‘Did I ask you to?’
Horns blasted in the distance. Everyone turned to the Kyzantine army but they made no move to attack, were indeed retreating in dribs and drabs back to their own line. As the horns blasted again the squabbling men turned toward the Kingdom and witnessed the arrival of Cygnus’ men. They marched in columns looking fresh and vitalised. They would make the Kyzantines think twice about continuing the assault.
‘These are the Howlers. My own personal command. Five thousand warriors, born and bred, trained since they were children. Better than this rabble here.’
Octans curled his hand into a fist and wound back to strike him. It was only Pollux’s interjection that stopped him.
‘I hope your soldiers know how to clean. There are a lot of dead Kyzantine bodies up here. Blood can be really slippery underfoot and we wouldn’t want any accidents would we?’
Octans smiled as Cygnus scowled.
‘Don’t worry about ours, we take care of our own.’
Pollux turned to the Fists who were milling about the rampart watching the confrontation. Although exhausted they all wore a smile.
‘Fists, we have one final duty to perform before we rest. Find every wounded and deceased Buckthorne man and see that he is removed from these blood soaked stones and taken care of.’
The men scattered all over the wall to pick up the fallen members of the Fists. Octans himself had battered into Cygnus’ shoulder to push past and helped a wounded man, supporting him under the arm and got him to his feet. As he walked past Cygnus, heading for the stairs, he couldn’t help but get in one last passing shot.
‘Better run along and find yourself a mop.’
BATTLE BROTHERS BOOK ONE
MURUKANS
Buckthorne
Castor Fallon | member of the Nails |
Pollux Fallon | member of the Fists |
Cronos Scythe | Baron of Buckthorne |
Hydrus Scythe | Captain of the Nails, son of Cronos |
Byrn Emery | Buckthorne Master-of-Arms |
Volans Thorr | Lieutenant of the Nails |
Argol Larson | member of the Fists |
Octans Werth | member of the Fists |
Kryst Tipton | Captain of the Fists |
Tobias Sutton | Captain of the Buckthorne Watch |
Gerard Morgan | member of the Buckthorne Watch |
Tove Curran | member of the Fists |
Lucas Bray | member of the Nails |
Jacob McCabe | member of the Nails |
Ron Hudson | member of the Nails |
Aron Patton | member of the Nails |
James Cole | member of the Nails |
Gravid’s Drift
Arryn Dunn | Earl of Gravid’s Drift |
Cygnus Dunn | Captain of the Howlers, son of Arryn |
Thol Dunn | second son of Arryn |
Lacey Dunn | daughter of Arryn |
Zeke Aspring | Captain of the Musea Pass |
Brak Aspring | officer at the Musea Pass, son of Zeke |
Barcus Ruthorford | engineer at the Musea Pass |
Wez Lund | member of infantry |
Sarkridge
Wade Hardison | King of Murukia |
Daymon Hardison | Prince of Murukia, Commander of the Murukan Horse |
Reza Hardison | Prince of Murukia |
Walter Dejeski | Knight-General |
Samuel Rodderick | Knight-General |
Ryan Braithe | Knight-General |
Ben Curdish | Knight-General |
Carham
Hector Danyels | Duke of Carham |
Magi
Ara Rowsell | Seventh Circle mage |
Daria Gleason | Eighth Circle mage |
Mira Sykes | Fourth Circle mage |
Others
Duncan Avil | Commander of the Gorgon Pass |
Lynx Kiernan | Murukan scout |
Doric Ilett | soldier at Black Claw Gate |
KYZANTINES
Dagenham
Sebastian Jorgh | Emperor of Kyzantium |
Derrick Jorgh | General of Imperial Guard, son of Sebastian |
Indus Jorgh | General of Imperial Guard, first daughter of Sebastian |
Tucana Jorgh | General of Imperial Guard, second daughter of Sebastian |
Pyxis Jorgh | General of the Wraiths, third daughter of Sebastian |
Telis Dorado | Lord Commander of the Imperial Guard |
Robar Ballis | General of the Imperial Guard |
Thom Soto | Assassin |
Madeline Vargas | Assassin |
Tarkinholm
Cunx Rivera | Captain of the Wraiths |
Calan Delgado | Member of the Wraiths |
Redisberg
Chase DeVile | Lord of Redisberg |
Odion Fizdis | Captain of the Redisberg First and Fifth |
Skyview
Eugene Quandrus | Exarch of Skyview |
SERAPHIM
Avernus Murcutt | Leader of Seraphim, mage of Seraphim first cell |
Edrazil Nash | warrior of Seraphim first cell |
Devilin Nash | warrior of Seraphim first cell |
TYREANS
Granbury
Giles Bryson | King of Tyrea |
Dan Adams is a Sydney-based writer. When he’s not penning kick ass war stories, he’s working on his guns — the arm variety, rather than the weapons featured so prominently in his books. He loves slushies and always finds himself climbing too many stairs on Wednesdays. Follow him on Twitter at @DanAdamsWriter
VoyagerImpulse
An imprint of HarperCollins
Publishers
First published in Australia in 2014
This edition published in 2014
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
Copyright © Dan Adams 2014
The right of Dan Adams to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollins
Publishers
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand
A 53, Sector 57, Noida, UP, India
77-85 Fulham Palace Road, London, W6 8JB, United Kingdom
2 Bloor Street East, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada
195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007, USA
ISBN 9 781 460 703 977
Cover design by Matt Stanton, HarperCollins Design Studio Images by shutterstock.com