Gravedigger 01 - Sea Of Ghosts Read Online Free Page A

my empire unguarded while I hunt the seabed for little green bottles.’
    A nervous laugh swept through the crowd.
    Sister Marks only smiled. ‘Without the Haurstaf,’ she said carefully, ‘you would not have an empire to guard.’
    Hu was turning red. ‘I could afford a hundred dredgers for what you charge for your services,’ he said through his teeth. ‘If you would only kill the last of the Unmer and take your witches back to Awl, I would have the resources with which to search the seas.’
    ‘ Kill the Unmer?’ Marks said in affected tones. ‘But that would be wrong.’
    He glared at her.
    ‘If you’re not happy with our little arrangement,’ she said. ‘We’ll gladly leave you to deal with the Unmer yourselves. After all, we do have other clients.’
    Granger noted a sharp intake of breath from a few of the assembled guests. One of the warlords’ men chuckled. The witch simply regarded Hu with a vague air of contempt. No ordinary telepath, this one. Few Haurstaf would have been so arrogant as to humiliate the emperor in his own hall.
    Hu’s expression darkened. ‘Warlords and privateers,’ he growled. He flashed a look at the representatives of these same men, before his attention settled on Granger. ‘What is wrong with you?’
    ‘A minor injury, Emperor,’ Granger replied.
    ‘Did I give you permission to speak?’
    Granger looked at him coldly. Evidently the witch wasn’t the only one who needed a lesson in diplomacy. ‘You addressed the hall, Emperor,’ he said. ‘And I was the logical person to answer your question.’ From the corner of his eye, he saw Banks cringe.
    Hu glared at him. ‘I know you, don’t I?’
    ‘Colonel Granger, Emperor.’
    A knowing smirk came to the emperor’s lips. ‘Weaverbrook,’ he said. ‘1432. You’re one of the Gravediggers.’
    Granger nodded.
    ‘Weaverbrook 1432,’ Hu said. ‘The largest loss of Imperial troops in my whole campaign.’
    ‘I believe it was the second-largest loss, Emperor.’
    Hu snorted a laugh. ‘Is that so? For a man who spent more time digging holes for his dead comrades than actually fighting, you don’t sound particularly remorseful, Colonel.’
    ‘My men fought bravely,’ Granger replied. He could see Banks shaking his head urgently, Swan and Tummel shifting uncomfortably. They didn’t want Granger to say what he was about to say. But he said it anyway. ‘We took the villages and the outlying farms, as ordered. We secured the peninsula to Coomb, as ordered. We arranged an armistice, and I delivered your terms to the Evensraum Council myself. My men were jubilant but exhausted, and I regret we were ill equipped to withstand the naval bombardment you ordered on our position, Emperor.’
    Silence filled the hall, only to be broken a moment later by a laugh from the Haurstaf witch.
    ‘Forgive me, Colonel,’ Banks said, ‘but why did you have to open your goddamned mouth?’
    They were walking along a corridor in the City Fortress. Gem lanterns hung from the rafters, but they were ancient and provided scant illumination in this gloom. Moonlight filtered through a line of small grimy windows that overlooked the Naval Dockyards and the dragon cannery. Even from here, Granger could hear the pounding of the factory machines and smell the blood and salt.
    ‘Did you not see the warlords’ men?’
    Granger marched ahead.
    Banks went on, ‘You might as well as commented on the size of the emperor’s cock.’
    Granger’s boots splashed through a puddle. The floor above held tanks of Mare Lux brine to accommodate sharkskin prisoners of war for experimentation, but the old vats leaked constantly, sending trickles of toxic seawater down through the fabric of the building. Damp stained the corridor walls. Chocolate-coloured ichusan crystals had already begun to form in places.
    ‘Actually,’ Banks said, ‘it might have been less of a problem if you had —’
    ‘That’s enough,’ Granger said.
    Banks blew between his teeth.