Read Forge of Darkness (Kharkanas Trilogy 1) for Free Online

done.’
    ‘Grudging admission,’ Ville commented. ‘Thought I heard something split inside you, saying that, Galak.’
    ‘Uniforms and hard-heeled boots. I admit I wasn’t much impressed by these house-dwellers.’
    ‘Just a different way,’ said Rint. ‘Not better, not worse, just different.’
    ‘Back in the day, when there were still boars in the wood—’
    ‘When there was still a wood,’ Ville cut in.
    Galak went on. ‘The grand hunts had beaters and dogs. In a square of trees you’d need less than three bells to ride around. As if the boar had anywhere to go. As if it wasn’t just minding its own business, tryin’ to smell out a mate or whatever.’
    ‘Your point?’ Rint asked, laconic as ever.
    ‘You’re saying no better or worse just different. I’m saying you’re being generous, maybe even false. You want to cut the carpet for them to walk on, you go ahead. I’ve watched a tereth come down to drink from a stream, in the steam of dawn, and the tears went silent down my face, because it was the last one for leagues round. No mate for it, just a lonely life and a lonelier death, even as the trees kept crashing down.’
    Feren cleared her throat, still studying the boy who was now walking, the horse heeling like a faithful hound, and said, ‘The ways of war leave a wasteland. We’ve seen it on the border, no different here. The heat sweeps in like a peat fire. No one notices. Not until it’s too late. And then, why, there’s nowhere to run.’
    The gate sergeant was limping as he led his charges back towards the house.
    ‘So she took a lover,’ Galak said in a growl, not needing to add
so what?
    ‘The sorcery surrounding her is said to be impenetrable now,’ Rint mused. ‘Proof against all light. It surrounds her wherever she goes. We have a queen no one can see any more, except for Draconus, I suppose.’
    ‘Why suppose that, even?’ Galak demanded.
    Feren snorted, and the others joined in with low, dry laughter, even Galak.
    A moment later, Feren sobered. ‘The boy is a ruin of anxiety, and is it any wonder? From what I heard, until this day, his own father was as invisible to his son as his new lover now chooses to be in her Citadel.’
    ‘No sense to be made of that,’ Galak said, shaking his head.
    Feren glanced across at him, surprised. ‘Perfect sense,’ she replied. ‘He’s punishing the boy’s mother.’
    Brows lifting, her brother asked, ‘Do you know who she is?’
    ‘I know who she isn’t, and that’s more than enough.’
    ‘Now you’ve lost me,’ Ville said, his expression wry.
    ‘Galak’s tereth, Ville, lapping water at the stream as the day is born. But the day isn’t born at all, not for her. You know she’s doomed, you know it’s finished for the sweet-eyed doe. Who killed her mate? With arrow or snare? Someone did.’
    ‘And if that killer writhes in the arms of Chaos for all eternity,’ Galak hissed, ‘it’ll only be what’s deserved.’
    Ville was now scowling. ‘That’s rich, Galak. We hunt every few days. We kill when we have to, to stay alive. No different from a hawk or a wolf.’
    ‘But we’re different from hawks and wolves, Ville. We can actually figure out the consequences of what we do, and that makes us … oh, I don’t know the word …’
    ‘Culpable?’ Rint suggested.
    ‘Yes, that’s the word all right.’
    ‘Rely not upon conscience,’ Feren said, hearing the bitterness in her own voice and not caring. ‘It ever kneels to necessity.’
    ‘And necessity is often a lie,’ Rint added, nodding.
    Feren’s eyes were now on the churned-up turf and mud of the practice field. Insects spun and danced over the small pools left by hoofs as the light slowly failed. From the coppiced stand behind them came evening birdsong, sounding strangely plaintive. She felt slightly sick.
    ‘Impenetrable darkness, you said?’ Ville said. He shook his head. ‘’Tis a strange thing to do.’
    ‘Why not,’ Feren heard herself say,