King of Thorns

King of Thorns
Mark Lawrence

The second book in the Broken Empire series, Lawrence takes his young anti-hero one step closer to his grand ambition.To reach greatness you must step on bodies, and many brothers lie trodden in my wake. I’ve walked from pawn to player and I’ll win this game of ours, though the cost of it may drown the world in blood…The land burns with the fires of a hundred battles as lords and petty kings fight for the Broken Empire. The long road to avenge the slaughter of his mother and brother has shown Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath the hidden hands behind this endless war. He saw the game and vowed to sweep the board. First though he must gather his own pieces, learn the rules of play, and discover how to break them.A six nation army, twenty thousand strong, marches toward Jorg's gates, led by a champion beloved of the people. Every decent man prays this shining hero will unite the empire and heal its wounds. Every omen says he will. Every good king knows to bend the knee in the face of overwhelming odds, if only to save their people and their lands. But King Jorg is not a good king.Faced by an enemy many times his strength Jorg knows that he cannot win a fair fight. But playing fair was never part of Jorg’s game plan.

KING OF THORNS

Book Two of The Broken Empire

Mark Lawrence

Copyright

HarperCollinsPublishers

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Published by HarperVoyager

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 2012

Copyright © Mark Lawrence 2012

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 author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007439034

Ebook Edition © April 2012 ISBN: 9780007439041

Version: 2017-10-18

Dedicated to my son, Rhodri.

Table of Contents

Title Page (#u9e2a99b1-a472-55f4-ae97-2df91de40315)

Copyright (#u56dc8fda-5bb6-5f04-b19b-c5fadc53db9a)

Dedication (#u97fc13c1-0780-5e97-bddf-4bd07622a673)

Map (#ufedd3224-059e-5ffb-b2dd-3466a8f69896)

Prologue (#u474975e3-94c4-5f9c-9019-3ff15dc6607b)

Chapter 1 (#u83d1cba3-7b99-59cb-aae1-9965ff51720e)

Chapter 2 (#u956cfb7d-7151-54a2-9148-c23b2252cf56)

Chapter 3 (#uf8a2e340-7111-5727-abd1-cb4973fd9a98)

Chapter 4 (#u735539f5-4541-52ad-902e-2ccb788b6925)

Chapter 5 (#u716bdada-30d9-5c8e-8a1c-a0aa70de5690)

Chapter 6 (#u66a79cd6-2f65-5fe3-8916-fb5c3afb6d52)

Chapter 7 (#ufb02ef7e-070e-5f92-951e-a9ba258350e4)

Chapter 8 (#u54f029fe-4e74-5d34-8220-993e1d9b4408)

Chapter 9 (#u31d1679a-5935-517d-ba6b-d083e13ff28f)

Chapter 10 (#ua0312902-e2b1-5839-a87f-76515107b9b9)

Chapter 11 (#u947f6888-33a5-530d-8fd5-8bb88276c81f)

Chapter 12 (#u08f6d52a-1170-5c7e-963a-e3784a96b00d)

Chapter 13 (#u286caf3a-7a7b-5012-85b9-a80cbb55c896)

Chapter 14 (#u3a28ff07-fca6-509e-bb3d-6df7e8542074)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 32 (#litres_trial_promo)