Ships from the West Read Online Free PDF

and I, once every year. Apart from that, it is left to the wolves and the kites and the ravens. Since the mound was raised, this world of ours has moved on at a pace I would never once have believed possible. But it exists in its present form only because of the men whose bones moulder underneath our feet. That is something you, as my daughter, must never forget, even if others do.’
    Mirren made as if to speak, but Corfe silenced her with a gesture. ‘Wait.’
    Arrowing out of the west there came a single bird, a falcon or hawk of some kind. It circled their heads once, and then plummeted towards them. The marmoset shrieked, and Mirren soothed it with a caress. The bird, a large gyrfalcon, alighted on the grass mere feet away, and spent a few seconds rearranging its pinion feathers before opening its hooked beak and speaking in the low mellifluous voice of a grown man.
    ‘Your majesty. We are well met.’
    ‘Golophin. What tidings from the west?’
    The bird cocked its head to one side to bring one inhuman yellow eye to bear. ‘The combined fleet put to sea three days ago. They are cruising in the area of North Cape and have a squadron out keeping watch on the western approaches to the Brenn Isles. Nothing as yet.’
    ‘But you’re sure the enemy is at sea.’
    ‘Oh yes. We’ve had a picket line of galliots cruising beyond the Hebrionese for four months. In the last sennight every one of them has disappeared. And a fair portion of the northern herrin fleet has failed to make it back to port, and yet the weather has been fine and clear. There’s something out there, all right.’
    ‘What of your raptor’s eyes?’
    A pause, as if the bird were distracted or Golophin was considering his words. ‘My familiar is based here, in Torunna, for the moment, your majesty, to keep whole the link between east and west.’
    ‘Charibon then. What news?’
    ‘Ah - there I have something a little more tangible. The Himerian armies are breaking up winter quarters as I speak. They will be on the march within a fortnight I would hazard, or as soon as the Torrin Gap is free of the last drifts. The Thurian Line is awash with marching men.’
    ‘It has begun then,’ Corfe breathed. ‘After all this time, the curtain has risen.’
    ‘I believe so, sire.’
    ‘What of the Fimbrians?’
    ‘No word as yet. They are playing a waiting game. The Pact of Neyr may have broadcast their neutrality to the world, but they will have to climb down from their fence sooner or later.’
    ‘If this yet-unseen fleet manages to make landfall it could well make up their minds for them.’
    ‘And it will also mean a two-front war.’
    ‘Yes of course.’
    ‘I trust, sire, that all your preparations are in hand?’
    ‘The principal field army awaits only my word to march, and General Aras has the northern garrison on alert at Gaderion. You will let me know as soon as anything happens?’
    ‘Of course, sire. May I convey to you the compliments and greetings of your Royal cousin Abeleyn of Hebrion? And now I must go.’
    The bird’s wings exploded into a flurry of feathers and it took off like a loosed clothyard, soaring up into the spring blue. Corfe watched it go, frowning.
    ‘So that was Golophin - or his familiar, at least,’ Mirren said, eyes bright. ‘The great Hebrian mage. I’ve heard so much about him.’
    ‘Yes. He’s a good man, though his years are beginning to tell on him now. He took it hard, his apprentice going the way he did.’
    ‘Ah, the Presbyter of the Knights. Is it true he is a werewolf as well as a mage?’
    Corfe looked at his daughter closely. ‘Someone has been listening at keyholes.’
    Mirren flushed. ‘It is common folklore, no more.’
    ‘Then you will know that our world is threatened by an unholy trinity. Himerius the anti-Pontiff, Aruan the sorcerer, now Vicar-General of the Inceptine Order, and Bardolin, another arch-mage, who is Presbyter of the Knights Militant. And yes, this Bardolin is rumoured to