No Reprieve Read Online Free PDF Page A

up fighting in your sleep.”
    “You’d prefer counting?”
    Verran barked a laugh. “No. Definitely not. Snore all you want. Just no more bloody numbers.”
    Blaine went back to sleep. After a time, he woke again. Verran was gone, but Dawe dozed in a chair nearby, and startled as Blaine roused. “Good. You woke on your own. Thank Charrot and the spirits.” Dawe unfolded his thin, lanky body from the chair and bustled over to the small brazier. The fire kept the chill away and let them warm snow for water and the tea they made from dried berries and leaves.
    He helped Blaine sit up and forced a cup of hot tea into his hands. “Drink this. The healer said it would help.” Blaine glanced across the small room and saw that Piran was also sitting up. They nodded to each other, in recognition of the shared triumph of survival.
    “Prokief sent a guard to say you’re back to the mines tomorrow,” Dawe said. He shrugged as Piran let out a halfhearted barrage of curses. “Hey, I’m just the messenger. Guess you’re bloody lucky he didn’t throw your carcasses to the wolves when they fished you out of the Hole.”
    “What about the guard we thrashed?” Piran asked, his voice rough.
    Dawe gave an unexpected chuckle. “Yeah. About that. Turns out his fellow soldiers didn’t much like him, either. I hear he turned up dead, with his throat slit and his pay missing. One of the guards tried to blame it on you, but there were enough witnesses to what happened in the mine that that didn’t work out so well. Blaine came out of the Hole, he went in. Not sure Prokief means to fish him out.”
    Blaine sipped his tea and looked away. Tomorrow would bring new horrors. Maybe, if he survived long enough, he would earn his Ticket of Leave. It was little enough to live for, but it was something. He closed his eyes and, at the very edge of his memory, he heard a child’s remembered laughter. Worth the price.

Meet the Author

    Photo Credit: Donna Jernigan
      
    GAIL Z. MARTIN is the author of the new epic fantasy novel War of Shadows (Orbit Books), which is Book Three in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga; Iron and Blood (Solaris Books) the first in a new Steampunk series, The Jake Desmet Adventures, co-authored with Larry N. Martin; and Vendetta (Solaris Books), a Deadly Curiosities Novel, the second book in her urban fantasy series set in Charleston, South Carolina. She is also author of Ice Forged and Reign of Ash in The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, the Chronicles of the Necromancer series ( The Summoner , The Blood King , Dark Haven , Dark Lady’s Chosen ) from Solaris Books, and the Fallen Kings Cycle ( The Sworn , The Dread ) from Orbit Books. Gail writes two series of ebook short stories: The Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures and the Deadly Curiosities Adventures, and her work has appeared in over twenty US/UK anthologies.  
      
    Find her at AscendantKingdoms.com, on Twitter @GailZMartin, on Facebook.com/WinterKingdoms, at DisquietingVisions.com blog and GhostInTheMachinePodcast.com, on Goodreads at goodreads.com/GailZMartin, and free excerpts on Wattpad at wattpad.com/GailZMartin.

Also by Gail Z. Martin
THE CHRONICLES OF THE NECROMANCER
    The Summoner
    The Blood King
    Dark Haven
    Dark Lady’s Chosen
THE FALLEN KINGS CYCLE
    The Sworn
    The Dread
THE ASCENDANT KINGDOMS SAGA
    No Reprieve (e-only short story)
    Ice Forged
    Reign of Ash
    War of Shadows
    Shadow and Flame
      
    Deadly Curiosities

If you enjoyed
NO REPRIEVE,
look out for
ICE FORGED
Book One of the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga
by Gail Z. Martin
    Condemned as a murderer for killing the man who dishonored his sister, Blaine “Mick” McFadden has spent the last six years in Velant, a penal colony in the frigid northern wastelands. Harsh military discipline and the oppressive magic keep a fragile peace as colonists struggle against a hostile environment. But the supply ships from Donderath have stopped coming, boding ill for the kingdom that banished the colonists.
    Now, as the world’s