Malice (The Faithful and the Fallen, #1)

by John Gwynne

“There’s no point getting old if you don’t get cunning.”

Again he stopped, carefully turned more pages, eventually continued his halting reading: ‘By their names you shall know them–Kin-Slayer, Kin-Avenger, Giant-Friend, Draig-Rider, Dark Power ’gainst Lightbringer.’ And so he went on: read, pause, search. Read again. ‘One shall be the Tide, one the Rock in the swirling sea. Before one, storm and shield shall stand; before the other, True-Heart and Black-Heart. Beside one rides the Beloved, beside the other, the Avenging Hand. Behind one, the Sons of the Mighty, the fair Ben-Elim, gathered ’neath the Great Tree. Behind the other, the Unholy, dread Kadoshim, who seek to cross the bridge, force the world to bended knee.’

‘Most things of worth don’t come easy,’

‘I am Rhin’s man. I always have been. Well, as long as I can remember. King Owain killed my kin, my mam and da, over a border dispute. It was Rhin’s people, in the village I took you to, that raised me. Rhin sent me here, with the task of becoming one of you.’

Both the brave man and the coward feel the same. The only difference between them is that the brave man faces his fear, does not run.’