Chasers of the Wind Read Online Free PDF

and I am loath to just abandon it. After all, I’d built this house with my own hands.
    “These past few years have turned you into a real homebody, my dear,” she said, grinning. “You weren’t like this before.”
    “You were different, too,” I said, copying her grin. “The time has come to get back on the road.”
    “Mols could be lying. He’s wanted to send Threefingers off to the Blessed Gardens for a long time. And here we are at hand, fortunately for him. There’s nothing we can do but remove the client. And that’s exactly what Mols is counting on. Whip didn’t tell you that he was waiting for your thanks personally for nothing.”
    “We’ll have to get rid of Joch, that’s true. But will that really help us? If those who are searching for us are lying in wait, it won’t do any good. They won’t let us live in peace.”
    Layen frowned and rested her head on my shoulder. My sun understood who I was talking about, who might still be searching for us. The very same people who were searching for us when we faked our deaths and left Al’sgara behind forever seven years ago.…
    *   *   *
    It was already the second day that the snow had been falling. Massive white flakes dropped continuously from the low gray sky. They settled on the bridges, on the squares, on the trees, on the watchtowers, on the market stalls, on the red tiled roofs, on the spires of Melot’s temple, and on the hoods of the people walking by. Al’sgara the Green, as the capital of the southern province of the Empire was called, had been transformed into Al’sgara the White.
    The children were overjoyed at the fresh snow. For everyone else it was just an inconvenience. It was the start of spring, but the snow was pouring down just as if it was the Feast of the Moon (an important religious holiday celebrated in the middle of winter) . Such truly awful weather!
    I cursed inwardly and rubbed my gloved hands together. My fingers were beginning to go numb. Cold ruled supreme in the attic where I had been loitering for the past three hours. Admittedly, there was nothing surprising about this. The glass was missing from the window and an icy wind was blowing through the attic. Yet another inconvenience was added to this—darkness. The meager light streaming in from the evening street was no help at all. But I didn’t dare light a candle. Of course, the chance that some passerby would see the flame was not all that great, but it wouldn’t do to risk it.
    Damn it! This damn cold! I began rubbing my hands against each other more strenuously, but the tips of my fingers still refused to get warm. It’s a good thing that this really wasn’t the middle of cruel winter. Otherwise I would have already dropped dead.
    I cautiously looked out onto the street. And cursed again. It would be fully dark in half an hour but the target was still nowhere to be seen. She was an hour late. The bell on the Overgate Tower of Hightown (the oldest part of Al’sgara; it was built on the Cliff, as that part of the city used to be called, around which the rest of the city subsequently expanded) rang twice. It was nine o’clock. Damn it. Where is she? Where? I realized I was getting nervous.
    It’s no wonder. The purse Layen and I had scored for this was rather large. Fifteen thousand sorens in denominations of five-hundred-soren gold Imperials—an insane amount. That kind of money had never been offered for just one person’s head. Not even for a Viceroy. Such a contract was worth all the possible consequences. We decided to risk it.
    True, we’d have to take care of today’s business and disappear forever, but with that kind of money (which, incidentally, had been paid up front), we wouldn’t have a care in the world.
    When I had told Layen about the proposal, received from an unknown client, she did not bother trying to dissuade me from the risky venture. She realized that I’d already taken the bait. She heard me out without speaking and then