Cold Magics Read Online Free PDF

his own mouthful. He swallowed it and took a drink before continuing. “They call fire,” he said. “They use it on my troops and our towns. They appear out of a fog on nights where there’s no reason for it to be foggy.” He ticked off the points on his fingers. “They call water, turning a field that was dry footing the day before into a swamp overnight. And they’re toppling over hundred-year-old palisades without much problem at all.”
    Henry took another drink. When he spoke again they could hear the frustration in his voice. “We’ve been fighting them for three months. We’ve lost a dozen villages and a pair of good-sized towns. God knows how many are dead. And the worst of it is that they’re never there long enough to fight. They only attack at night, they destroy a place, and then they disappear again. We’ve never been able to engage them in the field. The closest was a month ago, when I got the arrow in my leg. That time, they fired the bridge under our feet to escape us.”
    “Who are they?” asked Eileen. “Where are they from?”
    “Well, that’s the other problem,” said Henry. “We don’t know.”
    “You don’t know?” said Thomas and Eileen together.
    “My father thinks it’s the northern tribes, come to try to take the duchy again,” said Henry. “The tactics are similar. They like to hit and run, attacking wherever the troops aren’t until they can draw out a large enough force. Then they fall on us like flies. We lost some good men to the tribes, six years ago.” Henry’s face was bleak, and for a moment he wasn’t seeing Thomas and Eileen anymore, but something distant and horrible. “But it’s not the tribes. I’m sure of it. Their armour is different. So are their weapons. And they don’t take anything. They just slaughter whoever they can. Soldiers, villagers, nobility, makes no difference.”
    There was another knock at the door, and Henry called, “Come in, if you’re bringing food.”
    Instead of dinner, it was a travel-worn man with fine clothes and a thick-bladed sword at his side. “My lord,” he said. “We have been looking for you.”
    “And since I left word as to where I was going, I doubt that you have had difficulty finding me,” said Henry.
    The other man cleared his throat. “Several of the southern lords are staying in the Residence. I thought it would be worth our while for you to speak to them,” he spared a disdainful glance for Thomas and Eileen, “since we are here to recruit men to fight, my lord.”
    “I am recruiting men, Sir Martin.”
    “I fail to see how two students would make a difference, my lord.”
    One of Henry’s eyebrows went up. “Thomas here has killed a dozen men in battle, and is, when I am away, the deadliest swordsman in the city.” Henry’s voice was quiet and edged with something so dangerous that Thomas found his hand going to his rapier of its own volition. “Are you questioning me?”
    Sir Martin stood his ground. “I am here as an adviser, my lord, and—”
    “You are here because my brother wanted one of his toadies among the party. Do not presume that your relationship with him gives you the right to question what I do.”
    Sir Martin stiffened and turned red, but held his tongue.
    “I am seeing the Lord Chancellor in the morning,” Henry continued. “Have my clothes been laid out?”
    “I don’t know, my lord,” said Martin, his face still red. “I believe the staff at the Residence were making the necessary arrangements.”
    “Go make sure,” said Henry. “And once you have made sure, I suggest you retire at once, to preserve your energy for tomorrow.”
    “I…” the man’s face grew darker, but he managed a strangled, “Yes, my lord.”
    “Good evening, Sir Martin.”
    “Good evening, my lord.” Martin bowed, turned on his heel, and left.
    “Wow,” said Eileen, as soon as the door closed behind the knight. “What did he do to you?”
    “Very little,” said Henry. “Almost