Lord of Ashes (Steelhaven: Book Three) Read Online Free PDF Page B

to prove your worth, but no need to risk yourself needlessly.’
    ‘Then why ride out at all? Why risk everything for one strike at the Khurtas?’
    Tannick went back to polishing his blade. ‘We need to send a message – to the defenders of this city as much as the enemy. We need to show they can be beaten. That they’re human. General Hawke and Farren and the bannermen of this city think the Khurtas are invincible. That Amon Tugha’s already got them beat. I aim to prove them wrong.’
    ‘I suppose that makes sense,’ Merrick said.
    ‘Do you? I doubt that. I reckon you think it’s madness. That you’d be best served sitting behind the wall and waiting for them to attack like a peasant in his stinking hovel hoping the robbers lurking outside his door will eventually slink away.’
    Actually, that’s exactly what I’m thinking.
    ‘No.’ Merrick tried to sound as enthusiastic as he could. ‘I think showing the Khurtas can be hurt will help boost morale amongst the city’s defenders. And when we ride in to smash the enemy I want to be right in the heart of it.’
    All right, Ryder, steady on. He may well take you up on that.
    ‘I’m glad to hear it,’ said Tannick, and for a moment Merrick could have sworn he sensed some pride in the old bastard. ‘But no. As I said, I need you by my side. You’re too important to risk.’
    ‘How so?’
Because it’s never seemed to bother you before.
    Tannick rose to his feet, holding his sword reverently between them.
    ‘Despite what you might think, boy, I didn’t just come back for this battle. I came back for you.’
    It took a moment for that to register. Even when it did, Merrick found it hard to take in.
    ‘For me? You wouldn’t even speak to me for days. I had to get stabbed through the chest. I almost died defending the queen before—’
    ‘I needed to know you were up to the job. That I could put my faith in you,’ said Tannick. ‘Because one day this will be yours.’
    He held up the sword, the
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, as though it were all the riches in the Free States.
    A sword? A fucking sword? You came all the way back here after all these years just to give me a huge bloody sword that I’ll barely be able to lift?
    Merrick stared down at it, bewildered.
    ‘I know. Beautiful, isn’t it?’ said Tannick, as though he held a new-born baby in his arms and not a hunk of cumbersome steel. ‘And it will be yours when I’m gone. Only you can wield it. Only you can take my place.’
    ‘Take your place? Why? Are you going somewhere?’
    ‘Not yet,’ Tannick replied, hefting the sword over one shoulder. ‘But by the time I do, you should be ready.’
    With that he walked inside.
    Merrick stood in the courtyard for some moments, wondering what in the hells that meant.
    You should be ready
. Ready for what? To carry a ruddy great sword? He couldn’t say that the prospect filled him with glee.
    Not that it was worth thinking on too much. He had to survive the Khurtas first, and from the sounds of it that was going to be no easy feat. Then again, Tannick had told him he was too important to risk, so that meant he was in no real danger. That he’d be safe when the slaughter began.
    Right?
    All of a sudden the prospect of a wash in freezing cold water didn’t seem the worst of Merrick’s problems.

THREE
    I n the days since the Khurtas came he had stood and he had watched. There weren’t many who had summoned the nerve to disturb Nobul Jacks as he kept his vigil, standing there like a statue night and day – but then he was Nobul Jacks no longer.
    They called him the Black Helm now, a name he’d not used for years. A name he thought he’d left behind him in the mud and blood of Bakhaus Gate. That had been a war against an invading army, just like now. Nobul had become the Black Helm to face the creatures that tore up from the south intent on destroying the Free States. He’d lived through it then by becoming more than a man … or was it less? When the