Michelle West - Sun Sword 06 - The Sun Sword Read Online Free PDF

hapless guards said, "we'll be off duty by then."
    "Or not," the other guard said, before she could speak.
    Although it was hard to think of the Merchant Authority as a quiet place, the
noise of the Common assaulted the ears the moment the doors slid shut at their
backs. They were upwind of the food stalls, and the pleasant scent of baking
bread mingled with the far less pleasant reek of dead fish.
    Neither seemed to bother the thousands of people who walked these roads.
    "You know," Finch said, as they exited into the High Market streets, "I have
no idea why Lucille isn't living at the House."
    Angel and Carver exchanged a broad glance. It was Angel who answered.
"Because almost anyone
else
who lived there would be dead?"
    Her laughter was brief and high, a bird cry. Her name. "She's not so bad,"
she said, when it had trailed off. "And she likes
us
."
    "Speak for yourself," Angel replied, rubbing the side of his head.
    Gregori offered them all a rare smile. "You have heard the Northern saying,
haven't you?"
    "Which one? I've probably heard a dozen, and eleven of them can't be repeated
in company."
    The smile deepened. "Something about two heads and one crown. That woman
rules her own domain; I can't imagine that she wouldn't take charge and clean up
if she were allowed to live at the manse."
    Finch wrinkled her nose, trying to imagine Lucille and The Terafin in the
same room. Her imagination, usually quite vivid, was in no way up to the task.
"You're probably right."
    "Besides which, she seems a formidable ally where she is." The smile had gone
from his face; what was left was an expression that was at once thoughtful and
cautious. His usual expression.
    Finch nodded. Her hair was flat with the humidity, but the day was otherwise
cool. The storms that haunted the ocean failed to hover above the city itself.
"Daine?"
    He nodded, turning to glance over his shoulder as if looking for sight of
Lucille.
    "She's a dragon," Carver told him. "She doesn't leave her den unless some
moron with a sword tries to make her."
    "That happens often?"
    He shrugged. "Don't know. She probably eats the corpses."
    "Carver!"
    He grinned and sidestepped Finch's halfhearted slap.
    Angel turned right. "Houses of healing?"
    She nodded quietly. "We need to speak with Levec."
    Daine's eyes widened as understanding
finally
dawned. "You don't
just walk in and speak with Levec," he began. But something in her expression
dampened the rest of the energetic warning.
    "He'll see us," she said quietly.
    "I hope so. We're going to feel like idiots if he has us thrown out."
    She nodded in the direction of Carver and Angel. "We probably look like
idiots anyway," she said cheerfully.
    Was surprised to find that she
was
cheerful.
    The city walls rose and fell to either side, fronted by gardens that could be
glimpsed through the lattice of fancy gates. Men with horses rode by; carriages
clattered against the dips in cobbled stone. Some stretch of Averalaan had been
given to flat, smooth roads— but those roads led to the Isle, and not to the
houses of healing.
    She knew them all, now. Knew them better than she knew the twenty-fifth
holding. Had the circumstances been different, she would have found the walk
peaceful.
    But her mission was oppressive, and the farther away she moved from the
Merchant Authority, the more oppressive it became. She had spoken with
confidence, but confidence was like the tide. It ebbed as time passed.
    Gregori informed her that they were no longer being followed and she nodded
quietly. Just as Jay might've, had she been here.
    Better not to think about that. Better not to think that Jay would have told
them what was making The Terafin ill. Jay had made her choice, and from the
sound of her voice the last time they'd heard it, it hadn't been much of a
choice.
    Then again, neither was sitting on the House Council.
    She twisted the ring on her hand, forcing the face of the heavy gold crest up
toward the light.