Blood on Bronze (Blood on Bronze Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

get hurt out here.”
    “I’m unsure if I
can go home, though I have reason to think not. It is now my task to find out,
and that will guide what I must do next.”
    “What? Trouble
with your parents, your father?”
    “Not with him.”
    “But trouble!
All right then, Arjun, or Sharur, how do you expect to make it here?”
    “I suppose first
I must obtain lodgings, a bath, food, and some sandals. After that, I’ll begin
investigating.”
    Inina laughed,
“Obtain lodgings! If you go asking an innkeeper around here that question that
way, she’ll have shady friends jump you in hours. If you’re lucky they’ll only
take your bags and your sword, but leave you alive. Then again, someone like
you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t hiding from someone ELSE rich and powerful
who is on the right side of the city guard while you are probably on the wrong
side. In which case, an innkeeper likes rewards for fugitives as much as anyone
else, and might send someone with a little message of her own for the guard.”
    Arjun hadn’t
thought about any of that. He thought uncomfortably about the idea of a reward
out for him, and whether she, Inina, would want to claim it herself. He decided
to take a chance.
    “Very well, what
do you recommend?”
    She smiled,
“You’re asking ME for advice? What makes you think you can trust me?”
    “You’ve already
been giving me advice, good-sounding advice, and unasked.  Therefore in that
regard I do think I can trust you.”
    “Hmm… eminent
logic, I suppose. But this isn’t some school by the great plaza.”
    “Since you are
so determined that I NOT trust you, Inina, let us put this to the test.”
    Her eyes
narrowed, and she took a step back.
    “No!” and now it
was his turn to smile, “I mean I will call upon you to swear an oath.”
    “An oath? We
don’t generally give them round here, Arjun. Bad for business! Besides, why
should I do that?” a hint of suspicion crept back into her voice.
    “It costs you
nothing, and I will make no demands, other than that you speak the truth to
me.”
    “That itself
might be a cost.”
    Arjun looked at
her intently, “All right, I will begin. You can follow my example.”
    She looked on
nervously as he drew himself up straight-backed, raised his hands to the sky,
and then folded them across his chest.
    “I Arjun, son of
Ashur, of the lineage of Artashad, declare before gods and men that I will not
betray Inina, who stands before me, and that I will keep secret that which she
tells me by her oath. May this oath bind me in this life and the next.”
    The expression
on Inina’s face changed to wonder, and a change came also over her demeanor.
She gulped.
    “I… Inina,
daughter of those I never met, declare before… gods and men that I will not
betray Arjun, who… ah, stands before me, and that I will speak the truth to
him. May this oath bind me in this life… and the next.”
    “Now,” she said,
“let’s get out of this alley.”
    ~
    Arjun and Inina
walked down the Street of Vipers as the sun rose. The early morning traffic of
wagons and porters was already growing. The noise was tremendous, but then many
who slept along this particular street had strong drink to help them ignore it.
    She looked at
him, her big dark eyes flashing and a renewed smile on her lips. He’d done his
best to groom himself, washing up from a rain basin and smoothing down his
hair. “So, did you have any idea where, to what inn, you were going to go?”
    “I presumed I’d
find one with an innkeeper wouldn’t ask too many questions.”
    She laughed.
“The problem with that is that you wouldn’t find out until after you’d let
something slip, and any innkeeper who volunteers that she’ll keep secrets for
you will be one of the first to sell you out for the right price.”
    “I can match
many prices.”
    She eyed the
heavy-looking bags crossed over his shoulders.
    “I’m sure. But
you aren’t smart to advertise THAT either. The trick to