Read Online Mordraud, Book One by Fabio Scalini - Free Book Online Page B

peeling some potatoes, sitting at the kitchen table, removing the skin with a small blunt knife. Her copper hair reflected the sunlight filtering through the delicate lace curtains, like poured molten metal gleaming under a snippet of sun. She checked the pan from time to time as it hung above the flames in the hearth. Mordraud was playing, sat at her side, toying with some old stale bread. Differently to Dunwich, he didn’t speak much, even though he’d learnt how to at a very early age.
    “ Soon. I got a letter from him. Want to read it?”
    “ I’m not sure.”
    Eglade knew how much Mordraud missed his father, and she made an effort to try and alleviate his absence. She got up and handed him the tied parchment roll a messenger had left in the village a few days earlier. It was brought by a woman Eglade bought vegetables from, the ones she didn’t grow herself in her patch behind the house. Mordraud began reading, slowly mouthing out the words, eyes half-closed in concentration as he deciphered Varno’s awkward handwriting. Eglade was teaching him to read and write in the common language of men, as well as in Aelian. He was good at it, but less so than Dunwich. Especially at reading.
    “ The front... is retre... retreating, and Eldain has called up the... the...”
    Eglade knelt beside his chair, and helped him follow the wobbly lines of the letter with her finger.
    “ The troops. That means soldiers.”
    “ ...has called up the troops. Winter’s coming, and there are fewer battles. Our employer has paid us, and soon he’ll dis...”
    “ Dismiss. It means Eldain is sending daddy home.”
    “ I know what it means, mum!”
    Mordraud stiffened in annoyance. He looked like his brother in his slightly wavy black hair, and in his naturally balanced features, yet there was already the hint of a harshness Dunwich did not have. His eyes were a shining green. They seemed to have been dipped in a pool of mountain water. Instead, his elder brother’s were azure, tending to deep blue.
    The differenc es in character were more pronounced. Dunwich loved to speak and learn all he could, while Mordraud preferred to stay silent, and listen to the many stories Eglade would tell him about her Aelian people, absorbing them passively without actively memorising them. Or he would spend a great deal of time on the edge of the wood, studying in wonder all the insects and little animals he managed to capture. He loved to look about in silence, without ever revealing what he was thinking.
    “ Carry on then if you know it!”
    “ ...has paid us, and soon he’ll dismiss us. I’ll be able to stay home until spring. Any news of Dunwich? I hope he’s doing well. Say hello to Mordraud from me. See you soon.”
    “ Well done, you read that really well!”
    Mordraud didn’t reply. His eyes stared at the unrolled letter.
    “ What’s wrong?”
    “ Where’s my brother?”
    “ Dunwich’s in Cambria, and he’s studying at an excellent school. You might go there too, if you’re...”
    “ I don’t want to go to Cambria,” Mordraud broke in abruptly.
    “ And what do you want to do?”
    “ Stay here with you. Not like dad.”
    Eglade took him by the hips and brought him down from the chair. She pretended to gobble his head and he burst out laughing as he struggled to get away.
    Varno had returned to his old job of mercenary four years after Mordraud was born. The war between Cambria and the rebel noblemen had changed face and players. In 1611, eight years after Dunwich’s birth and two years before Mordraud’s, Elder had passed full command to his son Eldain, who had already been handling the complex and many-sided alliance of fiefs, towns, villages and confederations on his father’s behalf for some time, opposing Cambria’s attempts at expansion. Emperor Loren had passed away some years earlier and had been succeeded by his son, Lorelin, who was already advanced in age. By tradition, newborns of noble descent took the root of