digger’s
presence. Its reaction was uniform and violent.
    A blue nimbus formed among the tree’s limbs. Pale
lightning ripped toward the monster. It was a quiet sort of
lightning, a sizzle instead of boom and crash, but it slapped the
monster like an angry adult’s swing at a small child.
    The beast suffered no injury, only extreme pain. That it could
not endure. Each time it was hit it fled, to await another night
and that delay before the child of the god awakened.
    The monster’s work went slowly.
     
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IV
    Darling left Raven standing there. She rode off with that guy
Silent and some other guys that were all that was left of the Black
Company, a mercenary outfit that really wasn’t anymore. A
long time ago they was on the Lady’s side but something
happened to piss them off and they went over to the Rebel. For a
long time they was almost the whole Rebel army.
    Raven watched them go into the woods. I could tell he wanted to
sit down and cry like a baby, maybe as much because he
couldn’t understand as because she did ride off on him. But
he didn’t.
    In most ways he was the toughest, hardest bastard I ever saw,
and not always in the best ways. When I first found out he was
Raven and not Corbie I like to crapped my drawers. A long time ago
there was a Raven that rode with the Black Company that was the
baddest of the bad. He was with them only about a year before he
deserted but he made himself a big rep while he was there. And this
was the same guy.
    He said, “We’ll give them a couple hours’ head
start so it don’t look like we’re dogging them, then
we’ll get out of here.”
    “We?”
    “You want to hang around here now?”
    “That would be desertion.”
    “They don’t know if you’re dead or not. They
haven’t counted noses yet.” He shrugged. “Up to
you. Come or stay.”
    I could tell he wanted me to come. Right then I was the only
thing he had. But he wasn’t going to make no special appeal.
Not hard guy Raven.
    I didn’t have no future at the Barrowland and I sure as
hell wasn’t going back to ride herd on potatoes. And I
didn’t have anybody else in the world, either. “All
right. I’m in.”
    He started walking into town. What was left after the fight. I
tagged along. After a while, he said, “Croaker was about the
closest thing to a friend I had when I was in the Company.”
He was still confused.
    Croaker was the boss merc. He wasn’t boss back when Raven
was with them, but they had been through a few captains since the
old days. Raven was confused because his old buddy and him had
gotten in a fight after the Dominator got put down.
    Probably to show off for Darling, Raven had decided he was going
to round everything off and close the books by getting rid of the
Lady, who lost her powers during the battle. And Croaker said no
you don’t and didn’t back down. He put an arrow into
Raven’s hip just to show him he was serious.
    “Is a friend somebody who just stands back and lets you do
whatever you want whenever you want to do it?” He gave me one
of his puzzled looks. “Maybe he was a whole lot more her
friend than he was yours. Way I heard tell, they spent a lot of
time together. They rode off into the sunset together. And you know
the way those guys are about brotherhood,