The Blade Itself (61 page)

I understand. A posting to a city surrounded by enemies and riddled with traitors, where one Superior has already mysteriously disappeared. Closer to a knife in the back than a promotion, but we must work with the tools we have.
“I understand, Arch Lector.”

“Good. Keep me well informed. I want to be swamped by your letters.”

“Of course.”

“You have two Practicals, correct?”

“Yes, your Eminence, Frost and Severard, both very—”

“Not nearly enough! You won’t be able to trust anyone down there, not even the Inquisition.” Sult seemed to think about that for a moment. “Especially the Inquisition. I have picked out a half dozen others whose skills are proven, including Practical Vitari.”

That woman, watching over my shoulder?
“But, Arch Lector—”

“Don’t ‘but’ me, Glokta!” hissed Sult. “Don’t you dare ‘but’ me, not today! You’re not half as crippled as you could be! Not half as crippled, you understand?”

Glokta bowed his head. “I apologise.”

“You’re thinking, aren’t you? I can see the cogs turning. Thinking you don’t want one of Goyle’s people getting in the way? Well, before she worked for him she worked for me. A Styrian, from Sipano. Cold as the snow, those people, and she’s the coldest of them, I can tell you. So you needn’t worry. Not about Goyle, anyway”
No. Only about you, which is far worse.

“I will be honoured to have her along.”
I will be damned careful.

“Be as honoured as you damn well please, just don’t let me down! Make a mess of this and you’ll need more than that piece of paper to save you. A ship is waiting at the docks. Leave. Now.”

“Of course, your Eminence.”

Sult turned away and strode over to the window. Glokta quietly got up, quietly slid his chair under the table, quietly shuffled across the room. The Arch Lector was still standing, hands clasped behind him, as Glokta ever so carefully pulled the doors to. It was not until they clicked shut that he realised he had been holding his breath.

“How’d it go?”

Glokta turned round sharply, his neck giving a painful click.

Strange, how I never learn not to do that.
Practical Vitari was still flopped in her chair, looking up at him with tired eyes. She did not seem to have moved the whole time he was inside.
How did it go?
He ran his tongue around his mouth, over his empty gums, thinking about it.
That remains to be seen.
“Interesting,” he said in the end. “I am going to Dagoska.”

“So I hear.” The woman did indeed have an accent, now he thought about it.
A slight whiff of the Free Cities.

“I understand you’re coming with me.”

“I understand I am.” But she did not move.

“We are in something of a hurry.”

“I know.” She held out her hand. “Could you help me up?”

Glokta raised his eyebrows.
I wonder when I was last asked that question?
He had half a mind to say no, but in the end he held his hand out, if only for the novelty. Her fingers closed round it, started to pull. Her eyes were narrowed, he could hear her breath hissing as she unfolded herself slowly from the chair. It hurt, having her pull on him like that, in his arm, in his back.
But it hurts her more.
Behind her mask, he was pretty sure, her teeth were gritted with pain. She moved her limbs one at a time, cautiously, not sure what would hurt and how much. Glokta had to smile.
A routine I go through myself every morning. Strangely invigorating, to see someone else doing it.

Eventually she was standing, her bandaged hand clutched against her ribs. “You able to walk?” asked Glokta.

“I’ll loosen up.”

“What happened? Dogs?”

She gave a bark of laughter. “No. A big Northman knocked the shit out of me.”

Glokta snorted.
Well, forthright at least.
“Shall we go?”

She looked down at his cane. “Don’t suppose you’ve got one of those spare, have you?”

“I’m afraid not. I only have the one, and I can’t walk without it.”

“I know how you feel.”

Not quite.
Glokta turned and began to limp away from the Arch Lector’s office.
Not quite.
He could hear the woman hobbling along behind.
Strangely invigorating to have someone trying to keep up with me.
He upped the pace, and it hurt him.
But it hurts her more.

Back to the South, then.
He licked at his empty gums.
Hardly a place of happy memories. To fight the Gurkish, after what it cost me last time. To root out disloyalty in a city where no one can be trusted, especially those sent to help me. To struggle in the heat and the dust, at a thankless task almost certain to end in failure. And failure, more than likely, will mean death.

He felt his cheek twitch, his eyelid flicker.
At the hands of the Gurkish? At the hands of plotters against the crown? At the hands of his Eminence, or his agents? Or simply to vanish, as my predecessor did? Has one man ever had such a range of deaths to choose from?
The corner of his mouth twitched up.
I can hardly wait to get started.

That same question came into his head, over and over, and he still had no answer.

Why do I do this?

Why?

Acknowledgments

Four people without whom…

Bren Abercrombie, whose eyes are sore from reading it

Nick Abercrombie, whose ears are sore from hearing about it

Rob Abercrombie, whose fingers are sore from turning the pages

Lou Abercrombie, whose arms are sore from holding me up

And also…

Matthew Amos, for solid advice at a shaky time

Gillian Redfearn, who read past the beginning and made me change it

Simon Spanton, who bought it before he got to the end

Copyright © Joe Abercrombie 2006
All rights reserved

The right of Joe Abercrombie to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in Great Britain in 2006 by Gollancz

An imprint of the Orion Publishing Group Orion House, 5 Upper St Martin’s Lane, London WC2H 9EA

An Hachette Livre UK Company

This edition published in Great Britain in 2007 by Gollancz

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 0 57507 979 3

7 9 10 8

Typeset by Deltatype Ltd, Birkenhead, Merseyside

Printed in Great Britain by Mackays of Chatham plc, Chatham, Kent

The Orion Publishing Group’s policy is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products and made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

www.orionbooks.co.uk

Table of Contents

The End

PART I

The Survivors

Questions

No Choice at All

Playing With Knives

Teeth and Fingers

The Wide and Barren North

Fencing Practice

The Morning Ritual

First of the Magi

The Good Man

On the List

An Offer and a Gift

The King of the Northmen

A Road Between Two Dentists

Flatheads

The Course of True Love

How Dogs are Trained

Tea and Vengeance

PART II

What Freedom Looks Like

The King’s Justice

Means of Escape

Three Signs

The Theatrical Outfitter’s

Barbarians at the Gate

Next

Better than Death

Sore Thumb

Questions

Nobility

Dark Work

Words and Dust

The Remarkable Talents of Brother Longfoot

Her Kind Fight Everything

She Loves Me… Not

The Seed

Never Bet Against a Magus

The Ideal Audience

The House of the Maker

Nobody’s Dog

Each Man Worships Himself

Old Friends

Back to the Mud

Misery

The Bloody-Nine

The Tools we Have

Acknowledgments