The Blade Itself

Joe Abercrombie

Contents

The End

Part I

The Survivors

Questions

No Choice at All

Playing With Knives

Teeth and Fingers

The Wide and Barren North

Fencing Practice

The Morning Ritual

First of the Magi

The Good Man

On the List

An Offer and a Gift

The King of the Northmen

A Road Between Two Dentists

Flatheads

The Course of True Love

How Dogs are Trained

Tea and Vengeance

Part II

What Freedom Looks Like

The King's Justice

Means of Escape

Three Signs

The Theatrical Outfitter's

Barbarians at the Gate

Next

Better than Death

Sore Thumb

Questions

Nobility

Dark Work

Words and Dust

The Remarkable Talents of Brother Longfoot

Her Kind Fight Everything

She Loves Me… Not

The Seed

Never Bet Against a Magus

The Ideal Audience

The House of the Maker

Nobody's Dog

Each Man Worships Himself

Old Friends

Back to the Mud

Misery

The Bloody-Nine

The Tools we Have

Acknowledgments

Copyright © Joe Abercrombie 2006 All rights reserved

The right of Joe Abercrombie to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in Great Britain in 2006 by Gollancz

An imprint of the Orion Publishing Group Orion House, 5 Upper St Martin's Lane, London WC2H 9EA

An Hachette Livre UK Company