King of Thorns Read Online Free PDF

the Haunt now. Especially when his armies are busy acquiring what’s left of Gelleth.”
    “So how many soldiers will you take?” Coddin asked. “The Watch will not be enough.”
    “I’m not going to take any,” I said. “I could take the whole damn army and it would just get me into a war on somebody else’s lands.” Coddin made to protest. I cut him off. “I’ll take my Brothers. They’ll appreciate a spell on the road and we managed to traipse to and fro happily enough not so many years ago with nobody giving us much pause.”
    Makin returned with several large map scrolls under his arm. “In disguise is it?” he said and grinned. “Good. Truth be told, this place has given me itchy feet.”
    “You’re staying, Brother Makin,” I told him. “I’ll take Red Kent, Row, Grumlow, Young Sim…and Maical, why not? He may be a half-wit but he’s hard to kill. And of course Little Rike—”
    “Not him,” Coddin said, face cold. “There’s no loyalty in that one. He’ll leave you dead in a hedgerow.”
    “I need him,” I said.
    Coddin frowned. “He might be handy in a fight, but there’s no subtlety in him, no discipline, he’s not clever, he—”
    “The way I’d put it,” said Makin, “is that Rike can’t make an omelette without wading thigh deep in the blood of chickens and wearing their entrails as a necklace.”
    “He’s a survivor,” I said. “And I need survivors.”
    “You need me,” said Makin.
    “You can’t trust him.” Coddin rubbed his forehead as he always did when the worry got in him.
    “I need you here, Makin,” I said. “I want to have a kingdom to come back to. And I know I can’t trust Rike, but four years on the road taught me that he’s the right tool for the job.”
    I lifted my knife and the map sprung back into its roll. “I’ve seen enough.”
    Makin raised his eyes and tipped his maps unopened onto the table.
    “Mark me out a decent route will you, Coddin, and have that scribe lad copy it down.” I stood straight and stretched. I’d need to find something to wear. One of the maids had burned my old rags and velvet’s no good for the road. It’s like a magnet for dust.
    *    *    *
    Father Gomst met Makin, Kent and me on our way to the stables. He’d hurried from chapel, red in the face, the heaviest bible under one arm and the altar cross in his other hand.
    “Jorg—” He stopped to catch his breath. “King Jorg.”
    “You’re going to join us, Father Gomst?” The way he paled made me smile.
    “The blessing,” he said, still short of wind.
    “Ah, well bless away.”
    Kent went to his knees in an instant, as pious a killer as I ever knew. Makin followed with unseemly haste for a man who’d sacked a cathedral in his time. Since Gomst had walked out of Gelleth by the light of a Builders’ Sun, without so much as a tan to show for it, the Brothers seemed to think him touched by God. The fact we had all done the same with far less time at our disposal didn’t register with them.
    For my own part, for all the evils of the Roma church, I could no longer bring myself to despise Gomst as I once had. His only true crime was to be a weak and impotent man, unable to deliver the promise of his lord, the love of his saviour, or even to put the yoke of Roma about the necks of his flock with any conviction.
    I bowed my head and listened to the prayer. It never hurts to cover your bases.
    In the west yard my motley band were assembled, checking over their gear. Rike had the biggest horse I’d ever seen.
    “I could run faster than this monster, Rike.” I made a show of checking behind it. “You didn’t take the plough when you stole it, then?”
    “It’ll do,” he said. “Big enough for loot.”
    “Maical’s not bringing the head-cart?” I looked around. “Where is he anyway?”
    “Gone for the grey,” Kent said. “Idiot won’t ride any other horse. Says he doesn’t know how.”
    “Now that’s loyalty for you.” I shot Rike