The Enterprise of Death - Jesse Bullington [0]
“Darkly funny, profane, erudite, bawdy and wickedly original … an amazing new talent.”
Jeff Vandermeer
“An engrossing read.”
Interzone
“A novel of great humour, deep theology and gratuitous murder and quite unlike anything I’ve ever read before. I absolutely loved it … one of the books of the year for sure!”
SFRevu.com
“The wicked sense of amorality and humour will appeal to many who like their humour dark. Like its amazing cover, it is a satisfyingly clever, well-plotted book that never takes itself too seriously.”
SFFWorld.com
“This is one of the best I’ve read … utterly absorbing and as fine a tale as you’ll read this year.”
Sci-Fi London
“Bullington paints a world appropriately dark and sinister with a confidence that makes you wonder whether he knew someone who lived there.”
Graemesfantasybookreview.com
“Dark, brooding, atmospheric and compelling.”
Booksmonthly.co.uk
BY JESSE BULLINGTON
The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart
The Enterprise of Death
COPYRIGHT
Published by Hachette Digital
ISBN: 978-0-748-11880-9
All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by Jesse Bullington
Extract from The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington
Copyright © 2009 by Jesse Bullington
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
Hachette Digital
Little, Brown Book Group
100 Victoria Embankment
London, EC4Y 0DY
www.hachette.co.uk
For
All Those Who Go Before Us
Contents
Praise For Jesse Bullington
By Jesse Bullington
Copyright
Prologue: The Worst Beginning Imaginable
I: Death and the Artist
II: The Coming of His Acolytes
III: The Crucible of Madness
IV: The Three Apprentices of the Necromancer
V: The Final Test
VI: The Soldier and Death
VII: The Last Apprentice
VIII: Awkward Adolescence
IX: Medicines Bitter as Wormwood
X: Cruel Youth
XI: The Soldier and the Witch
XII: Something Sweeter Than Unspoiled Wine
XIII: The Counsel of Corpses
XIV: The Long Walk to Golgatha
XV: The Judgment of Milan
XVI: Syphilis and the Magus
XVII: The Hangman’s Sword
XVIII: A Discharge, with Some Weeping
XIX: The Smith’s Guns
XX: Manuel’s Ladies
XXI: Breakfast in Bern
XXII: Dancing After Midnight
XXIII: The Rise of the Hammer
XXIV: The Whores, the Boors, and the Moor
XXV: The Judgment of Paris
XXVI: Necromancers and Other Scavengers
XXVII: The High Cost of Living
XXVIII: A Happy Reunion
XXIX: A Fast Night in the Black Forest
XXX: The Hammer Falls
XXXI: A Slow Night in the Black Forest
XXXII: The Convergence of Trails
XXXIII: Bastards of the Schwarzwald
XXXIV: Sharp Truths
XXXV: A Tale for a Colder Night
XXXVI: The Requiem of Bicocca
XXXVII: Death and the Maiden
XXXVIII: Eternity in the Tomb
XXXIX: Et in Arcadia Ego
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Extras
About the Author
The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart
I: The First Blasphemy
II: Bastards at Large
Prologue
The Worst Beginning Imaginable
Pity Boabdil. King of Granada, last Moor lord of the Iberian Peninsula, reduced to a suppliant outside his own city by a Spaniard sovereign, an exile from a home hard won. The truce signed by kings and Pope, all that remained was for Boabdil to bow before his victorious adversary and kiss the man’s ring. The victor was supposed to refuse the offer, thus preserving some shred of Boabdil’s already tattered honor, but this stipulation must have slipped the Christian’s mind as he extended his pudgy fingers to the Moor. There was nothing for it. King Ferdinand’s seal tasted salty as the strait Boabdil would soon cross, and the man’s onion-pale queen leered at the Moor as he rose.
That dreadful Genoan sailor who hung around Isabella like a fly around a chamber pot stood a short distance off, and when they made