At the Gates of Darkness
The Demonwar Saga Book Two
Raymond E. Feist
Copyright
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authors imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
HarperVoyager
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London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk
Published by HarperVoyager 2010
Copyright © Raymond E. Feist 2010
Raymond E. Feist asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007264711
Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2009 ISBN: 9780007290215
Version: 2018-10-08
Dedication
For the ladies who make me look so good: (in alphabetical order) Jennifer Brehl, Emma Coode, Jane Johnson, and Katherine Nitzel; rarely does an author get one good editor, let alone four.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One: Sacrifice
Chapter Two: Foreboding
Chapter Three: Sergeant-Adamant
Chapter Four: Death Magic
Chapter Five: Legacy
Chapter Six: Survivors
Chapter Seven: Queg
Chapter Eight: Fortress
Chapter Nine: War
Chapter Ten: Demon Lore
Chapter Eleven: Escape
Chapter Twelve: Allies
Chapter Thirteen: Ancient Histories
Chapter Fourteen: Slaughter
Chapter Fifteen: Strategy
Chapter Sixteen: Reconnaissance
Chapter Seventeen: Summoning
Chapter Eighteen: Attack
Chapter Nineteen: Demon Unleashed
Epilogue
Keep Reading
Acknowledgements
About the Author
By the Same Author
About the Publisher
CHAPTER ONE Sacrifice
HOWLS FILLED THE NIGHT.
The blasted hills smoked and the stench of char filled the air. Hundreds of robed figures slowly wended their way between rocky debris to reach the huge clearing below the remains of a fortress gate tower. A powerful man stood silently on top of the pile of stones, looking down upon his followers.
Another figure waited in the shadows, using his considerable skill to remain unseen, and wishing fervently that he was anywhere else in the world but here. James Dasher Jamison took a slow, even breath, as much to calm himself as to catch his breath, and struggled to keep his wits about him. Within the courts of the three largest nations of the region, he was known as a minor noble of the Kingdom of the Isles; a man who had inherited, not earned, his rank, being the grandson of the Duke of Rillanon. To others he was Jim Dasher, a businessman involved in some petty criminal dealings in the city of Krondor; and to a few, he was known as the Upright Man, leader of the Thieves Guild: the Mockers. But even fewer knew James Dasher Jamison as the head of the Kingdom of the Isles intelligent apparatus, reporting directly to his grandfather.
In his forty or so years, Jim had seen many strange and terrifying thingsexperiences that came with his various positions. At times he feared he had become as heartless a bastard as those he had put down in the name of the Crown, or for the Conclave of Shadows, with whom he often worked; but even his lifetime of violence and intrigue could not have adequately prepared him for what he now saw before him.
A massive fire encompassed a circle of stakes, to which were tied four human sacrifices. They were not the first, already the dead numbered in the dozens, if not hundreds; but what churned Jims stomach more than this terrible scene, was that the slain had seemed willing, even eager to embrace a painful, flaming death.