The Boy with the Porcelain Blade (38 page)

Anea cocked her head to one side, taking a moment to write a response:
A girl can never have too many brothers.

She took a moment to scratch down something else in the book:
What do we call you now?

‘I think I’d like to be Lord Marino from now on.’

‘Lord Marino?’ interrupted Russo. ‘What sort of name is that?’

‘You’ll see,’ said Lucien with a slow smile. ‘You’ll see.’

Acknowledgements

Or the Real Dramatis Personae

HOUSE PATRICK

Duchess Szalkai

who never told me to get a proper job or a haircut

Margravio
Patrick

provider of encouragement and praise

Squires Perry and Shurin

friends, educators, encouragers, enthusiasm monsters

Viscount and Viscountess Odd

providers of shelter to waifs and strays

Lord Morgan and Lord Bailey

generous gentlemen

Maestro di Spada
Andrew James

an intellect matched only by kindness

Master of Scribes Tom Pollock

a comrade in arms

Archivist Julie Crisp

who knows a thing or two about books, throws good shapes

Matt Rowan, Lizzie Barrett and Matt Lyons

test readers and providers of wise counsel

HOUSE GOLLANCZ

Chief Archivist of Landfall Simon Spanton

champion of the
Orfani

Exemplar Gillian Redfearn

wielder of red pens and longbows

Faithful Messengers

Jon Weir, Sophie Calder

Captains of the Watch

Charlie Panayiotou, Jen McMenemy and all at Gollancz

Agent extraordinaire Juliet Mushens

tiny, leopard-print tornado

INFLUENCES OF ESPECIAL IMPORTANCE

Frank Herbert’s
Dune
, Mervyn Peake’s
Gormenghast
, and all of Joe Abercrombie’s output. Not forgetting Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s
Assassini
trilogy, Scott Lynch’s Gentlemen Bastards and
Use of Weapons
by Iain M. Banks. I’d be remiss for failing to mention Chris Wooding, Steph Swainston, Richard Morgan, China Miéville and M. John Harrison.

Also by Den Patrick from Gollancz:

The Naer Evain Chronicles

Orcs War-Fighting Manual

Elves War-Fighting Manual

Dwarves War-Fighting Manual

The Erebus Sequence

The Boy with the Porcelain Blade

A Gollancz eBook

Copyright © Den Patrick 2014
All rights reserved

The right of Den Patrick to be identified as the author
of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in Great Britain in 2014 by
Gollancz
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Orion House
5 Upper St Martin’s Lane
London WC2H 9EA
An Hachette UK Company

This eBook first published in 2014 by Gollancz.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library

ISBN 978 0 575 13416 4

All characters and events in this publication are fictitious
and any resemblance to real persons, living
or dead, is purely coincidental.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of the publisher,
nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or
cover other than that in which it is published without a
similar condition, including this condition, being imposed
on the subsequent purchaser.

www.orionbooks.co.uk