Chapter 9: In A Velvet Glove

The ninth chapter of The Pale Princess, in which Diesirae has a riding lesson, King Umbrago throws his weight around, and Marco's day goes from already very bad to much, much worse...

Expect a handsome horse handler, a High Council full of not very nice people, some pears, an unfortunate prison guard, and perhaps the grimmest form of indigestion ever described in fiction.

The Heartless Knaves is a new dark fantasy audiobook podcast featuring clever heists, gory scraps, sad bits, saucy bits, murderous nuns, talking donkeys, and an 8-year-old boy king who won’t take no for an answer.

Set in a twisted version of the English Renaissance, the story hinges on the macabre adventures of assassins Silkin and Rooks, who may be dead, their hearts stolen by the church, their severed heads mounted on the royal battlements, but there’s no rest for the wicked...

Blending black humour and squishy violence with a whip-smart plot and a cast of loveable rogues, the first book, The Pale Princess, is a bit like a haunted roller coaster: fundamentally unsafe, shuddering in the wind, and threatening to come off the rails as it gathers pace.

If you have ever been betrayed, and wanted revenge.

If you have ever had your heart cut out, and wanted it back.

If you have ever known something was sickeningly wrong, and wanted to wreak havoc in reply, you are one of us.

For we are The Heartless Knaves.

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