Cast In Fury Read Online Free PDF

to his skin, but she recognized him. “Max—Uh, Sergeant,” she added, as he looked pointedly over her soldier. “Sergeant Voone. You’re out here?”
    Max wasn’t retired, exactly, but he spent a lot of his time behind a desk. He appeared to like it a great deal more than Marcus—but a corpse would have given that impression as well. And Max looked
tired.
    “Most of us are, as you put it, out here. I know why we’re here—what are you doing in a fancy box?”
    “Oh. Uh, we were sent here.”
    “By?”
    “Lord Sanabalis.”
    He whistled. “To do what?”
    “Not to step all over your toes, relax.”
    His chuckle was entirely mirthless. “We’ll relax when these people remember they have jobs and family.”
    “I’m thinking they remember the family part,” Kaylin replied. “People go crazy when they think they’re protecting their own.”
    “Tell me about it. No, strike that. Don’t.”
    “When did it get this bad?”
    “There was an incident two days ago.”
    “Incident?”
    “It was messy,” he replied, his voice entirely neutral. “The Swordlord made it clear that there will be no more incidents. The Emperor was not impressed.”
    She winced. It wasn’t often that she felt sympathy for the Swords. But while she resented the easy life the Swords generally called work, she liked them better than the people with the crossbows down the street.
    “You know they’re armed?” she asked casually.
    “We are
well aware
that they’re armed. And no, thank you, we don’t require help in disarming them. They’re waiting for an invitation. Let them wait. At that distance.”
    She looked at Severn as Severn exited the carriage. Rennick tumbled out after him. “Sergeant Voone,” Severn said, before the sergeant could speak, “Richard Rennick. He’s the Imperial Playwright.”
    “This is not a good time for sightseeing,” the Sword said to Rennick.
    Rennick looked him up and down, and then shrugged. “It wasn’t my idea.” But he was subdued, now. He lifted a hand to his face, rubbing the scruff on his chin.
    “You can call the Hawks out,” Kaylin continued. “At least the Aerians—”
    “We’ve got Aerians here. They’re not currently in the air,” he added. And then he gave her an odd look. “The Hawks have their own difficulties to worry about. I was sorry to hear the news.”
    “What news?”
    His whole expression shuttered, not that it was ever all that open.
    “Voone, what news? What’s happened?”
    “You came from the Halls?”
    “The Halls don’t usually have access to Imperial Carriages. What happened?”
    “No one died,” he replied, and his tone of voice added
yet.
“But you might want to check in at the office before you head home.”
    She wanted to push him for more, but Severn shook his head slightly. “Ybelline.”

    There was no Tha’alani guard at the guardhouse. That position was taken up by a dozen Swords. They wore chain, and they carried unsheathed swords. You’d have to be crazy to rush the gatehouse.
    Kaylin approached it quietly and answered the questions the Swords asked; they were all perfunctory. Voone escorted them to the squad and left them there, after mentioning her name loudly enough to wake the dead. She noted all of this and tried to squelch her own fear. Severn was right, of course. They’d come here for Ybelline. But the sympathies of Voone made her nervous.
    The Swords hadn’t entered the Quarter; they were met by Tha’alani guards. Four men in armor. Their stalks swiveled toward her as she entered.
    She saw that they, too, bore unsheathed swords, and it made her…angry. Those weapons just looked
wrong
in Tha’alani hands; she wondered if they even knew how to use them.
    But using them wasn’t an issue. They bowed to her, almost as one man. “Ybelline is waiting for you,” one told her quietly.
    “At her house?”
    “Not at her domicile. Demett will take you to her.” The man so identified stepped away from his