A Little Hatred (The Age of Madness #1) - Joe Abercrombie Page 0,155

and sends help? What then?’

Calder angrily waved it away. ‘If help was coming from Midderland, it would’ve come already. We can still finish them before winter.’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Stour. ‘I can finish ’em before sunset tomorrow.’ And he laughed, and Scale laughed, and Calder very decidedly didn’t, and Clover watched ’em, thinking this was no great way to run a kingdom. ‘The Bloody-Nine never backed out of a fight, nor Black Dow, nor Whirrun of Bligh, and nor will I.’

‘You’ve made a list of dead fools,’ hissed Calder, near tearing his hair. ‘Tell him, Clover, for the sake of the dead, tell him!’

Clover had been telling Stour for near half a year and made no mark, like shooting a quiver full of daffodils at a man in full plate armour. But one more daffodil could do no harm. He spread his hands as if he held out a platter covered in fine advice. ‘There’s no bigger foolishness than to choose to face a dangerous man on equal terms. Look at me. Lost everything in the Circle.’

Stour’s lip curled. ‘Your fruits, too?’

‘They’re still there, my prince, if a little shrivelled. But I don’t think with ’em any more.’

‘My nephew beat Stranger-Come-Knocking in the Circle,’ said the king, blowing some froth from his ale. ‘He can beat some Union fool.’

‘Who was it took your hand, brother?’ said Calder. ‘Some Union fool, as I recall?’

Scale didn’t anger, just smiled to show his missing front teeth. ‘You’re wise, brother. You’re cunning. Just like our father. What I have I owe to your wits and your ruthlessness and your loyalty, I know that. There are many things you understand far better than me. But you’re no fighter.’

Calder’s lip curled with contempt. ‘You haven’t fought a man in twenty years! You only want to watch him fight so you can relive your lost glories. You’re fat as a—’

‘Yes, I’m fat as a hog and twenty years past my best and I daresay quite the figure of fun for most. But there is one thing you’re forgetting, brother.’ Scale hooked his thumb under his golden chain and lifted it so the great diamond dangled, sparkling with the flames in the firepit. ‘I am our father’s eldest son. I wear his chain. I am king!’ He let the chain fall, and slapped his good hand down on Stour’s shoulder. ‘I name Stour Nightfall not only as my heir but as my champion. He’ll stand for me in the Circle, and fight for Uffrith and all the land between the Cusk and the Whiteflow. That’s the end of it.’

Stour broke out that wet-eyed grin of his. ‘Perhaps you should leave the warriors to their talk, Father. We’ve the choice of weapons to discuss.’

Calder stood quiet a moment longer, face a rigid mask. ‘Warriors,’ he hissed, like it was the worst insult he could think of, then turned on his heel and stalked from the room.

Stour lifted his ale cup. ‘By the dead, when the mood’s on him, he can bleat like a fucking sheep—’

There was a sharp crack as Scale slapped him, knocking the cup from his hand and sending it spinning across the floor. ‘You’d be wise to treat your father with respect, boy!’ snarled the king, his great finger shoved in Stour’s shocked and pinking face. ‘Everything you have you owe to him!’ There was a long silence, then Scale gave the golden pommel of the heavy sword he wore a fond pat. ‘Call me old-fashioned, but I still favour a sword. What do you say, Clover?’

‘I say a sword’s a fool’s weapon.’

Stour was rubbing his face with his fingertips, looking at his uncle through narrowed eyes. Now he turned them on Clover. ‘You carry one.’

‘I do.’ Clover picked at his own battered pommel with a fingernail. ‘But I try never to draw it.’

Scale threw up his hands, the iron and the flesh. ‘You make your living teaching other folk to use one!’

‘They pay me to learn. But I always start by telling ’em never to fight with one. Come at a man with a sword, he’ll see you coming, and if a man you mean to kill sees you coming then you’re going about it all wrong.’

‘There’s no hiding in the Circle.’ Stour turned away from Clover in disgust. ‘In the Circle, the other man’s always ready.’

‘That’s why I’d stay even further from the Circle than I would from the sword,’ said Clover. ‘Money, land, fame, friends, even your name – lose them but keep your