Read Online Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan - Free Book Online

tinge to it.
    “Do I have the job, sir?” Olem asked.
    “You really don’t need sleep?”
    Olem tapped the middle of his forehead. “I have the Knack, sir. Runs in the family. My father could smell a liar from a mile away. My cousin can eat more food than a hundred men, or none at all for weeks. My particular Knack? I don’t need sleep. I even have the third sight, so you know it’s the real thing.”
    Men with a Knack were considered the least powerful among those with sorcerous ability. It usually manifested itself as one very strong and particular talent, though some were quite powerful. There were plenty of men who claimed to have a Knack. Only those with a third eye—the ability to see sorcery and those who wield it—were truly Knacked.
    “Why haven’t you been swept up as a bodyguard before?”
    “Sir?”
    “With a talent like that you could be running security for some duke in Kez and making more money than a dozen soldiers. Or perhaps serving overseas with the Wings of Adom.”
    “Ah,” Olem said. “I get seasick.”
    “That’s it?”
    “Bodyguards to the rich need to be able to sail with them. I’m useless on a boat.”
    “So you’ll watch my back as long as I don’t go sailing?”
    “Pretty much, sir.”
    Tamas watched the man for another few moments. Among the troops, Olem was well known and well liked—he could shoot, box, ride, and play cards and billiards. He was an everyman as far as soldiers were concerned.
    “You’ve one mark on your record,” Tamas said. “You once punched a na-baron in the face. Broke his jaw. Tell me about that.”
    Olem grimaced. “Officially, sir, I was pushing him out of the way of a runaway carriage. Saved his life. Half my company saw it.”
    “With your fist?”
    “Aye.”
    “And unofficially?”
    “The man was a git. He shot my dog because it startled his horse.”
    “And if I ever have cause to shoot your dog?”
    “I’ll punch you in the face.”
    “Fair enough. You have the job.”
    “Oh, good.” Olem looked relieved. He removed his hands from behind his back and immediately stuck the cigarette in his mouth and pulled hard. Smoke blew out his nose. “It would have gone out soon.”
    “Ah. I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?”
    “Of course not, sir. Someone’s here.”
    Tamas caught sight of movement just inside. “It’s time.” He stepped toward the balcony door and paused. The hounds rose from their sleep and crowded around Tamas’s legs. He gave Olem a look.
    “Sir?”
    “You’re also supposed to get the door for me.”
    “Right. Sorry, sir. This might take me a while to get used to.”
    “Me too,” Tamas said.
    Olem held the door for Tamas. The hounds hurried in ahead of him, noses to the floor. The room was near-silent despite the growing volume of voices in the Garden. Running on days without sleep, Tamas found the silence soothing.
    He was in a grand office, if a room so big could be called that. Most houses could fit inside. It had been the king’s, a quiet place for him to study or review decisions by the House of Nobles. Like everything else that required a hair of a brain or a single krana’s care for how the country was run, the room had remained vacant for the entirety of Manhouch’s reign—though Tamas had it on good authority that Manhouch lent it to his favorite mistress last year, before his advisers found out.
    Ricard Tumblar stood over a table of refreshments, picking through a stack of sugar cakes for the best ones. He was a handsome man despite his receding hairline, with short brown hair and full features, and lines in the corners of his mouth from smiling too much. He wore a costly suit made out of some animal hair from eastern Gurla, and his beard was worn long in Fatrastan style. A hat and cane of equally eclectic and expensive taste rested by the door.
    Ricard controlled Adopest’s only workers’ union and of all of Tamas’s council of coconspirators; he was the only one that could provide