The Undead King: The Saga of Jai Lin: Book One Read Free Page A

silent marching, the nameless trail finally met with the Mountain Road, a wide strip of tramped earth which ran parallel to the Axe Man before angling north and crossing over the river’s choppy waters by way of the Bridge of Haynes.
    “Another half day’s march to camp,” Brook said. “Should we break?”
    “Might as well keep on. Evening is coming quick and some may worry we’ve been gone too long. Don’t want to ruffle any feathers, now do we?”
    They kept to the woods, walking at the bottom of a ridge just out of sight from the road. Black Wing scouts had recently seen killim in the area around the Bridge of Haynes, stumbling around the ruined and razed buildings that over a century of neglect had reduced to crumbling piles of stone and steel. The undead were drawn to old buildings and relics, but not to the extent they were to humans, whose flesh they had an insatiable appetite for. If there were any killim lurking around the ruins, Crow and Brook would do their best to avoid them. If that proved impossible, Crow’s knives, Brook’s bow and Leo’s teeth would get them through to the other side of the Axe Man and into the Broke Tooth Hills.
    They could see the highest spires of one of the burnt out buildings rising above the trees when they heard voices. Crow dropped the fawn’s carcass to the ground and pulled Brook down into the leaves. Leo was close to them too, his snowy blue eyes searching Brook’s face for an explanation of her palpable trepidation.
    “Men’s voices,” Crow said in a hushed tone. “Lots of men. It sounds like an army is up there, in the buildings.”
    “Are they blocking the way to the bridge?” Brook asked.
    “I have the same line of sight as you, Brook, so I can’t see a damned thing. I know that the buildings with the roofs still intact are closer to the bridge, so if they’re setting camp here for the evening, they’ll be right in our way.”
    There was a wind coming down from the Broke Tooth Hills, bringing with it the voices of the men camped out in the ruins. “Cat again? Man, I can’t stand cat.” The man spoke with the rasp of a habitual leaf smoker who had yet to grow  a full beard. “If Salty makes cat one more time, I’ll cut his ouevos off and make him cook them for our next meal.”
    “Ah, shut yer piehole. You know there ain’t nothing but cat round here. All them rotters chased all the other four leggers away.” This man was certainly older and spoke in an accent that neither Crow nor Brook had ever heard before.
    “Man, there’s fish in that river, right? We could each of us be eating a big fat grilled fish, that’s all I’m saying.”
    “You don’t eat the fish from the Axe Man’s River, boy. This ain’t one of your damned Seven Streams. That there is a poison river, that is. Even the rotters don’t cross it.”
    “Yeah, well…” Raspy trailed off. “Man, you think Dusty Yen will come through with all he’s promising? I mean, eye-spans of land for every man serving in his army, plunder from Ithaca, women from Lazarus Township… it all just sounds too good to be true.”
    “Aye, boy, it most likely is too good to be true. I’ve served under many a warlord in my day. They’re good at promising you the world but giving you shite in return. Still, what other choice do men like us have? We fight or we starve.”
    “I have other choices. I have family in the Seven Streams up north, by the Chalabad River.”
    “Oh, flesh-eaters, are they?”
    “My family aren’t cannibals, man. Flesh-eaters live in the Aderon Mountains, not in the river valleys, where I’m from.”
    “No matter they be cannibals or canaries, they sold you to the Wandering Bastards for some shiny trinket or promise of protection just the same. Same with most of these men here. Ain’t no shame in it, boy. It’s just how it is. Lucky you’re in good shape and were ready to go willingly, too. I’ve seen our man Matchless slaughter whole tribes of men and take their