Impossible Odds
A Chronicle of the King's Blades
Chapter OneAt the Break of Day
"Enter!" Grand Master said.
Sir Tancred did so and closed the heavy door behind him, moving
with the feline grace of an expert fencer. He had changed out of his
mud-soaked traveling clothes into fresh, crisp livery, and no one could
have known from the look of him that he had spent the better part of
a day and night on horseback. His silver baldric marked him as Deputy
Commander of the Royal Guard; his presence here at Ironhall, far away
from Grandon where the King was, meant that something was seriously
awry.
"All bedded down?" Grand Master inquired dryly.
"My charges are. Your two are falling all over themselves getting
dressed."Tancred's thin smile was a formality, not denying the underlying
worry. "Unless they decided I was just a nightmare and went back
to sleep."
Grand Master grunted and turned back to stare out the window at
the first glow of sunrise on the wild crags of Starkmoor. Early-morning
chill dug into his bones, making him shiver and pull his cloak tight
about him, yet in fact his study was still warm from the previous day's
heat. Tancred was not even wearing a cloak over his jerkin, and that displa ... read full excerpt from Impossible Odds ebook