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Back A Burning Sea
Chapters (54)
  1. CAST OF CHARACTERS
  2. PART ONE
  3. CHAPTER ONE
  4. CHAPTER TWO
  5. CHAPTER THREE
  6. CHAPTER FOUR
  7. CHAPTER FIVE
  8. CHAPTER SIX
  9. CHAPTER SEVEN
  10. CHAPTER EIGHT
  11. CHAPTER NINE
  12. CHAPTER TEN
  13. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  14. CHAPTER TWELVE
  15. PART TWO
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. PART THREE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. PART FOUR
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  53. HISTORICAL NOTE
  54. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

‘No,’ insisted Erlan. ‘One second.’ He knocked again, lightly, and put his ear to the door. This time, he heard a muffled noise and something hollow and metal hitting stone. He had the door open in an instant and flung aside the silk drape. There, across the room, kneeling on the emperor’s couch, was a figure dressed in black. Leo was sprawled before him pulling at a rope around his neck, his mouth wide and tongue flailing helplessly, like a serpent tasting the air. Erlan shouted an alarm. The black-clad assassin glanced up then leaped backwards, dragging the emperor with him. Erlan sensed the other sentry behind him as he launched himself across the room. The attacker gave a last violent haul on the garrotte then swung Leo hard against a pillar. There was a thud as his skull hit the green marble and he went down like a sack of rocks.

The other guard yelled at the intruder to stop. The assassin drew a knife from his belt and flung it. Next instant, the guard was on his knees, clawing at the dagger embedded in his throat. He went crashing sideways into Erlan as the intruder made good his advantage. He was out on the balcony before Erlan could snatch a fistful of his tunic. For a second, the black silhouette peered over the edge, then sprang onto the balustrade and jumped.

Erlan was barely a second behind, snatching Wrathling from the pillar and slinging away the sheath in one motion a moment before he went over the edge after him.

It was a mad risk. Air whistled past his head and he saw an awning twenty feet below and the assassin tumbling into it. It held and at once he somersaulted out of it onto the balcony below. Erlan hit the canvas an instant later, felt his fall broken for a split second then the whole awning folded inwards, dumping him on his backside against hard stone. His spine jarred with the impact but there was no time to worry about broken bones – if he could move he must. He forced himself up, flinging aside the torn material and shifting his grip on Wrathling in time to see the assassin’s shadow leaping to the next balcony along the western facade of the palace.

‘Hel,’ he groaned and set off after him.

He cursed his ankle as he often had. Every surface was dusted with snow making seeing easier but the going treacherous. Still the balustrade was wide; the first gap only two or three strides across. He leaped and easily made the other side, taking the brunt of the stone parapet in his belly, knocking the wind out of him.