Needle Rain Read Online Free PDF Page A

He lowered his voice. “My name is Samos.” This was where it could go so very wrong. He stared so fixedly at Drager that the air might well have erupted into flame.
    Surely this man knew what happened when an Immolator was created? The moment stretched into a long silence. Perhaps Punka was wrong and Drager had no idea as to why he had come to see him. He should go.
    Thom Drager inclined his head. “Yes, Mr. Samos. Please, come through. I will get my daughter.”
    The two rankers relaxed and sat down on one of the benches. The young woman gave him an odd look but said nothing.
    The room at the back of the clinic was well out of earshot. A servant approached and Drager whispered in her ear. “Tell Grace...” The rest was too quietly spoken. She scuttled away.
    “And your last name, sir?”
    Samos shook his head. He wouldn’t be tricked so easily as that.
    “Then I shall call you Mr. Samos. Please take a seat, Mr. Samos.” He indicated two low settees with the usual cushions and throw rugs on them and they sat down opposite each other. “Tea and refreshments are coming. I gather you do not truly wish to see my daughter. Perhaps that is wise considering she is only nine, though no doubt you would have made a good son-in-law.”
    “Hmph.” Was the man joking? “Not as an Immolator, and that is my problem. I was to be married. A young woman named Pela bears my child and...I love her greatly. What I am going to say next will make me a traitor.” He took a few slow breaths. Was Drager willing to go further than was strictly legal? “I cannot avoid being turned into an Immolator. A partial Immolator anyway, and I don’t want to be an Immolator of any sort.”
    “As I understand it, the Imperator might want you fully needled if there is an emergency, such as a war?”
    There was a light tap outside the door. Drager rose and opened the door just enough to take a tray from the servant. After pouring a tiny cup of the fragrant tea for both of them, Drager sat on the settee again. “Please, continue.”
    “Put simple – can you reverse it? I will pay whatever you want.” He leaned forward. “Anything.”
    “Ahhh.”
    After a few long minutes, he held up four fingers. “There are four obstacles. One, Immolators are imprinted and have almost no free will. Though the good side to that is that they are trusted. No one would imagine an Immolator would do anything wrong. Two, if an amateur managed to withdraw the needles you would die, instantly. Three, if I am found to have helped you I will be executed. There are ways of dealing with all of these but there is number four. You do not possess anywhere near enough money to pay me.”
    Those last words swam round and round in his head.
    “Oh. Oh. I see.” He blinked. He would not beg. “Then I won’t waste your time.” He gathered his feet under him and stood. Real life wasn’t like the theatre shows. Sometimes the worst things happened and there was nothing you could do about it. To even think of doing this had been like stepping off a cliff. He had never known he would turn traitor if given the right shove at the right time.
    He had his hand against the door when Drager spoke again.
    “Stop. Wait. Let me finish, Mr. Samos.” Drager paused again so that Samos stood there with his back to him, waiting, knowing he was being rude but fearing to turn around.
    “If you want this enough...there are other ways that you can pay me.”
    Hope came rushing back in a wave that almost swamped reason. When he turned, for the first time he saw the red rims around Drager’s eyes and the dullness of his gaze, and he wondered if the man before him might be more than a crooked businessman and magience practitioner.
    “What other way?”
    Drager took another sip of tea. “There is the secret the Imperator holds. The secret of the creation of Immolators.” He turned his brown eyes on Samos, who felt like a mouse being eyed by a cat. “You let me uncover that and, you have a