Peter Brett - The Skull Throne

The magic flared

Creator’s gift

The one force demons abhor!

Some will tell you

Only the sun

Can bring a rock demon harm

That night I learned

It could be done

As did the demon One Arm!

The last words struck Rojer, and suddenly he realized why the tale was so familiar. How many times had Arlen told of the one-armed rock demon that pursued him for years after he cut its arm off as a boy? What were the odds this tale happened twice on the road to Miln?

Keerin ended with a flourish, and there was applause throughout the drawing room, but the sound was noticeably absent from Jasin’s corner, and the duke’s circle.

Rojer’s claps were loud and slow, designed to echo off the room’s high-vaulted ceiling. They continued when the rest of the applause had died away, drawing all eyes to him.

“A fine tale,” Rojer congratulated loudly. “Though I knew a man who told it differently.”

“Oh?” Keerin asked imperiously, knowing a challenge when he heard it. “And who might that be?”

“Arlen Bales,” Rojer said, and there was chatter throughout the room at the name.

He looked at Keerin with mock incredulity as the color drained from the man’s face. “You realize, of course, that the boy in your song grew to be none other than the Warded Man, himself?”

“Don’t remember a Jongleur in that story,” Gared said, and there was more chatter at that. “You want to hear a true story?” He slapped Rojer on the back, knocking him forward a step. “Rojer, play The Battle of Cutter’s Hollow !”

Thamos put his face in his hand. Rojer turned, bowing to Rhinebeck as Keerin had. “Your Grace, I need not …”

“It’s already being played in every alehouse from here to Miln,” Rhinebeck said with a wave. “Might as well hear it from the source.”

Rojer swallowed, but he took out his fiddle and began to play.

Cutter’s Hollow lost its center

When the flux came to stay

Killed great Herb Gatherer Bruna

Her ’prentice far away

Not a one would run and hide,

They all did stand and follow

Killing demons in the night

The Warded Man came to the Hollow

In Fort Angiers far to the north

Leesha got ill tiding

Her mentor dead, her father sick

Hollow a week’s riding

Not a one would run and hide,

They all did stand and follow

Killing demons in the night

The Warded Man came to the Hollow

No guide she found through naked night

Just Jongleur travel wards

That could not hold the bandits back

As it did coreling hordes

Not a one would run and hide,

They all did stand and follow

Killing demons in the night

The Warded Man came to the Hollow

Left for dead no horse or succor

Corelings roving in bands

They met a man with tattooed flesh

Killed demons with bare hands

Not a one would run and hide,

They all did stand and follow

Killing demons in the night

The Warded Man came to the Hollow

The Hollow razed when they arrived

Not a ward left intact

And half the folk who called it home

Lay dead or on their backs

Not a one would run and hide,

They all did stand and follow

Killing demons in the night

The Warded Man came to the Hollow

Warded Man spat on despair

Said follow me and fight

We’ll see the dawn if we all stand

Side by side in the night

Not a one would run and hide,

They all did stand and follow

Killing demons in the night

The Warded Man came to the Hollow

All night they fought with axe and spear

Butcher’s knife and shield

While Leesha brought those too weak to

The Holy House to heal

Not a one would run and hide,

They all did stand and follow

Killing demons in the night

The Warded Man came to the Hollow

Hollowers kept their loved ones safe

Though night was long and hard

There’s reason why the battlefield’s

Called the Corelings’ Graveyard

Not a one would run and hide,

They all did stand and follow

Killing demons in the night

The Warded Man came to the Hollow

If someone asks why at sunset

Demons all get shivers

Hollowers say with honest word

It’s ’cuz we’re all Deliverers

Not a one would run and hide,

They all did stand and follow

Killing demons in the night

The Warded Man came to the Hollow

Keerin seemed to shrink as the song went on. Gared roared the refrain along with Rojer, and others in the room took up the song. By the end, the Milnese herald’s haughty look was gone.

The applause was louder at the end of Rojer’s song, with Gared leading the crowd with piercing whistles and his booming claps and cheers. Thamos joined him, and even his brothers clapped politely, save for Shepherd Pether, who merely sipped his wine.

But from Jasin’s corner, there was silence until the rest died down, and then he, too, began a slow clap, walking toward the center of the room.

“Your Grace—” he began.

“Not now, Jasin,” Rhinebeck cut him off with a wave. “I think we’ve had enough of singing for one night.”

Jasin’s jaw dropped, and Rojer flashed him a smile. “Not even Thirdsong tonight, ay? Perhaps we’ll call you Jasin Nosong from now on.” Before the herald could react, Rojer turned his back and rejoined the duke’s entourage.

“And where is this Warded Man ?” Pether’s mouth was a tight line. Not surprising, since Arlen Bales represented a direct challenge to his authority. Should Arlen be acknowledged openly as Deliverer, Pether’s position as the head of the church in Angiers would be effectively meaningless.

“Over a cliff with the demon of the desert, as I told you all in my letters,” Thamos said immediately. “I was there, and have not heard credible tale of any seeing him since.”

“He’ll be back,” Gared said, oblivious to the look Thamos shot him, or the way Pether’s lips soured. “Sure as the sun rises.”

“You believe he is the Deliverer, then?” Pether demanded.

All around them, other conversations died as everyone in the room waited on Gared’s response. Even Gared picked up on it, realizing that the entire relationship between Hollow County and Angiers might hinge on his response.

“Was for me and mine,” Gared said at last. “Can’t deny the world’s changing, and it started with him.” He looked up, meeting Pether’s eyes with an intensity that broke even the Shepherd’s glare. “But I know Arlen Bales. He dun’t want a throne. Dun’t want to tell folk how to live their lives. All Arlen Bales cares about is killing demons, and that’s something every one of us ought to be able to get behind.”

“Hear hear!” Thamos said loudly, raising his glass. His brothers all looked at him in surprise, but the count kept his eyes on Gared, avoiding their stare. The rest of the room responded instinctively at the motion, raising their glasses with a cheer.