Book 1 - The Silver spike Read Online Free PDF Page B

some silver.
    “Why, thank you, yer grace. Come around anytime. Any time.
You got a friend down here to South Gate.”
    Raven didn’t say anything. He just grimaced and led his
horse through the gateway onto the moon-washed road.
    “Thanks,” I told the gatemen. “See you guys
around.”
    “Anytime, yer grace. Anytime. I’m yer
man.”
    Raven must have paid them off good.
    The grimace was familiar, though I hadn’t seen it for a
while. “Your hip bothering you again?”
    “It’ll be all right. I’ve traveled with
worse.”
    Sour bastard. He’d shaken the wine, pretty well, but the
hangover was hanging over. “Taking a long time to
heal.”
    “What the hell you expect? I’m not so young anymore.
And it was one of
her
arrows Croaker got me with.” Raven
didn’t seem to hold no grudge. He just couldn’t figure
it out.
    He probably didn’t want to figure it out. His idea of
Raven was that Raven was a doer, not a thinker.
    Sometimes I wondered how he could feed himself so much crap.
     
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X
    The old man, worn out, stood beside his ragged mount, stared at
the dusty crossroads. To the east lay Lords. Southward the road led
to Roses and beyond, to other great cities. The people he had come
chasing had split here. He did not know who had gone which
direction, though it seemed reasonable that the White Rose had
turned east toward her fastness in the Plain of Fear. The Lady
should have continued southward, toward her capital, the Tower at
Charm.
    With that parting, the armistice between them would have
ended.
    “Which way?” he asked the animal. The shaggy pony
did not express an opinion. The old man could not decide which
woman would be best equipped to act on his news. His impulse was to
keep going south, but only because by turning east he would be
headed into the rising sun.
    “We’re too old for this, horse.”
    The animal made a sound that, for a moment, he took to be a
response. But the pony was looking back the way they had come.
    Dust cloud. Fast riders coming down. Two, looked like. After a
moment the old man recognized the wild-eyed style of the man in the
lead. “Here comes our answer. Let’s go.” He
hurried along the eastbound road, turned aside into a copse, found
a spot where he could watch the riders. He would take the road they
ignored.
    Their mission had to be the same as his. That those two men
should arrive here at this moment, hurrying like hell was yapping
at their heels, for any other reason, strained credulity. The one
called Raven could have heard the alarm. At some time in his life
he had had some small training in the art, and his spirit had spent
a long time snared in the coils of the Barrowland. He was sensitive
enough.
    The old man’s eyelids drooped. He prepared an herbal draft
that would help keep him alert long enough to see what those two
men would do.
     
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XI
    Raven reined back to a walk. “We gave that old boy a
fright.”
    “Probably figures we’re bandits. We look it. You
going to kill these horses today? Or can we string them along for
awhile?”
    Raven grunted. “You’re right, Case. No sense getting
in so big a hurry we end up taking twice as long because we have to
walk most of the way. Funny. That old boy reminded me of that
wizard Bomanz that got eaten by the Barrowland dragon.”
    “All them old-timers look the same to me.”
    “Could be. Hold up.” He studied the crossroads. I
tried to spot the old man in the copse. I was sure he was watching
us.
    “Well?” I asked.
    “They split up like they said they would.”
    Don’t ask me how he knew. He knew. Unless he was just
faking it. I’ve seen him do that.
    “Darling went east. Croaker kept heading south.”
    I’d play his game. “How do you figure?”
    “She was with him.” He rubbed his hip. “She
would be headed for the Tower.”
    “Oh. Yeah.” Big deal. “Which way are we
headed? Whichever, we got to rest soon.”
    “Yes. Soon. For the horses.”
    “Sure.” I kept my