The Final Drop , livre ebook

THE FINAL DROP
THE
FINAL DROP
The Third and Concluding Book of
BILLY SMITH AND THE GOBLINS
R OBERT H EWITT W OLFE
TURNER
Turner Publishing Company
Nashville, Tennessee
New York, New York
www.turnerpublishing.com
The Fallen Drop: Billy Smith and the Goblins, Book 3
Copyright 2020 Robert Hewitt Wolfe.
All rights reserved. This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Cover artwork: Tom Fowler
Cover design: Grace Cavalier
Book design: Tim Holtz
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Upon Request
Printed in the United States of America
18 19 20 21 22 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my sister, Beth ,
the first person to ever listen to my stories .
The pale-fac d moon looks bloody on the earth And lean-look d prophets whisper fearful change .
-That English Guy Again
Yet Another Play
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
A Long Road
CHAPTER ONE
Destiny or Whatever
CHAPTER TWO
Window, Window
CHAPTER THREE
Another Big Adventure
CHAPTER FOUR
Even Stones Get Ground to Dust
CHAPTER FIVE
A Kingmaker and a Toothbreaker
CHAPTER SIX
When Drums Call the Cadence
CHAPTER SEVEN
Brutal Encouragements
CHAPTER EIGHT
No Easy Way
CHAPTER NINE
Where the War Will End
CHAPTER TEN
Lords and Ladies
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Strange Interlopers
CHAPTER TWELVE
And Nothing Will Ever Be the Same
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Look Out! Here We Come!
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A Reason to Live and a Reason to Die
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
What Makes a King
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
A Fiery Apocalypse
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
A Gleaming Gold Ribbon
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
To Keep Death at Bay
EPILOGUE
The Ballad of King Billy
APPENDIX A
Gobayabber for Beginners
APPENDIX B
Goblin Names
APPENDIX C
The Hanorian Empire
THE FINAL DROP

PROLOGUE
A Long Road
B ytha didn t believe in regrets. Regrets never made anything better, in her experience. The way she saw it, when confronted with a problem, all she could do was make the best decision possible at the moment, using whatever information she might have, then follow through to the best of her ability. Bytha knew if she gave her best effort, she d do better than if she didn t, nine times out of ten. And if things didn t work out, that was just Lord Sun playing His usual games with mortal lives. There wasn t much she could do about that. So once Bytha made a decision, she tried not to look back. When a person was looking back, she figured, they weren t paying attention to the present. Decide, act, learn, move on-that was the best way to live as far as Bytha was concerned.
Still, it was hard not to wonder if maybe she d made a mistake when, well over a year ago, she d agreed to accompany her friend Ysalion on her so-called grand adventure. Ysalion had seemed so excited when she proposed her plan. They would enlist in the Lion Guards under assumed names. No cushy officers commissions for them. They would live the life of the common soldier, learn the wants and needs of their comrades-in-arms, and if necessary, defend the Hanorian Empire against its enemies. Then, after a year or so, they would reveal themselves and return to their lives at the Imperial Court, stronger, wiser, and better able to understand the plight of the commoners, soldier and civilian alike.
Bytha had agreed to Ysalion s plan without much resistance. That s what a Mirror Woman was supposed to do-reflect well on her Lady Light and help her in her daily life. Even though Bytha had never felt particularly comfortable in her role as one of the minor courtiers who accompanied and assisted the high noblewomen of the Imperial Court, she was still committed to being the best Mirror possible. So when Ysalion proposed her plan, Bytha did her best to make it a reality.
It hadn t been all that much of a sacrifice, if Bytha were being honest. At the time, she d figured she d make a better soldier than a Mirror Woman. Deep down, she thought she was too big, too plain, and too uncultured to be a flattering reflection of her patroness. She stood a full hand higher than Ysalion and weighed almost twice as much. Plus, while the other Mirrors seemed content to spend their days gossiping, weaving, painting, playing music, and engaging in other properly ladylike activities, Bytha had never much enjoyed any of it.
