Broken Crossroads (Knights of the Shadows Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

place.
    “Now, do you know what you're here after?”
    “I do. And where it is,” she smiled.
    Conn studied the room as she stooped down in front of a small chest. The chamber was small, perhaps five feet on a side, and nearly empty. There were a few wooden boxes stacked in a corner, and one small locked box which his companion was examining. Besides the door they had entered, there was only a wooden trap door in the floor, with an iron ring for a handle.
    They heard pounding on the door behind them. Conn looked at it. It was thick, obviously strong, and the bolt was holding. He was glad she hadn't damaged the lock when she opened it. He kept an eye on it in case the guards had a key.
    “I assume we leave by the floor.”
    “Exactly,” she said somewhat distantly, turning the small chest in her hands.
    “Why not come in that way?”
    “It leads out to one of the caves by the harbor. Paisleigh is a smuggler as well as a slaver. I don't know which cave. When we follow it out, it won't be hard to find our way back to the city, but I wouldn't know where to start from on that end. Aha!” She turned to him, pulled her scarf over her nose and mouth. “Cover your face.”
    She fiddled with the box, then slid her pick into the keyhole, turned the chest at an angle and twisted the pick.
    Conn heard a faint click. A puff of dust spurted from a carving on the box's corner, toward the wall.
    “Nice try,” she said. He could see the smile in her eyes, even though the rest of her face was hidden. “But not good enough.” She opened the lid and took out a large blue stone.
    He whistled. “Must be worth quite a bit.”
    “More than you'd think,” she replied, dropping it into her pouch. “If my client can be believed, there are memories sealed in this jewel. A skilled seer can read them. Or maybe not. They believe the story enough to pay more than market value. By the way, the dust should settle soon, but keep your face covered until we get out, just in case.”
    Conn grasped the iron ring and raised his eyebrows. She nodded.
    The trapdoor lifted smoothly and they descended a ladder to a rough stone passage. Surf sounded from the far end. Trilisean lowered her scarf and smiled. “Care for a walk along the beach?”
    “Delighted,” he replied.
    They hurried along the passage. It was fairly wide and mostly natural, although it appeared that it had been smoothed or widened in places. It descended gently. Light trickled from the far end.
    After a short while, they saw the bright light of the moon reflected off the stone ahead. The entrance must be around this final turn, Conn thought gratefully.
    They rounded the corner and saw the waves gently lapping the narrow strip of sand below the cliffs.
    Stark against this backdrop were four men. One was tying off a boat, and three strode toward them with heavy bundles.
    Both parties stopped in shock for a moment.
    “Get them!” bellowed the man near the boat. He was dressed in the finery of a well-to-do merchant. The others dropped their burdens and reached for the weapons at their belts.
    Just as there is a time for defense, thought Conn, there is a time for offense. He rushed the three, tearing his sword and dirk from their sheaths as he did so, shouting a battle cry.
    He drove his left shoulder into the first man before the fellow could clear steel, then ripped his dirk across the man's body. With his sword he knocked aside the hatchet the second man held and hacked him across the skull. The third sailor had a club and a long knife ready. Conn rushed him, feigned a cut at his head, then whipped his blade around with a twist of the wrist and slashed the man's side open as he raised his club to guard his head.
    Conn took three steps toward the last man, who raised an empty hand and shouted something.
    Conn felt his muscles turn to water. His body ceased to obey him. He fell in mid stride, rolling down the passage. He felt the wound in his shoulder open on the rough stones as he