King of Thorns Read Online Free PDF Page B

a look. “So where’s this new wife of yours, Brother Rikey? Not coming to see you off?”
    “Busy ploughing.” He slapped his horse. “Got a job of it now.”
    Gorgoth came through the kitchen gate, looming behind Rike. It’s unsettling to see something on two legs that’s taller and wider than Rike. Gog popped out from behind him. He took my hand and I let him lead me. There’s not many that will take my hand since the necromancy took root in me. There’s a touch of death in my fingers, not just the coldness. Flowers wilt and die.
    “Where we going, Brother Jorg?” Still a child’s voice despite the crackle in it.
    “To find us a fire-mage. Put an end to this bed-burning,” I told him.
    “Will it hurt?” He watched me with big eyes, pools of black.
    I shrugged. “Might do.”
    “Scared,” he said, clutching my hand tighter. I could feel heat rising from his fingers. Maybe it cancelled the cold from mine. “Scared.”
    “Well then,” I said. “We’re headed the right way.”
    He frowned.
    “You’ve got to hunt your fears, Gog. Beat them. They’re your only true enemies.”
    “You’re not scared of anything, Brother Jorg,” he said. “King J—”
    “I’m scared of burning,” I said. “Especially in my bed.” I looked back to the brothers, stowing weapons and supplies. “I had a cousin who liked to burn people up, did I not, Brother Row?”
    “Ayuh.” He nodded.
    “My cousin Marclos,” I said. “Tell Gog what happened to him.”
    Row tested the point of an arrow with his thumb. “Went up to him all on your ownself, Jorg, and killed him in the middle of a hundred of his soldiers.”
    I looked down at Gog. “I’m scared of spiders too. It’s the way that they move. And the way that they’re still. It’s that scurry.” I mimicked it with my hand.
    I called back to Row. “How am I with spiders, Row?”
    “Weird.” Row spat and secured his last arrow. “You’ll like this tale, Gog, what with being a godless monster and all.” He spat again. Brother Row liked to spit. “Spent a week holed up in some grain barns one time. Hiding. We didn’t go hungry. Grain and rats make for a good stew. Only Jorg here wasn’t having any of that. Place was stuffed full of spiders see. Big hairy fellows.” He spread his fingers until the knuckles cracked. “For a whole week Jorg hunted them. Didn’t eat nothing but spider for a week. And not cooked mind. Not even dead.”
    “And rat stew always tasted good after that week,” I said.
    Gog frowned, then his eyes caught the glitter on my wrist. “What’s this?” He pointed.
    I pulled my sleeve back and held it up for all to see. “Two things I found in my uncle’s treasury that were worth more than the gold around them. Thought I’d bring them along in case of need.” I made sure Rike caught sight of the silver on my wrist. “No need to be going through my saddlebags at night now, Little Rikey. The treasure’s here and if you think you can take it, try now.”
    He sneered and tied off another strap.
    “Wossit?” Gog stared entranced.
    “The Builders made it,” I said. “It’s a thousand years old.”
    Row and Red Kent came over to see.
    “I’m told they call it a watch,” I said. “And you can see why.”
    In truth, I’d been watching it a lot myself. It had a face on it behind crystal, with twelve hours marked and sixty minutes, and two black arms that moved, one slow, one slower still, to point out the time. Entranced, I had opened it up at the back with the point of my knife and gazed into the guts of the thing. The hatch popped back on a minute hinge as if the Builders had known I would want to see inside.Wheels within wheels, tiny, toothed, and turning. How they made such things so small and so precise I cannot guess but to me it is a wonder past any man-made sun or glow-light.
    “What else you got, Jorg?” Rike asked.
    “This.” I took it from the deep pocket on my hip and set it down on the flagstones. A