At the outer ring of the group of guards sat a bald man, wide and squat like a toad with stubble. He wore a Sergeant’s tunic over a shirt with no collar—but white, barbed chains were tattooed about his neck, like the chains of a seven-year Penitent. He heaved himself to his feet with a […]
“Fucking hell–” I jumped back a pace, and a too-sharp knife hissed in the air, nearly opening me up like a pig. “Easy! I didn’t lay a hand on your fucking wee prince!” How does she know? What kind of fucking witch– “Then who are you? And why do you have his sword?” Oh. “That’s […]
Scarlet soldiers in the square behind her were moving in our direction, led by one of the Inquisitor’s white riders. I couldn’t pick out the stupid shape of Sergeant Cooper without risking a closer look, but in the corner of my eye, the Inquisitor’s white shape drifted away out of sight, taking with him that […]
Steel sang back and forth, hissing over leather with each stroke, up and down. Broth rumbled and cast iron grated on the far side of the wall while I stood staring at steam rising from a basin of hot water, passing a long razor back and forth along its strop. The air was thick with […]
Caer Lunan was not a large town. It clustered up against a narrow ridge, nearly all its wee houses built with their backs to the slope. Among them, one central house stood out, and behind it, smaller but taller, a chapel with the Church’s star nailed atop its belltower. We crouched near the edge of […]
The Inquisitor was shaped like a man. A thin, unremarkable man in the Scarlet, a long fork-tailed coat of black and grey over his shoulders. But I’d never met a man I hated more, not even Finn, and I knew every inch of Finn. Just like before, seeing him made me want to kill him, […]
The guard by the door sat at attention for a long while, visible only as a shape in scarlet and a face lit in flashes by the torch between us. Iron bars on the floor dug into my legs, and I became quite aware that my little encounter with the Inquisitor had left me drenched […]
“For fuck’s sake,” I lowered my stick. “You’re not trying to strangle it. Ease up on the damn thing until you’re going to hit me with it.” Eris looked down at her hands, tried to adjust the grip, failed. “I keep feeling like I’m going to drop it.” “Then don’t drop it.” Eris tried to tag me with […]
The wind rustled in the pines behind the inn. The stars were coming out fast, a winter night falling cold on the hilltop.
BLANK SLATE SERIAL 