Take the body and give me the rest Read Online Free

if it’s
good news, let’s share it out to the whole tavern,’ he said.
    Seth still faced Dean but raised his voice loud so the quiet
room of two dozen or
so people could hear him as well. The General had had no fear of
speaking to large groups or indeed telling them what to
do.
    ‘Father, we
have arrived safely after two months at sea. We’re all hale and
whole. Derrick has started work with his uncle and is doing well.
I’m with child and it’s healthy. A wise woman said it would be a
girl. We’ll name her for mother. Love, your Laurine.’
    At the end of
his short reading, people clapped and cheered as if watching a
stage performance of magical skill.
    ‘Short but well
received,’ said Seth.
    ‘Most scribes
charge by the letter and my daughter isn’t heavy with coin, but I
know she’s well and that’s all a father needs. Thanks, Master Seth,
and I’ll get you a plate,’ he said.
    The music had
started again and the singer gave the crowd a soulful melody about
a failed young romance. A serving girl, who was very tall, with
blond hair but who sadly took after Dean a little too much in
looks, slid a metal plate of food in front of Seth and smiled at
him as she put it down.
    The smell of actual real food, the first in days, was like
bliss. It was a simple plate of a few roasted vegetables and a
small cut of
fatty roasted mutton. He cut into it with the knife and fork the
girl had provided and fed the hot meat into his almost watering
mouth. As he swallowed it and the next Seth started to feel more
and more like a man. Maybe he could forget what had happened with
the General and just go on with life. He’d been given some strange
and wonderful gifts from the creature, but now he would flee the
city and simply live his life. He could be so much more than ever
before, but he didn’t want to become a man like the General,
killing helpless people to gain what they had. He could read, write
and, he knew, how to fight with a rapier and dagger in the Cravosi style. He would
make his way in the world and just pretend it was a strange
visitation from a passing god.

Chapter 4
    The steward
walked into the ornate room with a serious expression which
suddenly deepened into a frown when he cast his eyes across the
bloody armour and viscera on the floor. Looking at the broken metal
cuffs, it was clear that the slave had escaped and that maybe he’d
done something horrible to the General. The remains of his leather
armour looked like they’d been devoured by a pack of hungry dogs,
even his fine boots had been ripped open and lay torn in half
covered in blood. He started shouting until a man-at-arms ran into
the room. The guard was equally stunned at the bloody wreckage. The
steward spoke to him.
    ‘Go fetch Lady
Seraphina from her rooms, now!’ he said.
    The
man-at-arms, who was turning paper white, turned and fled from the
room.
    Shortly, with
the sound of clicking heels on the polished floors, a beautiful
young lady with long, flowing blond hair and very refined features
walked calmly into the room and cast her blue-eyed gaze on the
bloody ruin of her Uncle Stephan’s body. To the glance, she would
have seemed around twenty name days but looking at the seriousness
and depth of her eyes one could see she was really much older.
    She spoke to
the young man next to her, who’d also come with her into the
room.
    ‘I’m sorry this
has happened to your father, Dirst,’ she said in a gentle and
polished voice.
    Dirst looked
like a fairly typical general’s son: stiff posture, moustache and
exuding deadly intent. ‘It’s a dangerous trick and we know the
risks. I would like to know what happened though. It was hardly
Father’s first time through the breach,’ he said without much
emotion.
    Seraphina
reached with small white hands into the pocket of her elaborate
riding jacket and brought out a fine pair of gold-rimmed reading
glasses. She held them up to her lips and whispered some words of
incantation over them. Then,