Hart's Hope
Orson Scott Card
Language: English
Pages: 304
ISBN: 0765306786
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A dark and powerful fantasy from the bestselling author of Ender's Shadow.
Enter the city of Hart's Hope, ruled by gods both powerful and indifferent, riddled with sorcery and revenge. The city was captured by a rebellious lord, Palicrovol, who overthrew the cruel king, Nasilee, hated by his people.
Palicrovol, too, was cruel, as befitted a king. He took the true mantle of kinghood by forcing Asineth, now Queen by her father's death, to marry him, raping her to consummate the marriage. [But he was not cruel enough to rule.] He let her live after her humiliation; live to bear a daughter; live to return from exile and retake the throne of Hart's Hope.
But she, in turn, sent Palicrovol into exile to breed a son who would, in the name of the God, take back the kingdom from its cruel Queen.
terror of Zymas spread throughout all of Burland. Zymas had only five hundred soldiers, both horse and foot, but this was a day when a village had five families and a town had fifty, so that five hundred soldiers were quite enough to subdue whoever needed subduing. And if some group of barons or counts combined their petty forces so that they outnumbered Zymas, they were still foredoomed. If there were ten such barons, they could be sure that one had joined the rebellion as the King’s agent, two
kitchens of their lords. Orem had no notion where to go, now that he was here. He had expected someone to challenge them, but no one did. In fact there were others without livery, dressed as simply as he. It gave him hope. There might indeed be work here. “It’s like a little city,” Flea whispered. “Come on,” Orem answered. He strode boldly toward the back gate of a great house, where the kitchen fires burned hot and smoky, sending more fog to thicken and yellow the light. “Ho, boys!” An old
SEGRIVAUN The woman gave them each a hand and pulled them into a room that was lit, to Orem’s surprise, by daylight. Wasn’t it night? Hadn’t he been hours in the dark? Or could it be the next morning already? No, he wasn’t that tired. There was no open window; just a few cracks in the wooden wall, with a roll of heavy black cloth tied above it, ready to be let down at night to hold candlelight inside. Orem wondered if this woman lived all her life here. Perhaps. It paid: Braisy handed her two
Orem knew that now was his chance, if he swung into the hole and dropped to the floor below, then climbed down the free rope to the bottom, then retraced all his steps— Segrivaun’s huge hand closed on his arm. Orem tried to pull away. “There’s some tried it,” Segrivaun said. “They’re all dead, though. All got lost in the catacombs.” I won’t. “But Braisy’s paid three silvers already, he doesn’t want a dead one, does he, doesn’t want a lost one. Come on.” Segrivaun opened a door, and they
Palicrovol,” said the man. “I am one battle away from death or a throne. My enemy is Nasilee, who rules by right of blood in Burland.” Truth-without-Torture took the challenge of his words. “If he rules by right of blood, how do you dare oppose him? Answer truthfully, for your life is in your tongue.” “Because I am a good man,” answered Palicrovol, “and Nasilee is one of those who rule by right of blood, but earn the hate of all good men. Still, I would not have rebelled if the gods had not