Road Brothers

Road Brothers
Mark Lawrence

A volume of short stories by the bestselling author of THE BROKEN EMPIRE series, Mark LawrenceThis is a collection of fourteen stories of murder, mayhem, pathos, and philosophy, all set in the world of the Broken Empire.Within these pages, you will find tales of men such as Red Kent, Sir Makin, Rike, Burlow and the Nuban, telling of their origins and the events that forged them. There is Jorg himself, striding the page as a child of six, as a teenage wanderer and as a young king. And then there is a tale about Prince Jalan Kendeth – liar, cheat, womaniser and coward.To the new reader, welcome to a lawless world where wit and sword are the most useful weapons, and danger lurks as much in candle-lit palaces as in dark alleys and dense woodland. To those who have already journeyed with Jorg, we hope you will enjoy renewing old acquaintances with your favourite characters.

Copyright (#ulink_793a1058-a521-518b-9047-1c4f8455d764)

HarperVoyager

an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in ebook in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2017

Copyright © Mark Lawrence 2017

Map © Andrew Ashton

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017

Jacket illustration © Kim Kincaid

Mark Lawrence asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

These works are entirely works of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in them are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008221386

Ebook Edition © September 2017 ISBN: 9780008221393

Version: 2017-10-04

Contents

Cover (#u5275d6b5-5575-5d0a-828f-b5033e2fc22c)

Title Page (#u359a4ab7-6b02-5bfa-8725-7271f921e49f)

Copyright (#u2bfb1eec-3169-5e48-9117-f44eb8068733)

Map (#u7b97de38-bfa2-5495-b091-447084a8e920)

Introduction (#uca301a20-1510-57c2-8ee8-c91333c8f85a)

A Rescue (#u424b43d3-9bea-5393-a774-6432f90f0352)

Sleeping Beauty (#ue9b54716-8c2d-536c-aa47-d9e2c0e1aa6c)

Bad Seed (#u53b0129c-4f7e-5b71-9411-fd6785d3da33)

The Nature of the Beast (#litres_trial_promo)

The Weight of Command (#litres_trial_promo)

Select Mode (#litres_trial_promo)

Mercy (#litres_trial_promo)

A Good Name (#litres_trial_promo)

Choices (#litres_trial_promo)

No other Troy (#litres_trial_promo)

The Secret (#litres_trial_promo)

Escape (#litres_trial_promo)

Know Thyself (#litres_trial_promo)

Three is the Charm (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Mark Lawrence (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Map (#ulink_b3888a49-fe77-5d03-a508-49511e07ddda)

Introduction (#ulink_ce007b1d-7ba7-567b-b9f1-b57dc3e37069)

I learned most of what I know about writing from writing short stories. They’re a great place to practise the art. They are also a fine means by which to revisit a character or a world, illuminating a corner of the original tale that perhaps deserves more attention. In addition, they can be used to look back over the years, allowing us to see how our heroes and villains … well mainly villains if we’re honest … came to be where we found them and what shaped them along the way.

The stories in this anthology were written over the space of a few years, mostly for other projects. They offer a mix of murder, mayhem, pathos, and philosophy, and stand on their own without the need to have read the books that inspired them. The events occur before or around the edges of those described in the Broken Empire trilogy and will contain a variety of spoilers.

I hope you’ll enjoy dipping into the lives of Jorg and his brothers one more time. It was a grand tale and I was sorry to leave it behind.

Mark Lawrence