The Blue Mountain (The Forbidden List Book 2) (29 page)

His teeth chattered. He was so cold. Colder than any winter he had experienced. The numbness was receding, pain replaced it. He tried not to cry out. Failed.

“You will be fine,” a woman’s voice said from the grey mist.

“W...w... what h... happened?” Haung said.

“The
Fang-Shi
betrayed us,” she said. “It was worse here, close to Master Shen. The soldiers are dealing with the rest.”

“Shen?” The pain was lessening.

“Is dead,” the woman said.

The veil of grey mist dissolved and he could see again. Xióngmāo leaned over him, watching him. All around, others were stirring, suffering through their own version of his reawakening. Curses flew.

“The general,” he asked.

“I am sorry,” Xióngmāo said. “He was old. The cold took too much out of him. There was nothing I could do. He is dead.”

Haung sat up and looked around. The general was lying on the stone rampart, his eyes were closed and he looked peaceful. Master Shen did not. His chest and throat were bloody mess. A series of parallel gashes cut through his robe and deep into the flesh. Death had likely been painful, but mercifully quick.

“Mongols?”

“Have pulled back for now,” Xióngmāo looked away. “They have their prize for the day.”

“What?” Haung asked.

“They have taken Zhou.” She turned back to him and he could see the tears in her eyes.

“Well, Haung,” Gang’s grumble came through last of the mists, “looks like you got another promotion.”

Haung staggered over to the wall to see the last of the Mongols returning to their formations. The horde was massive. So many, it was impossible to count. Despite all their losses they looked undiminished. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Enlai’s face, still a little pale, smiling at him.

“Your orders, General?”

G R Matthews began reading in the cot. His mother, at her wits end with the constant noise and unceasing activity, would plop him down on the soft mattress with an encyclopaedia full of pictures then quietly slip from the room. His father, ever the pragmatist, declared, that they should, "throw the noisy bugger out of the window." Happily, this event never came to pass (or if it did, he bounced well). Growing up, he spent Sunday afternoons on the sofa watching westerns and Bond movies with the self-same parent who had once wished to defenestrate him. When not watching the six-gun heroes or spies being out-acted by their own eyebrows, he devoured books like a hungry wolf in the dead of winter. Beginning with Patrick Moore and Arthur C Clarke he soon moved on to Isaac Asimov. However, one wet afternoon in a book shop in his home town, not far from the standing stones of Avebury, he came across a book by David Eddings - and soon Sci-Fi gave way to Fantasy. Many years later, G R Matthews finally realised a dream and published his own fantasy novel, The Stone Road, in the hopes that other hungry wolves out there would find a hearty meal. You can follow him on twitter @G_R_Matthews or visit his website at www.grmatthews.com

There it is, Book 2 of the series done and in your hands, through your eyes and into your brain and heart. I hope that you enjoyed it. I hope that you buy the next one too. And now my Oscar’s acceptance speech of thanks (I promise not to cry).

Thanks for this one go to my family, immediate and extended, for their patience, irritation and their un-ending ability to put up with me. I wouldn’t be who am I, or do what I do, without their help, assistance and tolerance.

Thanks also to Sarah Chorn, for letting me post a review on her website; Bookworm Blues (
http://www.bookwormblues.net
) and for letting me have some longer articles posted on her exceptional column; Special Needs in Strange worlds on
www.SFsignal.com
, (
http://bit.ly/1t1tpM6
). Thanks to Bob Milne for interviewing me for his wonderful website (
http://beauty-in-ruins.blogspot.co.uk
).

I’d like to thank Brian Collins for the support, encouragement, feedback and for beta-reading the book!

Thanks wing their way across the sea to T O Munro (
http://tomunro.blogspot.co.uk/
), as they did last time, for the encouragement and the chance to talk about writing, also, for checking and suggesting improvements. Alongside those, thanks should go also to Mark Lawrence (
http://www.marklawrence.buzz/
) for firstly, referring to me as an author (you have no idea how much those simple words meant) and secondly, for suggesting improvements to the cover of this book. However, it is worth noting that this book is not about coffee.

The cover (both paperback and Kindle versions) were prepared in timely fashion and without any moaning at my constant desire for changes by James over at HumbleNations (
http://www.goonwrite.com/
). He also did the cover for The Stone Road (book 1) and the last book in the series, The Red Plains (book 3).

Thank you to A F Matthews for being long suffering, calm, wise and supportive.

Thanks, of course, to Marc Aplin and Jennie Ivins for allowing me to waffle on about books, writing and other stuff at
http://fantasy-faction.com/
. And thank you for reading it – if you do. Just in case you do not, go there now. It is a fantastic website full of fantasy related information and news!