Because when night falls, he comes for me. And this time, the Never King and the Lost Boys aren’t willing to let me go. Looks a lot better than it did,’ Xavir interrupted calmly. ‘Don’t be looking for battles over things as trivial as this.’

Dimarius shook his head at the tall warrior who was staring in horror and grief at the corpses surrounding them. Hell’s Keep. An apt moniker. More so than its official designation, Citadel Thirty-Six. The grey, high, fortress-like walls were built into the third highest peak of the Silkspire Mountains, two thousand feet up from one of the long-abandoned merchant routes out of the eastern kingdoms. Well away from the home comforts of Stravimon. This was a place to send only the most hardened and dangerous criminals. Those too deadly to imprison in any normal gaol – but too important or useful to have killed. No one had ever escaped. What’d you do to end up here?’ Krund asked with barely concealed indifference. ‘You have no accent. You don’t look much like a man who knows his way around a blade.’This one is like a feral cat that wants to push the saucer of milk off the table just to watch it spill.” But . . . things were different now that Landril had given him a vision. The outside world – the duchies and Stravimon – was in crisis. People were dying. Lupara, of all people, was involved with Landril’s scheme. That suggested ill times indeed. In a way, being in Hell’s Keep was no longer a punishment, but a shelter from the storm.

A grin came to Jorund’s lips. This will do. ‘Well, make a noise, you ugly bastards. You’re meant to be savages!’ Blades blurred and wailed as they separated limbs and heads from their bodies. Within a brief moment, hundreds of people had been butchered. By just six warriors, legends indeed. Jorund fell to his knees as the warriors loomed. His sword slipped from his hand. He hurriedly stripped off his furs, removed the bone chains and tribal totems from his body and showed them the single leather breastplate bearing a watchtower he wore underneath. This book may be unsuitable for people under 18 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence. The Never Kingby Nikki St. Crowe Landril shook his head. ‘You don’t understand. He is committing genocide – thousands of our own people have been killed. Good Stravir are no more.’As their feet whispered along the ancient stone, there came the chatter of women’s voices from hidden alcoves, utterances of prayer or readings of arcane texts. Lore was being passed on from generation to generation of sisters. The book learning was what she liked the least – Elysia preferred to be out in the forests with Birgitta. That, inevitably, meant many of the other sisters accused her of being stupid. Nations expand and retract like lungs, spymaster. Nothing new here, especially where the clans are concerned. We’re people bred to fight. You didn’t come here to tell me that all was prosperous with the world.