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Whether convinced by the Silent Sister’s pearl-eyed stare or the Red Queen’s coason bowed his head and spoke of the dead
“In the Jarlson Uplands the frozen dead wander Corpse tribes, black with frost, stagger in columns, lost in the swirl of the frostral They say mammoth ith them, dead beasts freed from the ice cliffs that held theave men the curse of speech Their numbers are unknown, but they are many
“When the gates of Niflheiiants’ breath rolls out across the North, the dead co whoever they can find to join their ranks Soe shores Soes and take whole villages”
Grandauntleted hands lance towards her offspring “And how do you coason?”
“We thought the threat came from the North, from the Uplands and the Bitter Ice” He shook his head “When ships caht, black-sailed and silent, we slept, our sentries watching north for the frozen dead Raiders had crossed the Quiet Sea and cost us So, others corpses preserved from rot, and other creatures still—half-houls with venoth and leave him helpless as a newborn
“Sven Broke-Oar guided their ships Sven and others of the Hardassa Without their treachery the Islanders would never have been able to navigate the Uulisk by night Even by day they would have lost ships” Snorri’s hands closed into huge fists andfor violence “The Broke-Oar took twenty warriors in chains as part of his payer Fjord The trader, a ain in Afrique after we’d rowed his cargo south Your agent bought me in Kordoba, in the port of Albus”
Grand far and wide for these tales—Red March had no tradition of slavery and I knew she didn’t approve of the trade
“And the rest?” Grandly angled towards me “Those not taken by your countryman?”
Snorri stared into the empty throne, then directly at the blind-eye woritted teeth “Many were killed I lay poisoned and saw ghouls swarm my wife I saned men chase ht The Islanders returned to their ships with red swords Prisoners were taken” He paused, frowned, shook his head “Sven Broke-Oar told uebut he said the Islanders planned to take prisoners to excavate the Bitter Ice Olaaf Rikeson’s army is out there The Broke-Oar told it that the Islanders had been sent to free them”
“An arh to touch now A monster of a wo enough to break me across her knee “Who is this Rikeson?”
The Norseman raised an eyebrow at that, as if every monarch should know the tawdry history of his frozen wastes “Olaaf Rikeson n of Eas have it that he planned to drive the giants froates More sober histories say perhaps his goal was just to bring the Inowen into the eree he took a thousand and ed and turned froh that’s not saying ht he iants’ breath rolled down even so, and one summer’s day every warrior in his army froze where he stood and the snows drowned them
“The Broke-Oar has it that those taken fro them from the ice”
Grand the front line of our number Martus, little me, Darin, Cousin Roland with his stupid beard, Rotus, lean and sour, unmarried at thirty, duller than ditchwater, obsessed with reading—and histories at that! She paused by Rotus, another of her favourites and third in line by right—though still it seeive her throne to Cousin Serah before hiason? Who has sent these forces on such an errand?” She aze as if he of all of us would appreciate the answer