Far Called Trilogy 01 - In Dark Service by Stephen Hunt Read Free Book Online

I’ll fetch you another meal to see you on your way. But I’ll bring breakfast out to you, old fellow, understand? Better all round that way.’
    ‘Your nobility is a shining beacon to lesser men, Lord Carnehan.’
    ‘I’m no lord, old fellow. Not unless I’m lord of refilling humidifier boxes.’
    ‘An outrage!’ said Sariel, his voice growing dangerously loud, a magnet for any passing librarian to investigate. ‘But you are in luck. It was the Tsarina of Nera-ka herself who installed me as the Secret Master of the Grand Order of Protectors. I shall knight you forthwith, indeed, that is what I shall do. Kneel…’
    Carter sighed and dropped to one knee. Better to humour the old beggar than be found out and forbidden to bed him down in their guest cabins. Sariel lowered his walking staff on Carter’s shoulders, the left first, then the right. The wood felt heavier than granite, and for a second Carter had the oddest sensation he was being pushed into the ground. As quick as the strange feeling arrived, it fled. The old tramp incanted, ‘Carter Carnehan, you go to your knees as a commoner, but you shall rise as a knight of the order of the Grand Order of Protectors, lord of this hold, most beloved of the Tsarina Nera-ka. May her blessings straighten your aim and give strength to your arm in defence of her code most chivalrous.’
    Carter got to his feet and murmured an insincere-sounding thanks to the beggar . If my arm had been a bit stronger and quicker this morning, I could have taught Duncan Landor a fine lesson about poking his nose in another man’s affairs.
    Sariel leaned conspiratorially across as Carter led the bard back out through corridors and stairwells rarely traversed by the library’s journeymen. ‘Now you are a fellow brother of the order, perhaps I can tempt you to our cause? There is a wicked emperor who plots dominion over all things. And only those of good heart may band together to stop him.’
    ‘I’m afraid the duties of my hold are currently a little heavy right now, old fellow. The good people of Weyland need their knowledge transcribed, codified, copied and bound. But maybe another day…’
    ‘Of course,’ said Sariel. ‘Any noble who does not rule for the people hardly deserves their office. I believe the family of travellers camped outside will be only too eager to join me in my quest. I once did a considerable favour for the goddess of that particular clan, Lady Gameesh, and ever since, their descendants have held me in considerable regard.’
    ‘No doubt,’ said Carter. Yes, no doubt.
    Carter led the beggarly bard to one of the guest huts outside, settled him and his impossible tales in for the rest of the day and started to walk back to the hold. He had just reached the hold’s entrance in the slopes when he spotted Willow riding fast through the valley on her favourite sorrel mare. Carter raised his hand in greeting, hoping that she might have forgiven him for this morning’s fracas with her brother. When Carter had been fast friends with Duncan, he had developed quite a crush on the boy’s sister, but a chance remark from Benner Landor when Carter had been visiting their great estate had made him realise that Willow was destined for better things than a dirt-poor pastor’s son. What had it been? Swans swim with swans, boy . Something like that. A simple enough remark, but at the time it had kicked the foundations out from under Carter’s feet, leaving him feeling miserable and wretched for weeks. He was older now. He knew how the world worked. Willow Landor would marry some rich landowner’s son – or maybe one of the southern mill owners. A dynastic match. While Carter’s family expected him to drown in boredom out here, little better than a monk taken a vow of poverty and chastity. Of course she wouldn’t look twice at him – what had he been thinking? He should have resented Willow and her wealth and her perfect future mapped out with such precision. But