BooksBarbecue
Back Savage Legion Save as PDF
Chapters (61)
  1. Publisher’s Notice
  2. Map of Crache
  3. Dedication
  4. PART ONE THREE SIDES OF A COIN
  5. THE MOURNING AFTER
  6. THE KNIGHT BEFORE
  7. WHERE ONLY STONE STEPS ASCEND
  8. A THOUSAND FACES AND NONE
  9. BLOOD COINS AND BLOOD COIN HUNTERS
  10. FALLING STARS
  11. CITIES BUILT IN BOXES
  12. STEEL FIELDS OF RUST AND ROT
  13. RESOLVE IS THE FORGED BLADE THAT CANNOT BE QUENCHED
  14. THE DEAD WHO REVEL IN LIFE
  15. SHAHEEN
  16. THE FIRST WEAPON WAS A STORY TOLD BY LIARS
  17. HOME STUDIES
  18. REQUITAL IS THE REVENGE OF THE WELL-READ
  19. BURIED ON THE BATTLEFIELD
  20. ON AND OFF
  21. SAVAGERY PAYS A CALL
  22. WHEN GHOSTS SPEAK YOUR REAL NAME
  23. PART TWO UNRAVELING THE EDGES
  24. THE BLACK EAGLE
  25. THE MESSENGER
  26. A PEBBLE IN A MAZE
  27. THIRTY TONGUES AND NOT A WORD SPOKEN
  28. TEARS MADE OF FIRE
  29. LATE-NIGHT CALLERS
  30. THE MATING CALL OF THE CRACHIAN WIND DRAGON
  31. ONLY FIRE AND ICE GROW IN CHARNEL HOUSE GARDENS
  32. SCATTERING THE ASHES
  33. THE JEOPARDY ROOM
  34. HEAVEN’S HOSTESS IS HELL’S HANDMAIDEN
  35. THE BONES OF THE WORLD
  36. THE GOD RUNG
  37. KNIVES SPEAK LOUDEST IN THE DARK
  38. THE INTEREST PAID IN BLOOD
  39. RIDDLES SHAPED IN STONE
  40. THE CALLING HOUR
  41. WE BURIED OUR STORIES IN THE EARTH
  42. PART THREE REVELATIONS OF THE THROAT
  43. FORMLESS, SHAPELESS, IT CAN FLOW OR IT CAN CRASH
  44. THE SPARROW GENERAL
  45. THOUGH IT BE HARSH, COME BACK TO THE LIGHT
  46. THE NEW DEVOURING THE OLD
  47. A PLOT OF CORPSES
  48. THE BLACK TURTLE
  49. MARCHING TO A HEADLESS DRUM
  50. SEEK NOT THE EAVES AT MIDNIGHT
  51. REUNION
  52. SLEEP, AND HIS BROTHER DEATH
  53. MISSIO INTERRUPTUS
  54. BORN ON THE BATTLEFIELD
  55. IN THE HOUSE OF THE IGNOBLE
  56. THE ONES WE KEEP CLOSE
  57. DAWN IS THE MOMENT YOU WAKE
  58. THE GRAY AFTER THE STORM
  59. FINAL SELECTION
  60. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  61. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“You’re as known and respected among the Legion as any member of the Elder Company. You know the Legion, you know the experienced warriors remaining among them. Most importantly, you know whom you can trust and whom can influence others on our behalf.”

“I tell you that knowledge is useless now,” Spud-Bar maintains.

“And I tell you that knowledge is worth more than every blade and every soldier who’ll take that field tomorrow, if you’ll just help me.”

“Why did you have to do this?” Spud-Bar demands, miserably. “Any of this? Why? Why couldn’t you just let… let…”

Their words sputter and die pitifully, and their foot ceases to work the grinder pedal.

Evie leans away from the shadows, seeking Spud-Bar’s eyes with her own. She holds the armorist’s gaze with as hard and as serious a shine in her eyes as she’s ever offered anyone.

“If you can’t finish that thought,” she says, “then you know exactly why I’ve done everything I’ve done. I’m sorry if you feel this isn’t fair to you, but I don’t care. Do you understand? You’re either going to let us all die tomorrow knowing you could’ve prevented it, or you’ll risk your life to help us win. Choose. Now.”

Evie can see the hateful words of refusal brewing behind the armorist’s eyes. She can see the angels and devils wrestling in her mind. A desperate voice implores her to say more, to convince Spud-Bar, but Evie remains silent. She’s put the armorist to the final test, and any more words would only muddy the waters she’s attempted to purify.

In the end, Spud-Bar’s entire being seems to deflate like a punctured bellows. The armorist stares back at Evie with tragic, defeated eyes.

“What do you want me to do?” Spud-Bar asks.

SLEEP, AND HIS BROTHER DEATH

LEXI GENTLY STRUMS THE THREE strings of Brio’s old reed-of-the-stone-lake, making every effort to focus on the tune she’s attempting to elicit from the classical instrument and not the memory of smashing her own childhood reed on the skull of a blue-veined assassin sent to murder her in her home. It’s the first time she’s played since Brio’s disappearance, or rather the first time she’s been able to contemplate such an action without the pangs of loss and fear crippling her.