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Chapters (61)
  1. Cover
  2. Title page
  3. Dedication page
  4. Cast of Characters
  5. Map
  6. Epigraph page
  7. EXTRACT FROM: The Book of the Fallen
  8. CHAPTER ONE: BLEDA
  9. CHAPTER TWO: DREM
  10. CHAPTER THREE: RIV
  11. CHAPTER FOUR: DREM
  12. CHAPTER FIVE: SIG
  13. CHAPTER SIX: BLEDA
  14. CHAPTER SEVEN: SIG
  15. CHAPTER EIGHT: RIV
  16. CHAPTER NINE: DREM
  17. CHAPTER TEN: RIV
  18. CHAPTER ELEVEN: DREM
  19. CHAPTER TWELVE: SIG
  20. CHAPTER THIRTEEN: BLEDA
  21. CHAPTER FOURTEEN: SIG
  22. CHAPTER FIFTEEN: DREM
  23. CHAPTER SIXTEEN: RIV
  24. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: DREM
  25. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: BLEDA
  26. CHAPTER NINETEEN: SIG
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY: DREM
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: RIV
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: DREM
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: RIV
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: DREM
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: SIG
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: DREM
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: RIV
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: SIG
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: RIV
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY: BLEDA
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: DREM
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: RIV
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: DREM
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: BLEDA
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: Drem
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: RIV
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: DREM
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: SIG
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: RIV
  47. CHAPTER FORTY: DREM
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE: RIV
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO: SIG
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE: RIV
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: DREM
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE: BLEDA
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX: SIG
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN: RIV
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT: DREM
  56. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE: BLEDA
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY: SIG
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE: RIV
  59. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  60. BY JOHN GWYNNE
  61. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

By some mutual consent the two figures stopped and faced one another. Bleda strained to see them, but the starlight was weak and shifting all the time. The taller one was clothed in cloak and furs, seemed dressed for winter travel.

‘This is as far as I can come,’ the shorter one said, a woman’s voice. Bleda heard Riv hiss, her body become tense as a warrior’s under inspection. ‘You must go on alone, now.’

‘I don’t want to,’ the taller one said. Also a woman.

‘I wish I could come further, be with you through—’

‘No. I mean, I don’t want to do this. Any of it.’

A silence.

‘You have to. You have no choice,’ the shorter woman said.

‘There’s always a choice,’ the taller one answered, a whisper.

‘Aye, and you made yours. Now you must see it through. The bad with the good.’

‘What good!’ the tall one spat. ‘I tell you now, the only reason I’m leaving is because I cannot bear one more day around them. If I am I might . . .’ A hand reached to a sword hilt.

‘Don’t be an idiot,’ the shorter one. ‘Go. Now.’

A sniffing sound, the taller one wiping at her eyes.

A silence, even Bleda’s own breath sounding loud in his ears. He could feel the tension leaking from Riv.

‘I don’t think I can do this,’ the tall one said into the quiet. ‘I . . . can’t.’

‘You must, else you’ll kill us all,’ the shorter one said, pushing something into the other’s hand. They embraced, a whispered goodbye, and then the tall one was striding along the road, turning off a dozen paces on, down the embankment on the far side and breaking into a loping run. Within moments she disappeared into the shadows of Forn Forest.

The shorter one stood still as stone, staring after her companion long after she’d disappeared. Just when Bleda thought he couldn’t bear it any longer she turned and marched back down the road, towards Drassil.

‘Wait,’ Riv whispered, her hand gripping Bleda’s wrist. He could feel the strength in her grip, iron-edged.

They stood there a hundred heartbeats. Then another hundred. Finally, Riv breathed out a long sigh and without a word walked back to the road. Bleda followed.

It may have been too dark for me to recognize them, but Riv knew who they were.

CHAPTER NINETEEN: SIG

CHAPTER NINETEEN

SIG