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HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2014
Copyright © Peter V. Brett 2014
Cover texture © www.Shutterstock.com
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2014
Map by Andrew Ashton.
Peter V. Brett asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008114701
Ebook Edition © December 2014 ISBN: 9780008114718
Version: 2014-11-11
Contents
For Myke and Joshua, who read all the versions.
Like the other Demon Cycle novellas, The Great Bazaar and Brayan’s Gold, this story grew out of the main series, a stunted branch that put down roots and flourished when planted on its own.
The first chapter, ‘Burning True’, was originally written as the opening chapter of my third novel, The Daylight War. It quickly became clear that telling Briar’s story fully would require far more space than I had to spare in a series already known for its ever-increasing number of point-of-view characters. The chapter was excised, but I always knew I would come back to it when the time was right.
Some time later, the chapter was published in Shawn Speakman’s charity anthology Unfettered, under the title Mudboy. Still only a piece of Briar’s story, I’m grateful to Subterranean Press for giving me the chance now to finally tell the story in full.
Look for Briar to make appearances in The Skull Throne, the fourth book of the Demon Cycle next year.
Peter V. Brett
July, 2014
324 AR Summer
Briar started awake at the clanging.
His mother was banging the porridge pot with her metal ladle, the sound echoing through the house. ‘Out of bed, lazeabouts!’ she cried. ‘First Horn sounded
