Blood and Honor (Forest Kingdom Novels) by Simon R. Green

another. Still, look on the bright side.”
    Jordan looked at him suspiciously. “What bright side?”
    “Since they’re trying this hard to kill us, they must be convinced that you’re really Prince Viktor. Our scheme is working.”
    “Terrific,” said Jordan. “Wonderful. I notice none of these powerful enemies were mentioned when Roderik first offered me the role.”
    Gawaine chuckled, and moved away from the quietened horses to look out over the open moor. Jordan went after him, shaking his head disgustedly. I should have asked for a hundred thousand ducats, when I had the chance … He came to a halt beside Gawaine, and the two men stood in silence together. The moor seemed quiet and peaceful after the storm’s passing.
    “Did the High Warlock really give you that ax?” said Jordan finally.
    “It was a long time ago,” said Gawaine. He didn’t look around, but as he spoke his eyes were far away, watching yesterday once more. “I was a captain of the guards, fighting for the Forest Kingdom in its Border War with Hillsdown. It was a messy little war, and no good came of it. But, I was in the right place at the right time, so I ended up a hero. King John knighted me, and the warlock made me this ax. It’s a good ax. Its edge never dulls, and I haven’t found anything yet that can even mark the metal. More importantly, the blade cancels out all offensive magic in my vicinity. All in all, it’s some ax. Which is probably why I’ve stayed alive so long at Castle Midnight.”
    Jordan looked at Gawaine thoughtfully. The Border War had come to its inconclusive end some thirty-six years ago. If Gawaine had been a captain then, that would put him in his late fifties now. At least. For a man that age, he was in extraordinarily good shape. He was also extraordinarily modest. Kings don’t knight commoners for simple acts of bravery; whatever Gawaine did, it would have had to have been very impressive. And yet there had been something in Gawaine’s voice all the time he’d been speaking: a quiet edge of bitterness … For no good reason he could name, except perhaps his actor’s instinct for truth and fallacy, Jordan suddenly felt he could trust this man.
    “Tell me the truth,” he said quietly. “What exactly have I let myself in for, Gawaine? Can I trust these people I’m working for?”
    Gawaine said nothing for a long time, staring out over the moor. “You’re being paid a great deal of money,” he said finally. “Do your job well, and keep your eyes and ears open, and you’ll walk away from this a rich man. That’s all you need to know.”
    Jordan waited awhile, but the knight had nothing more to say. Jordan sucked at his lower lip thoughtfully. It wasn’t difficult for him to read the tension and frustration in Gawaine’s stance. The knight wasn’t necessarily lying to him, but there was certainly a great deal he wasn’t prepared to say straight out.
    “You swore an oath to protect King Viktor,” he said suddenly. “You even followed him into exile from the Court, and followed him back to Castle Midnight when most of his other supporters wouldn’t. Now you’re risking your life to help put him on the throne. What’s he really like, Gawaine? Roderik’s been giving me Viktor’s life history till it’s coming out my ears, including everything he’s said and done from the cradle onward, and everyone he’s ever known, but I need more than that. What kind of man is Viktor?”
    Gawaine looked at Jordan for the first time. His gaze was steady, but tired. “Viktor … is the best of a bad bunch. Lewis is vile, Dominic is insane, and Viktor has been badly used. His brothers plotted against him, the woman he loved betrayed him, and he’s spent most of his life trying to be something he was never suited to be. You keep calling him a villain, but he isn’t. He’s done … deplorable things, yes, but only because in some matters he is too weak and easily led. As the son of a minor lord or