4 City of Strife Read Online Free PDF Page A

“They’re both hiring mercenaries or so I am always hearing.”
    “I’m just here to make some offerings to Saint Verma,” said Kormak. “I’m not looking to fight. I’ll get enough of that come spring.”
    “From what I’ve heard the big houses are signing fighting men like it’s going out of fashion and they can both afford to pay good money. If you live long enough to spend it.”
    “You don’t say? There’s been trouble.”
    The sausage vendor laughed bitterly. “Yes. They’ve been at each other’s throats for months. There’s been riots, knifings, brawls, a bunch of deaths. Too many bloody deaths. The Watch have barely been able to keep a lid on it. They’ve been hiring wizards too. It’s them I blame for the monsters in the Maze and mostly likely the Silent Man too.”
    “Monsters in the Maze?”
    “There’s a beast there. It kills men and rips out their hearts. Sorry if that put you off your eating.”
    “Surely not?”
    “Every full moon or so they say. I blame the Krugmans. They’ve always worked magic. It’s most likely something they’ve let loose as part of their war with the Oldbergs. It’s all bad for business.”
    “Bad for business?”
    “Bad for everything. It’s getting so bad, I’ve said to my old woman that if this keeps up we’re leaving the city. These days all it takes is for one of those bloody kids to decide your sympathies lies with the other side, and your house gets a visit from the leg-breakers or you find yourself pushed about in the street or into the river. Not something you want in this weather.”
    “Surely the City Watch will do something about it.”
    “They would if it was anybody but the Oldbergs or the Krugmans. They’re too big and too rich. They own this city no matter what the bloody Prelate or the rest of the bloody patricians think.”
    “And the Prelate’s not doing anything about it?”
    “What can that poor old man do? He’s on his death bed.”
    “In his youth he would have sorted them though, wouldn’t he?”
    “Aye, he was a right holy terror back then. We need more of that spirit these days. Show these merchant dogs what for, and I say this, mark you, as a member of the merchant class myself. Somebody needs to knock a few heads together and sort things out. Those bastards will burn the city to the ground before they are done. You mark my words.”
    Kormak nodded and kept eating. He could see a few warriors in the tabards of the City Watch. They looked nervous and greatly outnumbered by the armed men about them. Kormak began to understand the situation he had walked into the previous day a bit better.
    He thanked the sausage vendor and moved on, stopping to watch some puppeteers acting out a play while their cohorts played wooden whistles and collected small coins in jester’s caps. The play involved demonic rats trying to take over the city and being driven off by good magicians in the pay of the Krugman family.
    A bunch of children and not a few adults watched entranced although Kormak could hear muttering from the people around about him. Someone said, not too loudly, that the Krugmans had brought the rats and not got rid of them, and that everybody knew it was the Church and their allies the Oldbergs who had got rid of them.
    A bunch of clowns dressed as pot-bellied warriors and long tailed demons acted out a play in which very foolish demons made war on even more foolish humans. There was a lot of bumping into each other and tripping up and slapping with inflated pig’s bladders.
    Amid all the jollity and the still falling snow, merchants went about their business, selling wine and cloth and spices. Buyers with the accents of distant towns and countries made deals with nasal-voiced Vermstadters. A beggar tugged at Kormak’s sleeve and asked for money. Kormak shook his head, knowing that paying one would simply attract a crowd of others and he would have difficulty getting anywhere. Instead he made his face hard and strode