Ill-suited, that s what she was. A bad fit. She d grown up on her father s estate in the Castle Hills, not far from the Empire s northeastern border. Her father, Lyaster Vengraf, was a Marcher Baron, responsible for protecting the Empire from its enemies to the northeast-the savage Gravoi and the petty kingdoms of the Barduin Free States. Her mother had died when Bytha was still young, and Bytha Vengraf had grown up the only girl in a martial household, surrounded by a small army of older brothers. Her father hadn t really known what to do with her, so he d raised her as one more son. Her days had been devoted to learning to ride, fight, and shoot a bow, just like her brothers. She d spent far more time tromping around in heavy armor than posing in pretty silks.
Then her Aunt Lanyla had come for a fateful visit, just after Bytha had turned sixteen. Lanyla was her mother s sister, a baroness in her own right who d inherited their family estate many leagues to the southwest, far from the Castle Hills and the constant threat of raids and invasions. Arriving at Lord Vengraf s castle, Aunt Lanyla had found her niece splashing around in a rainy courtyard, wearing sparring armor, battering at one of her brothers with a blunted sword, covered in mud.
It wouldn t do, Aunt Lanyla had declared. It wouldn t do at all.
So, after several nights of badgering, Lord Vengraf had agreed to send Bytha to the Imperial Court in Gran Hanor to become a Mirror Woman to one of the Court s high-ranking Lights-all to land a good husband and give birth to the next generation of nobility, as the God of Light intended.
Somehow, despite Bytha s complete lack of qualifications to be a lady of the court, she d been assigned to Ysalion. Ysalion proved herself to be a generous Light. She d gifted Bytha with a proper Mirror Woman s wardrobe of silk dresses and brocaded overcoats, along with an elaborate pearl-and-feather headpiece-complete with a veil of fine gold beads-for formal occasions. And Bytha had done her best to be a proper Mirror for her Light. She d taken up the dulcimer to accompany Ysalion s singing recitals, learned embroidery and needlework, and been instructed in the finer points of nineteen different Hanorian court dances. They d become close friends. Still, after four years of awkward dances, misplayed notes, and botched tapestries, joining the Lion Guards and getting to wear armor and fight again had seemed like a terrific idea to Bytha. Even though she worried that Ysalion might not be able to keep up.
Somehow Ysalion had gotten them both enrolled in the Lion Guards as regular soldiers, making sure none of the officers or other soldiers knew about their noble backgrounds. Ysalion started wearing a half veil in public to hide her well-known face, posing as a dutiful daughter from one of the conservative families along the southeast coast. No one ever recognized her, even though she and Bytha had kept their real first names.
Together, they d gone through the intense half-year training it took to become a Guard. Those six months were long and difficult, physically and mentally demanding. Being a woman in the Guards wasn t easy. Bytha and Ysalion didn t just have to keep up with their fellow recruits, they also had to be vigilant, in case one of the men decided to try anything with them. Bytha had been forced to break one recruit s jaw when he wouldn t stop pestering Ysalion, but after that they d been mostly left alone and treated like just two more trainees.
Despite Ysalion s best efforts though, it had eventually become clear that she was too small and light to fight as a front-ranker. Still, she hadn t quit. Instead, she d specialized as an archer and earned her white cloak and lion helm right along with the rest of the recruits.
That had been a good day, standing in Founders Square, mustering with the rest of the Lion Guards, receiving their cloaks and helms from Lord Marshal Jiyal while the Emperor himself watched from the Golden Balcony.
At the time, Bytha had been worried that someone would realize who Ysalion was, even with her face hidden under a veil, and force them to quit the Lion Guards. But the Lord Marshal, lost in his usual self-absorption, hadn t recognized either of them. And the Emperor was too far away to see them at all. So on that sunny day on Founders Square, Ysalion and Bytha achieved their goal. They d earned their way into the Guards despite being women and without relying on their privileged births. They d done everything they d set out to do.
Then, a few weeks later, the goblins attacked the Uplands, and Bytha, Ysalion, and the rest of the Hanorian Army marched off to war.
War, it turned out, was not a grand adventure. War was terrible. Bytha and Ysalion saw far too many of their friends die over the next several months. Ysalion herself had nearly bled to death from a wound she d suffered during a frantic battle at the gates of Goblin City. She d been saved only because Bytha and their commanding officer, Captain Cyreth, had kidnapped a wizard at daggerpoint and forced him to heal her.
If he d known who Ysalion was, the wizard would have never refused to treat her in the first place. But Bytha had kept her friend s secret, and she was saved, nevertheless.
Then came the horrific final battle against the goblins.
Captain Cyr