Servant: The Dark God Book 1 Read Free

like charcoal smoke. His massive back and arms glistened with the morning sweat.
    “Purity,” he said to Mother, “this beard is going to be the death of me. I’m sick of the braids catching fire. I’m not going back to the smithy until it’s shaved off.”
    Sugar saw that two of his braids were indeed singed.
    “Ach,” Mother said undoing the shutter latch, “they’re so handsome on you. Half the men in this village would give a finger for such a beard.”
    “I don’t want their fingers,” said Da. “They can have the beard for free.”
    Mother walked to the back door and looked outside. “That’s odd,” she said.
    Da spoke to Sugar. “I heard the hare trap. All this time I’ve been lusting after beef. Why can’t you catch one of Galson’s steers? I’d even settle for one of the old ones.”
    “There’s the matter of Farmer Galson,” said Sugar.
    “Bah,” said Da, dismissing the farmer. “Make a trap for Galson as well.”
    “Sparrow,” said Mother, “did you forget today’s muster?”
    “None that I know of.” He walked over to her, but instead of looking out the doorway, he reached out with one of his massive arms and grabbed her round the waist. Then he nuzzled into her side and took a nibble.
    “Stop,” she said and pushed at him. “Sparrow, what are those men doing?”
    Da looked outside.
    Midnight and Sky began barking out front. Sugar looked through the front door Da had left open. “There’s another group coming down the lane.”
    Not two months ago, a group of Fir-Noy beat a Koramite woman until they’d ruined one eye and half her teeth. But Da had said that wouldn’t happen here. The louts that had beaten the woman were upland Fir-Noy. Their kind didn’t have sway in the village of Plum, and Da had the assurances of the Territory Lord on that.
    However, Sugar wasn’t so sure. Years ago, a war had been fought between Koram and Mokad across the sea. The Glory of Koram lost the ability to protect some of his territories, including his settlements in the New Lands. The Mokaddians thought they could come and easily take the settlements as booty, but the Koramite colonists surprised them. They fought for eight years until Mokad realized it would be wiser to come to an agreement than spend more blood and treasure. When the lords of the Koramite clans in the New Lands signed the treaty in Whitecliff, they promised to submit to Mokaddian rule only if they were guaranteed certain rights.
    The treaty had worked for a while, but that was some time ago. Now there were far more Mokaddians in the New Lands than there were Koramites. Of the nine Mokaddian clans with holdings here, a few, like the Shoka, got along with their Koramite neighbors. But many had begun to argue against the old treaty, and the ones Sugar heard arguing with the most vehemence were members of the Fir-Noy clan.
    Mother had wanted to move out of the Fir-Noy lands for the last two years, but Da had a bond he was working off. If they’d left, the territory lord would have simply hunted him down.
    “They’re surrounding us,” Sugar said. The men were close enough for Sugar to see the set of their mouths was bitter as garden rue.
    She felt for her knife. When Sugar was a child, a gang of four village boys had tormented her until Da confronted the boys’ parents. But that didn’t end the issue. So Da took it to the village council. He demanded the boys come fight her one-on-one. Mother was furious, taking him to task for making Sugar fight his battles. But Da stood his ground.
    Da himself was a fighter, and for one week he sparred with Sugar, preparing her as best he could. Then the boys had come, some grinning, some all business. They brought most of the village with them. And in the wedge field, surrounded by grandmothers, children, and dogs, Sugar had taken a beating. But the boys had not left unscathed either. There was a black eye, a bloody nose. She’d kicked one so hard in the gut that he’d vomited in the