Spook's: The Dark Army (The Starblade Chronicles) Read Online Free PDF Page A

– I’ll look at it later,’ I said. ‘It’ll be good to read another version of what happened after my fight with the assassin. Grimalkin told me some of it but she didn’t go into such detail.’
    Jenny nodded. ‘Isn’t that an amazing sight?’ she said, pointing to the thousands of men below. ‘They say more are arriving every day.’
    ‘Grimalkin isn’t impressed,’ I said. ‘She says the Kobalos have an army many times larger than ours. They will have savage creatures, “battle-entities”, that are far stronger, larger and more deadly than humans. Remember those terrible creatures called varteki that we killed near Chipenden?’
    We had fought young ones back in the County. They were huge many-legged monsters, able to burrow underground and spit globules of acid that could burn through flesh to the bone in seconds.
    ‘We may face fully grown versions. They’ll break through our lines in moments. When we flee, the slaughter will begin.’
    Grimalkin had spent time in the lair of the mage I’d killed. She had grown a number of creatures from the samples she’d found in the tree, hoping to discover their strengths and weaknesses. But two varteki had escaped the pentacle in which she’d contained them. They were burrowers and difficult to catch. We had barely been in time to slay the second one and prevent it from laying waste to the village of Topley close to the farm where I’d been born and brought up.
    ‘But I thought she
wanted
to cross the river and invade. Wasn’t that her plan?’
    ‘She wanted to probe with a much smaller force,’ I explained. ‘She hoped to cross quickly into Kobalos territory, learn what she could and then get out. What’s being planned is more like a full-scale attack and she feels we’re bound to lose.’ I shivered, and a sudden pain deep in my belly made me gasp.
    Jenny came to her feet, looking concerned. ‘I’ll leave you now. You should rest. Are you hungry?’ she asked me. ‘We’re being treated very well. Anything we request, we get. Shall I order something for you? We’re like royalty!’
    ‘Don’t get above yourself!’ I said with a smile. ‘I’m the prince and you’re just a cheeky servant girl! But the truth is, I don’t have much appetite.’
    It was worse than that. I felt nauseous and the last thing I felt like doing was eating. But perhaps I’d be better with something inside me.
    ‘Please ask them to send me a little bread and cheese,’ I said.
    Jenny smiled and patted my shoulder, and then left me alone with my thoughts.
    Within five minutes a servant had brought me a basket containing bread, butter, a wedge of cheese and a glass of a light ale. I nibbled at the cheese, staring down at the army that encircled the castle. The cheese was hard and bland – nothing like the tangy, crumbly County cheese I loved. But eating made me feel better and I began to feel drowsy.
    As I was thinking about sleep, the door suddenly opened and Prince Stanislaw strode into the room. I made to rise and greet him, but he gestured that I should remain where I was. He dragged a heavy ornate chair across from the far wall and sat down opposite me.
    The prince was not handsome, but there was a dignity about him and now, when he smiled at me, he exuded warmth. I liked him, and certainly respected him. But now I detected something different in his demeanour – though I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was.
    He opened his mouth to speak and I wondered why Grimalkin was not present to interpret for me. I quickly found out.
    ‘You are feeling better, no?’ he asked.
    My mouth dropped open in astonishment. ‘I thought you didn’t speak our language . . .’ I said.
    He shrugged. ‘I do not speak well, but I can say enough. I understand more what I hear than I am able to reply. To rule, you must learn. I study many languages. You learn more by listening than speaking, no? So that is what I do. I have learned much already by listening to your