Take the Darkness...: Epic Fantasy Series Read Online Free Page B

Duchess, slowly marching up the field towards the Keep.
    ‘Why tell my men, Seth is getting reinforcements: he’s dead, clearly.’
    Grimm grabbed the man’s shirtfront and pushed his own face close to the older soldier’s. ‘He’s not dead, he is getting reinforcements, so get control of your men and do your fucking job,’ he snarled.
    ‘What reinforcements is he getting, then? And when will they be here?’ Dagosh asked back.
    ‘He’s taken all the gold we got from Rosen and he’s gone to recruit mercenaries. I think he mentioned the Red Bastards.’
    Goldie, Flint, Stone and himself had already devised this plan, and Goldie and the twins were now riding hard to try and do just what Grimm had claimed Seth was working on. They had slipped out of a secret passage Elizebetha had shown them and were now making haste to Pellota.
    ‘Why didn’t he tell me?’ Dagosh demanded.
    It was a bad plan anyway, both men understood without giving the thought voice. The Red Bastards were not a mercenary troop Grimm would trust, but at least he knew they were probably located nearby. They tended to follow around armies like the Duke’s, just waiting to see which side of the fight would end up offering them something to join, or else looting the battlefield afterwards. They were more thieves than fighters. Grimm answered vaguely, not caring to discuss intentions or ill-planning. ‘I don’t know – bring it up with him when you see him next. Now, tell me about this.’ He said, pointing at the Duchess’s assembled army, glittering in the sunlight with rays of sun shining off of spears and polished armour.
    ‘They are out of arrow and scorpion shot, but close enough to show us their intentions. Clearly, they intend to attack at darkness and try to climb the walls,’ Dagosh said, focusing on the task at hand.
    ‘Do we have enough men to defend this place?’ Grimm asked.
    ‘We will have for a few days; we’ve got almost 300 men, so we’ll do a good job of holding the walls, but we’ll need to start preparing for fire arrows and all sorts.’
    ‘How many days before we’re fucked?’ Grimm asked.
    ‘We’ll be dead to the man in three days unless we get some sort of help,’ Dagosh replied sadly, his grand adventure fading before him.
    Grimm just hoped that Goldie and the boys could muster something up in time. It was at least a day’s hard ride to Pellota, and who knew if the Red Bastards were even in the country.
     
    The Duchess of Twin Plains sat in her husband’s leather-bound command chair, drinking fresh blood from a pewter goblet like it was fine wine. The body of one of her least favourite levies was slumped on the floor of the tent, a large cut bleeding from his neck as two of her more loyal guards bled the skinny boy’s life blood into one container after another. Soon he was dry and they had a few bowls and mugs filled with the precious blood. If they felt any distaste towards their current duties, it didn’t show on their stern cold faces. They had the same look as most of the Guild, younger and stronger than their years and a deadness to their eyes. Not that she remembered, but they had been two of the hundreds at the desert massacre and the two men thought nothing of this chore. The boy they’d killed was a nobody, some little farmer’s boy recruited to the levies, not likely to be missed, and easily counted into the coming battle.
    As the warm blood swirled in her mouth, she felt able to think more clearly and the hunger she felt was starting to fade. It was such an irritation to have to do this and her husband was right that she wasn’t ready to call him back yet. She’d let the rift close back on his howling and clawing form, and resigned herself to doing it properly in a few days time, with the bitch Elizebetha on her knees as the first one to be sacrificed. Wiping the blood from her lips, she straightened her clothes and stood up. She needed to address the men. They had been told that the