WolfeBlade: de Wolfe Pack Generations by Kathryn Veque (top 20 books to read .TXT) 📗

an agreeable female or a resistant one was all the same to them.

John suddenly held up a finger.

“Wait,” he said as if a thought had just occurred to him. “The dead and the water. Do you not understand? Deadwater. He must mean the village of Deadwater.”

Nicholas’ eyes widened. “Of course,” he hissed. “It is not far from here. But it not on our lands.”

John shook his head. “Merek de Leia of Falstone Castle,” he said. “He is the lord of Deadwater’s village. God’s Bones… I’ve not thought of him in some time.”

“That is because he is worthless to us,” Nicholas sniffed. “He should be closer to us than he is, but he refuses any alliance at all. Instead, he is allied with de Wolfe from Rule Water Castle.”

John’s eyes narrowed. “The Lair,” he muttered, using the term for the massive de Wolfe garrison known as Wolfe’s Lair. “In my quest to assert myself over de Wolfe’s dominance, I’ve overlooked their smaller allies like de Leia, mostly because they mean nothing to me. I can easily quash them. But de Leia… Deadwater is his domain. And he has a daughter, his only child.”

Something in Nicholas’ eyes flickered, like a flame of evil igniting. “A child from a de Wolfe ally would surely fulfill the prophesy better than any other woman,” he said. “Think of it, Father – we have often spoken of this moment, the moment when we obtain the necessary alliance to rise against de Wolfe and push back. We have watched them encroach upon the border, drawing closer to us, swallowing up our eastern lands and daring us to challenge them. This is our moment, Father. Do you disagree with me?”

John shook his head. “That is why I kept True Thomas here,” he said. “That is why I sought him out to begin with. The House of de Soulis has been on these borders longer than the House of de Wolfe, yet de Wolfe and his connections have gradually swallowed up everything. Soon, they will swallow us if we do not resist. Nay, more than resist – defeat. And this child will give us the power to do that because we shall have the greatest ally in all the world. God would not help us, so let Lucifer have his due. I will gladly give him a sacrifice of de Soulis blood if it will rid us of de Wolfe.”

Now, it was spoken plainly, the very reason they had summoned True Thomas and kept the man close until the conditions were right for his prophesy.

Now, they knew what had to be done.

A child of de Soulis blood and a de Wolfe ally.

“I will go to Deadwater and I will continue to return until I can discover information on de Leia’s daughter,” Nicholas said, feeling some excitement now that a plan was set. “Deadwater is on her father’s land, so surely she is not a stranger to the village.”

“Assuredly not,” John said. “But you must be cautious. If her father hears you are looking for her, he will keep her safely tucked inside the walls of Falstone.”

Nicholas shook his head. “I will be careful,” he said. “I have not been to Deadwater in years, so I will not be recognized. But make no mistake, Father – this is a hunt. And I shall be very careful in my hunt.”

“As you lie in wait.”

“Exactly.”

That was exactly what John wanted to hear. The prophesy had been delivered. Soon, so would a child.

A child that would cause the fall of the House of de Wolfe.

PART ONE

LONDON

CHAPTER TWO

Year of our Lord 1292

London

The Pox Tavern

“Dray! Down!”

A very big man in the midst of throwing a punch suddenly fell to the floor as another man, who had rushed up behind him with a chair held aloft and intending to smash it on his head, went sailing over his head and crashed into a wall.

It was time to get out.

Andreas de Wolfe, his two cousins, Thomas “Tor” de Wolfe and William “Will” de Wolfe, and his close friend Theodis de Velt, had come to the legendary London tavern known as The Pox. It was a rather large establishment, situated in a seedy part of London, and nestled down by the riverbank where the cogs would come to shore and anchor. The Pox had been around for over one hundred years and, in those years, had established a reputation as a lively place with a deadly underbelly.

But The Pox was unique.

So unique, in fact, that it drew a massive crowd from the lowest of the low to princes and kings. Everyone wanted to spend time in a place that wasn’t fashionable, or beautiful, but had reputation built on two distinct things – excellent food and drink, and a gambling reputation that was second to none.

At The Pox, anyone could bet on anything – literally.

That’s exactly what Andreas and his cousins had been doing. They had come into the tavern to sample the good food and drink that they had heard so much about, but they ended up in a drinking game that had become quite revolting.

It had all started because Theodis had purchased several different medicaments from a local apothecary, stuff that was difficult to find in the north. He’d purchased ingredients that were guaranteed to ease a fever, some to cure a cut or a puncture, some to fortify the blood, and yet another that guaranteed to evacuate the stomach at an alarming rate. It was called a “purge” and it was used when men ingested poison or rotten meat, or something that needed to come out of the body quickly.

And that had given the knights an idea.

The premise was simple – one of them added a tiny bit of purge to the cheaper ale they were drinking. The glasses were then shuffled and distributed, and the men bet on who would be drinking the glass with the purge.

There was an element of danger as well as an element of hilarity. Too much purge could