Mage-Guard of Hamor Read Online Free PDF Page B

left. Tamryn and Kadara were muttering about it for weeks after that.”
    Across the road from them, a patroller stopped and stared, clearly startled by a couple where the woman was in the green of a healer and the man in a Hamorian dress uniform.
    â€œYou still do manage to startle people, I see,” Deybri said.
    â€œThey’re just not used to seeing Hamorian mage-guards. We might be the first ever actually to walk through Nylan.”
    â€œThat’s possible. Where is your ship?”
    â€œAt the naval piers. The engineers moved out all the black ships. We came on a frigate—the Ascadya. I think the idea was to get us here quickly on a warship to convey the presence and concerns of the Emperor, but on one that wouldn’t be seen as a threat.”
    Rahl glanced to his right, toward the small park he had often passed on his way to the harbor. He had thought he might see children playing hoop tag, but the only person in the park was an elderly man feeding bread crumbs to the traitor birds.
    â€œYou’ve been through a lot, haven’t you?” she asked softly.
    â€œIt has been a long year,” he admitted. “The hardest part was finding out that Shyret was betraying Recluce and not being able to do anything about it.”
    â€œOh?”
    â€œThe Hamorian Codex doesn’t look at things in the same way. There are great penalties for selling shoddy goods or spoiled ones, or for misrepresenting them. But there are no penalties for things like what Shyret was doing. He was telling the Association here that a portion of the goods had spoiled, and then selling them on the side. So the Association had to take the losses…” Rahl tried to explain what had happened and why it wasn’t against Hamorian law, and how he had had no real proof of what Shyret was doing. “…and it would only have been my word against his. That was why I’d decided to see the mage-guards on oneday.” He shook his head wryly. “You’d think I’d have learned not to wait on something like that. That was how I ended up in Nylan, you know. I waited till oneday to see Magister Puvort in Land’s End.”
    â€œThere’s a fine line between when to wait and when not to,” Deybri said quietly.
    That, Rahl had learned, but he wasn’t sure he could always discern when to wait and when not to. He gestured toward the lane on the east side of the road. “Your house is down there, isn’t it?”
    â€œIt is. Well…it’s not really mine. It’s Uncle Thorl’s, and I pay him rent. Healers at the training center don’t make that many coins, either.”
    â€œOh…I didn’t know.”
    â€œYou wouldn’t have, Rahl. I never told you.”
    There was so much about her that he really didn’t know, Rahl reflected, and yet…beyond all that, there was something beyond her warmth and beauty that drew him to her. But, to say that would be so presumptuous…but would he ever have another chance to utter such words in person?
    As they entered the restaurant, Rahl saw a slender graying man with his back to the entrance talking to a server. Even so, Rahl recognized him. As before, the proprietor was dressed in spotless khaki trousers and shirt, but this time his vest was chartreuse edged in silver thread.
    â€œKysant, I know you may not have a table,” began Rahl in Hamorian, with an apologetic smile, “but I would be most grateful…”
    The proprietor turned…and froze, looking at the mage-guard uniform. After a long moment, Kysant looked from Deybri to Rahl and back to Deybri.
    â€œHe’s from Recluce, Kysant,” Deybri said softly. “He’s eaten here with Thorl, and he was exiled for a time. So they sent him back as an envoy to the magisters.”
    â€œWould it help if I spoke Temple?” Rahl asked in that language, accompanied by a sheepish grin.
    â€œYou…startled me, ser.