Burning Tower Read Online Free PDF Page A

think it’s their turf; the Bull Pizzles claim it too. Going in there to hunt would start a war. Maybe that’s what brought the Pizzle raiders this time, I don’t know. But Reggy’s men would know there might be gold down there, and here was their chance.”
    â€œSo it’s not Reggy’s fault?”
    Sandry was just too tired to watch his mouth. “It’s every bit his fault. He’s a Lord. If he can’t control four Lordkin, he’s no business pretending he can. If he doesn’t understand a firebreak or a backfire, he can ask me! I was right there! He faked it, and I was harried…. I’m sorry, Aunt. I should have caught it. I know the fool.”
    Aunt Shanda was looking grim. “We had to get him away from the docks,” she said.
    â€œYeah, he spends a lot of time with the mers,” Sandry said. He was bone tired, now that his hunger was abated. Reggy wasn’t any of his favorite people; he only knew what he heard in casual conversation. “I thought he liked it there, but Reggy said he wanted to join the Firemen.”
    Shanda nodded, jaw set, eyes distant. Presently she said, “He’s been going to the docks since he was ten, but now he’s a Lord, he acts like he’s in charge, anywhere he goes. He gives orders to the longshoremen and the Water Rats and even the crews in port. Well, he’s a Lord! Sometimes they obey! Then the overseers and captains complain to us. The Lord Harbor Master had a word with Lord Quintana, you know.” Aunt Shanda’s voice deepened, and the consonants were a little sharper: “ ‘If I catch him down here again, I won’t care if he is Lady Shanda’s cousin. I weary of untangling lines he’s fouled. Get him away from me, Quintana, or I swear I’ll feed him to the crabs myself.’ Quintana’s a good mimic. Quintana talking to me, as if it were my fault. He wanted Reggy as far from the harbor as he could get. I said—” Shanda broke off.
    â€œYou sent him to Peacegiven Square,” Sandry guessed. “You wished him off on me. Three dead, twenty houses, and when they pay off Serpent’s Walk, we’ll be a thousand shells in the hole.”
    Roni was looking at him in something like fear. Aunt Shanda’s jaw was set like a boulder. It began to dawn on Sandry that he’d said too much. But he was so damned tired, and there was still a lot to do. He poured more tea, and then gulped it.
    Aunt Shanda looked up with a smile. Change of subject coming, Sandry thought, and he could guess what it was.
    â€œNow that you’re out of the Younglords and have your own command and everything…” Shanda said.
    She didn’t need to finish the sentence. It was time for him to think of marriage. He already had a house, now that his father was dead. And no one to manage it but a kinless overseer who had been his nurse.
    â€œI’ve been busy setting up the Fire Brigade,” Sandry protested.
    â€œYes, dear, but it’s not as if you have to look far,” Shanda said. “Or go to great pains at courtship.”
    That’s for damn sure, Sandry thought. Roni was busy watching the cat watching the fishpond, that little half-smile almost hidden. And in a minute Aunt Shanda would send Roni on an errand, and—“I know, Aunt Shanda. But this really is a difficult assignment, and—” Too late.
    â€œAnd I’ve heard tales,” Aunt Shanda said. “Roni, please go get me a fresh lemon.”
    â€œYes, Mother.” Roni was gone in an instant.
    â€œNow,” Shanda said. “What’s all this talk I hear of you pining after that half-Lordkin girl?”
    For a moment he remembered. Long brown hair streaming behind her as she danced on a high wire. The flashing smile, her cheers during the battle with the Toronexti…. He caught himself. “I’m not pining.”
    â€œNo, certainly not,” Shanda said.