The Complete Broken Empire Trilogy: Prince of Thorns, King of Thorns, Emperor of Thorns

I knew it to be true.

Choke her.

I saw my hands, pale on a neck shading into crimson.

Have her. The voice of the briar. The hooks slipped beneath my skin, and drew me down to kneel beside her. Have her. Take what might never be given. I knew the creed.

Kill her, and you’ll be free.

I heard the echo of a distant storm.

Katherine’s hair ran like silk between my fingers. ‘She’s my weakness.’ My voice now, my lips. One little step, one more death, and nothing would ever touch me again. One little step and the door on that wild night would close forever. The game would truly be a game. And I would be the player to win it.

Choke her. Have her. The voice of the briar. A crackle in the mind. A hollow sound. An emptiness.

Empty.

Her neck felt warm. Her pulse beat under my fingertips.

‘Kill her, Briar Prince.’

I saw the words on thin lips, spoken in an empty chamber.

‘Kill her.’

I saw the lips move again. I saw the blank eyes, fixed on eternity. ‘Kill her.’

‘Corion!’

For a moment my hands tightened around Katherine’s neck.

‘I’m coming for you, you old bastard.’ I released my grip.

A smile twisted those thin lips, a fierce twist. I saw it as the vision faded, those blank eyes, and that twist of a smile. My smile.

He had played me. I’d wandered for years with no recollection of him, thinking it my own idea to turn from Renar, thinking the choice a symbol of my strength and purpose, to put aside empty vengeance in favour of the true path to power. And now, on the edge of death, I had recovered what was taken. Recovered or been given. I glanced at Katherine. I recalled an angel in a dark place. The memory left me with a shiver.

I took Katherine’s dagger from the floor, and stood. I left her where she lay, beside the crone I’d throttled. The door opened onto a corridor, one I recognized. The West Corner, I knew where I was. I raised the knife to my lips and kissed the blade. Count Renar, and the puppet master who pulled so many strings, one sharp edge would be enough for them all.

Brother Roddat stabbed three men in the back for each one he faced. Roddat taught me all I know about running and about hiding. Cowards should be treated with respect. Cowards best know how to hurt. Corner one at your peril.

42

‘Get out of my way.’

‘Who the hell—’

‘Please Jesu! You’re the same old wart-bag that tried to stop me last time!’ And he was. The stink that jumped me when he opened the door brought it all back. ‘I’m surprised my father let you live.’

‘Who—’

‘Who the hell am I? You don’t recognize me? You didn’t last time either. I was shorter then, yay high.’ I held out a hand to show him. ‘It seems like a while ago to me, but you’re an old man, and what’re three or four years to the old?’ I sketched a bow. ‘Prince Jorg at your service, or rather you at mine. Last time I walked out of here with a band of outlaws. This time I just need one knight, if you please. Sir Makin of Trent.’

‘I should call the guards on you,’ he said, without conviction.

‘Why? The King has issued no orders about me.’ That was a guess, but Father thought he’d struck a mortal blow, so I was probably correct. ‘Besides, it’d only get you killed. And if you’re thinking of that big fellow with the pike, I rammed his head into the wall not three minutes ago.’

The jailer stepped back and let me pass, just as he had the time Lundist escorted me when I was a boy. On this occasion, I hit him as I went by. Once in the stomach, and a second blow to the back of the neck as he doubled up. For a moment I considered finishing the job with Katherine’s knife, but it’s good insurance to let ineffective jailers live.

I took his keys and moved on down the corridor, knife at the ready. I’d rather have had my sword. I felt half-dressed without it. My mind kept returning to the fact of its absence, to the weightless sensation around my hip, like a tongue returning to an empty socket in constant overestimation of the loss.

Makin put that sword in my hand on the day he found me. As captain of the guard in search of the heir, he had the right to bear it. I’d kept it close ever since, the family blade, Builder-steel.

I found my way to the torture chamber where I’d first met the Nuban. The table at the centre lay empty. There were no faces at the cell door windows. I made a slow circuit, directing the beam of my lantern into each cell in turn. The first held a corpse, or someone so near death as to be mere bones in a bag of skin. The next three were bare. The fifth held Sir Makin. He sat back against the far wall, bearded and smeared with filth, a hand lifting to shield his eyes from the light. He made no move to rise. I felt a hurt in the back of my throat. I don’t know why, but I did. Anger in my stomach, and an acid pain in my throat.

‘Makin, oh my brother.’ Soft.

‘Wha—?’ A croak, the sound of something broken.

‘I’m to the road again, Brother Makin. I have business to the south.’

I set the key in the lock. A slight tremble, a little rattle.

‘Jorg?’ A wet sob, half gurgle. ‘He killed you, Prince. Your own father.’

‘I’ll die when I’m ready.’

The key turned, the door opened without resistance. The stink grew worse.

‘Jorg?’ Makin let his hand fall. They’d made a mess of his face. ‘No! You’re dead. I saw you fall.’

‘All right, I’m dead and you’re dreaming. Now get on your feckin’ feet before I kick out whatever shit they left you. And that ain’t too much by the smell of it.’

That got to him. He tried to rise, one hand scraping across the wall.

I hadn’t thought what kind of state he might be in. To me it seemed I’d taken Father’s knife only yesterday. Makin’s beard said weeks at the least.

He got halfway to his feet, and his leg failed.

I took two steps toward him.

The Count’s castle stood well over a hundred hard miles ahead of me, through the garden lands of Ancrath and into the Renar highlands. He’d never make it.

Makin slid to the floor with a groan. ‘You’re dead anyway.’ The one good eye shone bright with tears.

Play the game. Sacrifice knight, take castle. That old dry voice again. I’d listened to it so long I couldn’t tell if it were mine or Corion’s. Either way, I should leave him.

‘You’ve got one chance here, Makin. That’s two more than most bastards get in life.’ The lantern beam swung from wall to wall. ‘Dead or not, I’ll leave you if you can’t stand and follow me. I left a man here to die before. A man I should have loved. I’ll leave you in a heartbeat.’