Meet the young Geralt de Rivia in this exclusive extract from the new novel “Witcher”

Fans of The witch Perhaps a little time for the show to return to Netflix, but something so exciting happens very soon: the first news from Andrzej Sapkowski by Andrzej Sapkowski Witch Book in more than a decade, Corbeaux crossroads. He obtained a world release on September 30, translated into different languages ​​(the English version is from the veteran of the David French series), and Io9 has an exclusive extract to share today.

Here is a summary of what you can expect from this autonomous work:

“Before he was the white wolf or the Boucher of Blaviken, Geralt de Rivia was simply a new graduate of Kaer Morhen, entering a world that does not understand or salute his genre.

And when an act of naive heroism is seriously mistaken, Geralt is not saved from the knot flowing by Preston Holt, a graying witch with a buried past and a program to him.

Under the hand of Holt guidance, Geralt begins to learn what it really means to proceed with the way – to protect a world that fears it and to survive it in its own terms. But as the line between good and evil begins to blur, Geralt must decide to become the monster that everyone is waiting for, or something else.

This is the story of how legends are made – and what they cost. »»

Read the rest for an exclusive extract from Corbeaux crossroadsWhere a young Geralt was recently saved from the knot flowing by a mysterious witch named Preston Holt…

The kingdom of Kaedwen was known in everyone inhabited for their cold and capricious time. Closed from the north by the mountain barrier of the dragon and the east by the large blue mountains massif, the earth has suffered from erratic and frequent visits of aerial masses causing long bitter winters, cold springs and short and rainy summers. Regarding the fall, it varied – once sunny, warm and pleasant – without anything like it.

Now, in March, called “birke” by the elves, the snow has always stayed here and there in the ravines and the hollows, while the white plates lay in depressions in the clearings. The ice still covered a few puddles and dikes in yellowed leaves. Although the sun gave up heat, when the icy winds blew mountains, they did not sticker less than in January.

Geralt started from Kaer Morhen the day before the equinox. It was the custom of witches. It was therefore practiced because after the winter monsters, the monsters were the most faced and so vicious that the people of the villages and the colonies were inclined to engage in the hiring of a witch, even if during the hungry gap, they had eaten their shops and were practically devoid. But Geralt has never been lucky to be hired. Because things happened as you go; Barely two days of mountain and bang journey! The peasant and his daughter, the marauders, the bald with the rotten teeth, Wham, Bam, and we are there. He had found himself being tried by the alderman Bulava of Neuhold, then was saved from that and the threat of being lynched by soldiers of the neighboring fort by the strange individual with white hair with two swords on his back, rising a black horse, which Geralt was following now.

“I suggest,” said the strange individual, turning around in the saddle, “that we drive together for a while. Captain Carleton may always want to hang on you; it was obvious that he wanted it very much. He is not stupid enough to come after me, but you alone could be an easy target. So, if my company does not bother you …”

“Not a little,” said Geralt in a hurry, urging his mare Dun. “Royally … I … I am …”

“I know who you are. Did your hair become white after mutations? After the transformations? Loss of pigment, like me? “

“Aye … but how …”

“How did I know that there was someone like you there?” Because I am what is happening up there in the bastion. And he reached my ears that a prodigy called Geralt had finished his training and was soon to venture abroad. ”

“But Vesemir -“

“Have I never mentioned?” Has he never let the name “Preston Holt” slide? I will explain: Vesemir and I have moved to different orbits, so to speak, for some time. If you know what I mean.

Geralt didn’t really know what an orbit was, but nodded wisely.

They rolled up for a while in silence. Side by side.

“So you started from Kaer Morhen,” said Preston Holt. “You may not have had the best start, but that’s how it is with the beginnings. In any case, I don’t want to reprimand you. Absolutely the opposite; I have taken a look at this marauding body and your cuts can be considered impeccable. Insutile, perhaps; not considered, perhaps; inelegant, perhaps-but actually impeccable.”

They were again silent, looked at a herd of cattle pressed on a mountain pasture and the cow flowing from cow to the cow to warm her little frozen feet in fresh and hot cowpats. The cowpats did not warm it up much, but the race did it.

“They drive cows, although the grass barely throws out of the ground,” observed Holt. “This is a sign that the season has started and you will have no difficulty finding work, Geralt. The villages will soon be ready to pay for their shepherds and their cattle to be protected. Ride there in the Birchwood, near the opening of the Sough. ”

“The opening of what?”

“The sough. This open channel leads to a sough, a tunnel formerly used to drain the water of a mine. We are – as you no doubt know – in the part of the Kaedwen kingdom called the upper step. The richness of the upper walk is mines: mainly salt, but also money, nickel, zinc, lead, lapis lazuli and others.

Geralt did not comment.

“Do you see this upcoming hill?” This is called Podkurek, this is how it appears on official cards. And it happened because a hundred years ago, a peasant named Podkurek was established here immediately, extending in the mountains. had with water.

“Cynocephalia”, recited Geralt, after taking a deep inspiration, “are small creatures resembling dogs head. They are gregarious and live underground in the dark. They are dangerous in packets -“

“Dangerous infernally,” interrupted Preston Holt. “And often torment the amateur minors who come here to dig into the podkurek slopes looking for money, which you can always find here. Look, there is proof of my conference: these light patches are the canvas sheets of wagons and tents. We are doing well for an intrepid digging camp. The first spring. “

The Intrepid Diggers initially welcomed them with an armed delegation of shovels and cups. The threatening expressions of the welcome party sent a simple message: getting out of here, foreigners, we were first. Their expressions were quickly softened, however, when they saw that new arrivals were not unwanted competitors. Indeed, Joy appeared on their hostile faces before.

“My God, thank you the gods!” cried the writer’s chief, hiding behind his back a mattock, which only a moment earlier, he had made warned experienced. “Thank you to the gods! My God, why she is the most honorable witch! And because we heard that you were in the neighborhood, we wanted to send you a word. But instead, you arrive from nowhere, from nowhere!”

“It’s my custom,” said Preston Holt, straightening up in the saddle. “To appear from nowhere to help those who need it. Because I am a witcher.”

Meanwhile, several deplored women had joined the Diggers. The clamor has become stronger and more and more inconsistent. Preston Holt started calling to order using his voice and gestures. It took a while before it became possible to discern what it was and what the diggers and women were trying to express.

“We need a witch!” Called Chef Digger, brandishing his Mattock. “These underground creatures, which live under the mountain won a boy! They attacked him, seized him and dragged him into the abyss! Who will save him now, if not you? ”

“It’s not two weeks ago,” said Holt, “that I warned you to stay away from the tree and the gallery. Well?

Preston Holt came down from his horse. Geralt could not help noticing that this caused him difficulties. And that his left leg was very lame. With a gesture, he chased the women around him, groaned. He spoke for a certain time to the writer chief, then pulled Geralt near the Channel.

“Well, young Witcher,” he said. “It’s time to help people in need, victims of monsters. Because we have just been hired. “

“If cynocephalia took the boy the day before,” Grogné Geralt, “the chances are slim that he is still …”

“Alive? Yes, it’s doubtful. But maybe we will find it at least … HMM … it will give the mother the opportunity to bury everything that remains …

“Did I say something?” said Geralt, raising his shoulders. “Do I hesitate?” I am not.

Corbeaux crossroads will be published on September 30; You can pre -order a copy now.

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