Prince of Wrath Read Free Page A

acknowledge the Koros as rulers and had continued to defy the imperial line. So the emperor’s son, Jorqel, Prince of Kastania and heir to the throne, had marched into the region and taken Slenna by force, ending the rebellion.
    This, however, had not ended the resistance. Although the family responsible for the rebellion in the first place, the Fokis, had been cowed, another family, the Duras, had risen in their place to defy the Koros. They claimed greater legitimacy to the throne.
    Elsewhere in the Empire they were raising the standard of revolt, and here in Lodria they had joined forces with another, a man called Lombert Soul. Soul appealed to those at the bottom of society, declaring that with the help of the gods, he would sweep the corrupt and degenerates who ruled the Empire away, and return Kastania to its former glory. He preached Holy War against the heretical Tybar tribes that stood to the west, a fierce, hostile race that had overrun much of the Empire’s former territories in the west in recent years.
    The Duras saw Jorqel as the main obstacle to their ambitions, so they had formulated a plan to defeat the prince. First, Jorqel’s betrothed, the young and beautiful Sannia Nicate was abducted. Then Jorqel was handed a hostage note. If he wanted his bride-to-be returned to him safely, then he must surrender Slenna. The Duras were careful not to be implicated in the affair; Lombert Soul’s name was on the note. Once Jorqel was out of the way, then Niake would be next, run by the feckless and fence-sitting Evas Extonos. Then with the seizure of the entire west of Kastania, the rest would fall. Already, one of their family was raising an army in Makenia, and between them they would crush any force the Koros could raise in Frasia.
    Jorqel looked at the note that had been handed him that very day. It mocked him, resting there on the table before him. He stood in his day room in the castle of Slenna, stroking his neatly clipped black beard in worry and agitation. He was in his mid-twenties, tall, handsome and dark. He had clear blue eyes and a finely-chiselled nose and chin that had always managed to turn a young maiden’s head. He had never lacked female company if he so desired it, but now only one female was on his mind. Sannia.
    Another man stood in the room with him, his faithful companion and guardian Gavan. Gavan was the commander of Jorqel’s bodyguard. Big, brash and blunt, Gavan was as different as could be to Jorqel, yet the two were the best of friends. They had grown up together in Kastan City, and, later, in Zofela when Jorqel’s father took up his governor’s post of Bragal. When the war with the Tybar called Astiras away to support the deteriorating situation in the west, Jorqel took up the military post of commanding the Zofela garrison in his father’s absence at the age of sixteen.
    His first action was in the Bragal war. Astiras had sent his family back to Kastan, leaving a smaller garrison in Zofela under Kandalar, and it was soon afterwards that Zofela was taken by the rebels and the war with the Bragalese begun. Astiras was recalled to the east and together with Jorqel began the campaign to recover the province.
    Although young, Jorqel’s grasp of tactics and his fighting prowess won him many admirers, and when the emperor at the time asked for more military assistance in the west, nobody contested Jorqel’s posting along with Gavan to the Army of the West. It was then that Astiras moved to topple the emperor, when he learned of the intention to surrender Bragal.
    Jorqel’s victory over the Fokis at Slenna had stabilised matters in Lodria, but Lombert Soul was active in Bathenia and needed to be brought to heel.
    “We cannot march the army up to Bathenia, sire,” Gavan protested. “It would almost certainly cause Sannia’s death. Besides, where is this man’s camp? Nobody knows.”
    “We must find out, Gavan. I won’t have that canine holding my Sannia prisoner! He’s as good as