Beneath the Eye of God (The Commodore Ardcasl Space Adventures Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

already hearing his hearty laughter coming from the far end of the bar. Ohan swallowed with difficulty. Only a few hours earlier he had been entrusted with 80 coppers for safekeeping and had been sent to buy provisions. He was returning with no money, no provisions and a young woman armed with a very large sword who insisted she was his bodyguard. Worst of all, he was not at all sure how it had happened. Where was he to begin his explanation?
    As his eyes adjusted to the darkened interior, he saw the Commodore holding forth at one end of the half-filled bar. The twins sat chatting with some men at a table against the wall.
    "Ah, there's my lad," the Commodore shouted across the room, "returned from the market. Come let me buy you a beer to wash the dust from your pipes."
    "Thank you, sir. But first I have to explain how I . . ."
    "No, lad. First you must introduce us to the young woman who seems to be following you around."
    With a start Ohan realized that Leahn had come with him into the tavern and now stood directly behind him. "Oh yes, of course," he stammered. "This is the Princess Leahn. She uh . . ."
    "I serve master Ohan as bodyguard," Leahn said.
    Even the Commodore was taken aback. "By Odin's beard," he said. "You have had a busy morning. But I don't see that the purchase of a few loaves of bread requires an armed escort, even one so fair as this. Allow me to buy you both a drink."
    "Folks may not be particular wherever you come from, stranger," a dark man halfway down the bar snarled at the Commodore. "We don't drink with whores around here."
    Ohan was aghast. "Oh, sir," he said to the Commodore. "She is truly a princess."
    "I'm sure she is. It's been my experience that well over half the fallen flowers I have encountered in my travels have been of royal blood. We'll have two beers for my friends, innkeeper."
    "You must be hard of hearing, fatso," the dark man said as he advanced toward them along the bar. "Your 'fallen flower' is more like a blueapple. The skin looks smooth and sweet but the inside is all fiber and thorn."
    "I know you," Leahn said to the dark man. "Have a care for I like you not."
    "Fiber and thorn beneath that smooth skin. It takes a good deal of beating to squeeze even a drop of sweetness out. She belongs in a house down by the square, not here with honest men."
    "Let's all have a drink and discuss this," the Commodore said. "My treat."
    "Sure. I'll drink with you," the dark man snarled, "right after I drag this whore back to where she belongs."
    "Don't touch her!" Ohan found himself shouting. "I've bought her contract. She's mine."
    "Then you've made a bad investment, furball." The dark man had a knife at Ohan's throat. "I've a lot more sweetening to do on this one. And I've yet to teach her to cry."
    "You put your life at peril ere you threaten my master," Leahn said quietly, her hand steady near her right ear.
    "Are you sure I can't buy anyone a drink?" the Commodore asked.
    "First I'll skin your fuzzy little friend, then I'll have his whore right here on the bar. No sense wasting two coppers when I can . . . " The dark man stopped talking as his head thumped onto the floor. His body slowly collapsed into a heap beside it.
    Leahn wrenched her sword from the wine cask where it was imbedded and leaped onto the bar. "With whom have I bloodfeud in this scum's death?" she shouted.
    The innkeeper, a round bald man, shook his head and laid his club back under the bar. "I think none will claim bloodkin to that one," he said. "But that was a good wine cask."
    "I'm sure suitable payment can be arranged," the Commodore said. "Allow me to help you down from there, my dear." He extended a hand to Leahn. "I'm seldom one to criticize and I hope you won't be offended if I offer a suggestion purely in the spirit of constructive criticism. I believe you would have decapitated that cask as cleanly as you did our late friend if you had not lowered your elbow at the end of your swing."
    "It looked more like her