The Iron Ghost
Authors: Jen Williams
Copyright © 2015 Jen Williams
The right of Jen Williams to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.
First published as an Ebook by Headline Publishing Group in 2015
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library
eISBN: 978 1 4722 1118 7
Cover images © Hein Nouwens, DM7, Cindi L and DarkGeometry Studios, all at
Shutterstock.com
HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP
An Hachette UK Company
338 Euston Road
London NW1 3BH
Contents
Part Four: In the City of the Dead
Discover where the journey began . . .
JEN WILLIAMS lives in London with her partner and her cat. She started writing about pirates and dragons as a young girl and has never stopped. Her short stories have featured in numerous anthologies.
The Iron Ghost
is her second novel, and the follow-up to her widely-praised debut,
The Copper Promise
.
Beware the dawning of a new mage . . .
Wydrin of Crosshaven, Sir Sebastian and Lord Aaron Frith are experienced in the perils of stirring up the old gods. They are also familiar with defeating them, and the heroes of Baneswatch are now enjoying the perks of suddenly being very much in demand for their services.
When a job comes up in the distant city of Skaldshollow, it looks like easy coin – retrieve a stolen item, admire the views, get paid. But in a place twisted and haunted by ancient magic, with the most infamous mage of them all, Joah Demonsworn, making a reappearance, our heroes soon find themselves threatened by enemies on all sides, old and new. And in the frozen mountains, the stones are walking . . .
The Copper Promise
The Iron Ghost
Short Story
Sorrow’s Isle
The Copper Promise
:
‘
The Copper Promise
is dark, often bloody, frequently frightening, but there’s also bucket loads of camaraderie, sarcasm, and an unashamed love of fantasy and the fantastic’ Den Patrick, author of
The Boy with the Porcelain Blade
‘A fresh take on classic tropes, this debut novel of dragons, lost magic and dungeon adventure is 21
st
century fantasy at its best’
SFX
magazine
‘
The Copper Promise
is near-perfect fantasy-adventure fun and a breath of fresh air in a genre choking on its own grittiness. Read it and remind yourself what made you fall in love with fantasy books’
Starburst Magazine
‘A gripping, fast-paced adventure that’s a must-read’
SciFiNow
‘
The Copper Promise
is an excellent book, stuffed with all the ingredients of sword and sorcery mixed to a fresh new recipe. It’s a shamelessly good old-fashioned blood-and-thunder tale, heroic fantasy the way it’s meant to be’ Joanne Hall,
www.hierath.wordpress.com
‘Williams’ vivid imagination and worldbuilding will take her far, along with a real talent for dialogue’ Glen Mehn,
www.glen.mehn.net
‘The characterisation is second to none, and there are some great new innovations and interesting reworkings of old tropes . . . This book may have been based on the promise of copper but it delivers gold’
www.quicksilverreads.wordpress.com
‘It is a
killer
of a fantasy novel that is indicative of how the classic genre of sword and sorcery is not only still very much alive, but also still the best the genre has to offer’
www.leocristea.wordpress.com
‘If there was one word I'd use to describe
The Copper Promise
, it would be “joyful”’
www.graemesff.blogspot.co.uk
‘Fast-paced and wonderfully-realised, Jen Williams’ first novel is a delight. The reader will encounter pirates, dragons, zombies, gods and demons, to name but a few, on their journey through this exciting new world’
www.readerdad.co.uk
‘Each page is a wild ride into the unknown and follows a cast of characters that you will root for from start to finish. An immensely enjoyable debut’
www.sleeplessmusingsofawellgroomedmoustachedman.wordpress.com
‘A wonderful sword and sorcery novel with some very memorable characters and a dragon to boot. If you enjoy full-throttle action, awesome monsters, and fun, snarky dialogues then
The Copper Promise
is definitely a story you won’t want to miss’
www.afantasticallibrarian.com
‘
The Copper Promise
is such a gem . . . the kind of story that got me reading fantasy in the first place and I honestly believe this will one day be looked on as a classic of the genre’
www.ebookwyrm.blogspot.co.uk
For Marty, with love.
Heart of Stone
1
It was Siano’s turn to walk the sky-chain.
She touched the tips of her fingers to the pitted rock of the cliff face behind her, taking satisfaction in its familiar solidity. Below her the tiny province of Apua crowded within its crevasse, the stacked red bricks of the monasteries fighting for space, and on the far side, the twin to the cliff she now perched on sat like a thick bank of storm cloud. Between the two cliffs hung the greatest of the sky-chains; the sky-chain for the Walk of Accuracy.
The chain itself was a wonder, each link a foot wide, and made of gold. Or at least, that was what Father Tallow said, although personally, Siano suspected the gold was only a covering and, underneath, the chain was made of something a little more reassuring. It stretched away from her and dwindled to a fine golden line high above even the tallest of the monasteries, until it met the far wall. Beneath it, Apua was teeming with people going about their daily lives, but you could be sure that there would always be a few pairs of eyes looking up, because you never knew when someone might attempt to walk a sky-chain. You never knew when someone might fall.
Siano had walked all three chains more times than she could count.
She stepped out from the small platform built into the rock and placed her foot on the first great link, testing its strength, feeling the soft thrum as the wind pushed against it, and the slower, more gentle rocking underneath that. She had taken her boots off and her bare foot looked warm and brown against the sun-bright gold.
‘Are you going to take all day, Siano?’ came a voice from behind her. She glanced back to see Leena grinning at her, nervous energy making her step from foot to foot. She was another of Father Tallow’s pupils, but she had yet to walk a single sky-chain or take a single life. Siano pitied her.
‘Please.’ Siano stepped fully onto the chain, the drop yawning away beneath her feet, and sketched a brief bow. ‘If you have finally gathered your courage, you are more than welcome to go first.’
She watched a grimace spasm across Leena’s face.
‘Just get on with it.’
Siano smiled and turned back to the chain in front of her. To either side the other sky-chains stretched into the distance: black iron for the Walk of Silence, blistered lead for the Walk of Secrecy. Taking a deep breath, she let herself feel the weight of her own body and its place in the universe. She let herself feel the texture of the link under her feet, warm and rough and solid. And then she walked.
I’m the best there is. Leena knows it, and Father Tallow knows it
. She held her hands out to either side, feeling the wind beginning to push at her now she was out from under the shelter of the cliff face.
I will be a weapon to turn the fate of the world.
There were shouts from below, although whether they came from observers of her walk or just people going about their general noisy lives, she couldn’t tell. Her eyes wandered to the tall segmented building that lay on the far side of the chain, directly under its path; the House of Patience, its broad, red bricks painted with rich images of dragons, birds and women. Some people believed that places such as the House of Patience should be hidden from view, that they should be disguised as more wholesome establishments, but Apua was famous for the profession. Why hide it? For a little while, she forgot entirely about the golden links and the deadly drop inches from her feet. In there, right now, Father Tallow would be teaching his children all the ways of Patience, and none of them would be quite as skilled as Siano.