Heartbreaker Read Online Free PDF

chairs, couches or any other kind of furniture, except for some sort of a desk not distant from the farther wall from the entrance. Shim took some time realizing what it actually was, and when he did he felt a cold shiver running down his spine; it was an altar.
    The room was crammed full of people. All of them wore black tunics or large cloaks, with hoods lifted on their head, casting weird shadows at the dancing light of the candles.
    «What exactly happens here?» the dwarf hissed to Vivienne, stressing the word “exactly” as if he was trying to teach it to some illiterate.
    «Have you never seen a ritual, detective?»
    «Which kind of ritual?»
    «Something akin to a mass.»
    Shim looked up at the women, trying to understand the expression on her face. What was “akin” to a mass?
    He had seen masses for several deities, mostly for the sake of knowledge. He wasn't the kind of dwarf who put his life in the hands of gods, even though he acknowledged, if not their existence, at least their power; moreover, in his position, he really couldn't be other than neutral when it came to religious matters. Nothing of what he had seen so far, anyway, resembled even slightly what he was seeing right then. There was no officiant, no one was praying, the crowd just stood there staring at the altar, slightly swaying as if moving their bodies on the notes of a slow and monotone music he was not allowed to hear.
    «A mass in honor of...» before he said "whom", his mind shaped a different word, which somehow seemed more fitting «... what?»
    «Of the Lady of Necromancers, the Lady of Silence, the Dark Light», answered Vivienne, almost chanting. A new shiver run along Shim's spine, making him set a new record. Shivering for anything but cold was rare for him. Doing that twice in the same day, and just at a few minutes distance, was next to impossible.
    «Death», he murmured, almost unbelieving, as if he was waiting for an answer to deny his conclusion, an answer that wasn't going to come. What else had he been expecting? All that people was gathered there to honor death, to adore it.
    He stood, uncertain about what to do, even about what to think, until a sudden change in the mood of the place, the melting of an almost solid tension he hadn't noticed until it was gone, shook him.
    One of the participants left the main group to reach the altar, turning around it to stand behind it. Then he raise his hands, keeping his arms in front of him, looking like a conjurer trying to show to the audience that there was nothing up his sleeves. All others mimicked the gesture, but Vivienne, Krey and him.
    Slowly the man, if that it was, moved one hand to his chest, then let it slid down to his hip. Shim thought that if it was some kind of group dance, it was the worst he had ever seen.
    A sudden reflex of light startled him. The flames were mirrored on the glossy blade of a black-handled knife which had suddenly appeared in the hands of the officiant. Immediately several more identical blades were drawn by the other people in there. The dwarf stiffed, his muscles were suddenly ready to spring, even though he still didn't know where and why. Then he felt an hand touching his shoulder almost casually. With the corner of one eye he saw long black-painted female fingernails and a fair skin framed in white clothes. Vivienne. That touch dispelled his half-shaped intention, not because he soothed him but because it gave him something different to worry about. Although the hand of the woman was just brushing him, barely keeping him back, he had the distinct feeling that, if so she wanted, she could not only stop him, but also rip his arm from its socket.
    An uncountable number of hands raised at the same time. The sharp blades brushed the wrists of their owners in a single, fast movement that drew a drop of blood to stain the polished steel.
    The silence was replaced by a deep murmur when everyone said something that Shim couldn't understand.
    «Blood