The Liar’s Key
From the critically-acclaimed author of PRINCE OF FOOLS comes the second volume of the brilliant new epic fantasy series, THE RED QUEEN’S WAR.'If you like dark you will love Mark Lawrence. And when the light breaks through and it all makes sense, the contrast is gorgeous' ROBIN HOBBThe Red Queen has set her players on the board…Winter is keeping Prince Jalan Kendeth far from the luxuries of his southern palace. And although the North may be home to his companion, the warrior Snorri ver Snagason, he is just as eager to leave.For the Viking is ready to challenge all of Hel to bring his wife and children back into the living world. He has Loki’s key – now all he needs is to find the door.As all wait for the ice to unlock its jaws, the Dead King plots to claim what was so nearly his – the key into the world – so that the dead can rise and rule.
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HarperVoyager
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First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2015
Copyright © Mark Lawrence 2015
Jacket layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015
Jacket illustration © Jason Chan
Map © Andrew Ashton
Mark Lawrence 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.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780007531578
Ebook Edition © June 2015 ISBN: 9780007531592
Version: 2017-10-23
Dedicated to my mother, Hazel.
Table of Contents
For those of you who have had to wait a year for this book I provide a brief note to Book 1, Prince of Fools, so that your memories may be refreshed and I can avoid the exquisite pain of having to have characters tell each other things they already know for your benefit.
Here I carry forward only what is of importance to the tale that follows.
1 1. Jalan Kendeth (grandson of the Red Queen) and Snorri ver Snagason (a very large Viking) set off from Red March (northern Italy) for the Bitter Ice (northern Norway), bound together by a spell that cursed one of them to be light-sworn and the other dark-sworn.
2 2. Jalan is now dark-sworn and visited each sunset by a female spirit called Aslaug.
3 3. Snorri is light-sworn and visited each sunrise by a male spirit called Baraqel.
4 4. They travelled to the Black Fort to rescue Snorriâs wife and surviving child from Sven Broke-Oar and agents of the Dead King, including necromancers, unborn, and Edris Dean. This rescue failed. Snorriâs family did not survive.
5 5. Jalan, Snorri and Tuttugu, a fat and slightly timid Viking, are the three survivors of the quest to the Black Fort. They have returned to the port town of Trond and spent the winter there.
6 6. Snorri has Lokiâs key, a magical key that will open any lock. The Dead King wants this key very much.
7 7. Of their enemy at the Black Fort it is possible that Edris Dean and a number of the Hardassa (Red Vikings) survived, along with a handful of necromancers from the Drowned Isles.
8 8. Jalanâs grandmother, the Red Queen, remains in Red March with her elder sister, known as the Silent Sister, and her misshapen elder brother, Garyus. It was the Silent Sisterâs spell that bound Snorri and Jalan together.
9 9. A number of powerful individuals use magic to manipulate events in the Broken Empire, often standing as the controlling interests behind many of the hundred thrones. The Dead King, the Lady Blue, the ice witch, Skilfar, and the dream-mage Sageous, are four such individuals. Jalan met Skilfar and Sageous on the way to the Black Fort. The Dead King has attempted to kill Jalan and Snorri several times. The Lady Blue is engaged in some long and secret war against the Red Queen and appears to be guiding the Dead Kingâs hand, though perhaps he doesnât know it.
Two men in a room of many doors. One tall in his robes, stern, marked with cruelty and intelligence, the other shorter, very lean, his hair a shock of surprise, his garb a changing motley confusing the eye.
The short man laughs, a many-angled sound as likely to kill birds in flight as to bring blossom to the bough.
âI have summoned you!â The tall man, teeth gritted as if still straining to hold the other in place, though his hands are at his side.
âA fine trick, Kelem.â
âYou know me?â
âI know everyone.â A sharp grin. âYouâre the door-mage.â
âAnd you are?â
âIkol.â His clothes change, tattered yellow checks on blue where before it was scarlet fleur de lis on grey. âOlik.â He smiles a smile that dazzles and cuts. âLoki, if you likey.â
âAre you a god, Loki?â No humour in Kelem, only command. Command and a great and terrible concentration in stone-grey eyes.
