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Back Bleak Seasons Save as PDF
Chapters (102)
  1. Title page
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You look like somebody ate your favorite puppy, Goblin told me. Cracks like that could be heard all the time now that there were no more dogs. There were just two sources of meat left. The Nar exploited both. We restricted ourselves to stupid crows.

I told Goblin and One-Eye what I had seen. Uncle Doj stood behind me, quietly disgruntled because I wanted to see my own people before I visited the Speaker. I was barely halfway through it when One-Eye interrupted. You got to tell the whole Company this one, Kid. For once he was as serious as a spear through the gut.

And for once Goblin agreed with One-Eye without any big groan and moan about the unfairness of it all. You need to get this word out exactly the way you want it known to everybody. Theres going to be a lot of talk. You dont want anybody building it up worse than it is when they pass it along.

Get them together, then. While Im waiting Im going to skim those Jaicuri books. There may be something else I need to tell them.

May I join you? Uncle Doj asked.

No. Go tell the old man that Ill be there as soon as I can. This is family.

As you will. He said something to Thai Dei, stalked away.

Bucket interrupted my reading. Got them together, Murgen. All but Clete. Hes off somewhere whoring and even his brothers dont know where to find him.

All right.

It something bad? You got that look.

Yeah.

It can get worse than it already is?

Youre going to hear all about it in just a little bit.

In five minutes I got up in front of sixty men and told my tale, marvelling as I did that a band so frail and few could be so feared. More, I marvelled that there were so many of us when, hardly more than two years ago, there were just seven of us pretending to be the Black Company.

You guys want to keep it down until Im done? The news had them excited in a grim way. Listen up. That is the word. Theyre making human sacrifices and eating the corpses. But that aint the whole story. Ever since they joined us at Gea-Xle theyve been hinting and even saying right out that us northern guys are heretics. That means they think the whole Company used to do things their way.

That started everybody talking and yelling.

I pounded a masons hammer on a block of wood. Shut up, you morons! It aint the way the Company ever was. The Nar never kept any Annals. They would know that if they had. But they cant even read.