Grunts
“Mary Gentle is a delightfully twisted soul with a sharp eye for the ridiculous, and she pulls no punches here…. I enjoyed
Grunts
very much…. It’s certainly a worthy read if you enjoy parody and are tired of the same old fantasy caricatures and stereotypical quests.”
—The Green Man Review
One wing twitched.
Horn and bone slid together under torchlight. Metal sinews stretched, gears and cogs whirred.
“Golem…” Will, eyes wide, stared at flesh and blood, at wire and canvas. The poisoned dragon’s diamantine corpse stilled. He began a slow circling of the cavern wall beside Ned.
Ned muttered under his breath, “It’s only another dragon. It’s only another dragon….”
Ashnak of the Agaku marched across to the hoard, contemptuously kicking silver crowns and diamonds aside. “This isn’t what we came to find! Are you sure this is the right dragon?”
Will said, “There is—was—only one Dagurashibanipal, and that is she—”
“Look out!”
Mary Gentle
has written eight books, including
Grunts
and
Ash: A Secret History
, which have won critical acclaim from science fiction and fantasy authors and critics alike. She’s completed two master’s degrees and is an expert sword fighter. She resides in England.
GRUNTS
Mary Gentle
A ROC BOOK
ROC
Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
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Published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group
(USA) Inc. Previously published in Great Britain by Bantam Press.
First Roc Printing, August 1995
20 19 18
ISBN: 978-1-101-65592-4
Copyright © Mary Gentle, 1992
All rights reserved
REGISTERED TRADEMARK — MARCA REGISTRADA
Printed in the United States of America
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.
If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Grateful thanks go to (in alphabetical order): Ashley Bird, Michael Fearn, Neil Gaiman, Michael Gearing, Roz Kaveney, Alex Stewart, and various members of the old Battlegroup, and Five Company.
And to the man without whom this book would be in far better taste: Dean “Pass me another elf, Sergeant” Wayland…
Thanks for the inspiration, guys. The orcs would be
proud
of you.
World Map (Western Hemisphere)
A linguistic slur has it that Orcish is a monosyllabic language because orcs have difficulty memorising more than one syllable at a time. This is not true. Many Orcish names consist of as many as three, or even four, syllables. They are pronounced as follows:
| | |
| Ashnak | ASH -nak |
| Barashkukor | BA -rash- KU -kor |
| Chahkamnit | Chah- KAM -nit |
| Dakashnit | Da- KASH -nit |
| Imhullu | Im- HUL -lu |
| Lugashaldim | LU -gash- AL -dim |
| Marukka | Ma- RUK -ka |
| Razitshakra | RA -zit- SHAK -ra |
| Shazgurim | Shaz- GUR -im |
| Varimnak | VA -rim-nak |
| Zarkingu | Zar- KING -u |
1
In the tower of the nameless necromancer it is always cold.
The big orc’s breath smoked odourously on the air. He pulled the buckles of his breastplate tighter around his muscled body. Frost sparkled on the laminated black armour sheathing his shoulders, arms, and bowed thighs. The sorcerous cold bites into orc-flesh as no ordinary winter can.