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

conversations with the sorceress. I know you false. I know you to be farmer boy, not prince.’

TOM WARD
    ‘ WELL? IS THAT not so?’ he demanded, raising his eyebrows. ‘You no more a prince than I am wolf!’
    One of Prince Stanislaw’s many titles was the Wolf of Polyznia.
    Grimalkin had pretended that I was a prince. I hadn’t liked the deceit, but she’d argued that it was the only way to get Prince Stanislaw to allow me to fight the Kobalos champion.
    ‘Then why did you allow me to fight?’ I asked, silently cursing my foolishness in going along with Grimalkin’s plan.
    ‘My magowie said you must fight. He said the angelus say that.’
    ‘The
angelus
?’
    ‘The creature which fly. The creature with wings which give you new life.’
    I nodded. ‘I’m truly sorry that we deceived you – but we felt it was necessary: you’d never have listened to a commoner. What now?’
    The prince shrugged. ‘Is it true that you just farmer boy? How can that be? If so, how you fight so good like that? Why you come here?’
    ‘I was raised on a farm – so, yes, I am a farmer’s lad – but I’m also the seventh son of a seventh son. I can talk to the dead and I have some protection against dark magic. Because of that I was trained as what we call a “spook” and my job is to fight the dark and deal with ghosts and malevolent entities. The Kobalos god, Talkus, is from the dark as well; his followers threaten the whole of humankind, not just your northern principalities. If they win here they will advance south and eventually overrun my own land. As for my ability to fight – I was trained by Grimalkin, who’s just about the greatest warrior I’ve ever seen. So we came here to help vanquish our common enemies. Despite our deceit we meant well.’
    Stanislaw nodded and let out a big sigh. ‘Then let it be as sorceress’s plan,’ he said at last. ‘We will attack Valkarky. Eat – go strong. Get ready. In two weeks we ride.’
    Later, I had a third visitor. Grimalkin arrived clutching a long roll of parchment. I gave her an account of what the prince and I had said to each other.
    ‘I cannot believe I did not see that!’ she exclaimed, shaking her head. ‘I should have known that he was just pretending not to understand. How can I have been so blind?’
    I could see her agitation. She could usually see through to the truth of people and situations. That was the second thing she’d got wrong. First the Starblade had failed to protect me against dark magic, and now this. The witch assassin was not used to making mistakes.
    ‘It’s turned out the same in the end,’ I said. ‘As the prince said, we’ll cross the river in two weeks. I need to get fit. At the moment I can hardly walk. I can’t imagine how I’m going to recover sufficiently and be able to ride at the head of an army in such a short time. I’d probably be better off going back home to the County to regain my heath.’
    ‘There isn’t time for that,’ Grimalkin said, showing her pointy teeth in displeasure. ‘You will soon be stronger. But first we must plan and make these princelings bow to our will.’
    She walked across to the small table, unrolled the parchment and held it flat on the wooden surface, securing it with four pins. It was an old map, the outlines faded to yellow, but there had been more recent additions in black ink.
    ‘This is the Shanna River,’ Grimalkin said, tracing it with her forefinger. ‘Here, to the north, is the Fittzanda Fissure, a region of volcanic instability. It was once the boundary between human and Kobalos territories. And there, far to the north, is the huge city of Valkarky, the heart of the Kobalos strength. We are not going there. It would be suicide at this stage.’
    Valkarky was the great city of the Kobalos; they believed it would grow until it covered the entire world.
    ‘So where are we going?’ I asked wearily.
    She pointed to what was no more than a cross on the map in black ink, a