Never Knew Another Read Online Free PDF

the street. He traded coin for cards and dice. His mother came for him in the barracks, and begged for him to come back into her house. She was an old woman alone. She had no one else, and she loved him. With time, she came to see the wisdom of his choice, even if she still hated the king. He could become an officer someday. He’d earn the fleur instead of buying it like the other young nobles. He’d bring honor back to the family name, marry well, and maybe things would be better for the grandchildren.
    He loved the work. He was good at it, and it filled his days with something meaningful.
    That’s what the sergeant knew. That was what the world knew.
    I asked Calipari if he knew which parent held the demon taint.
    He nodded. “It was the father.”
“How do you know?”
“Jona told me before I killed him.”
    “Have you checked?”
    “Of course not,” said Calipari. “This is a nasty business. If the king and the captain want her checked, they can send someone else. It was all in the report.”
    “Was it?”
“Did the captain say anything about checking her?”
    “No. He didn’t mention a report, either.”
    “Well, she’s pretty old, and there are lots of reports. Too much paper in the guard, you ask me. If I spent more time with a good bat in my hand and less time with the cheap quills they kept sending me, the Pens’d be a different place. Be a better place. I’ve seen Jona’s ma a few times. She won’t have any more kids at her age, and I don’t want to burn anyone.”
    He looked over my shoulder. I was sitting by the window, and he was lying in bed. He looked out at the blue sky, and the rolling sea clouds that had survived the journey this far inland.
    I waited for him to speak. I folded my hands, and raised my eyebrows. I let my silence draw him out.
    “She didn’t betray the city,” he said.
    I leaned in close to him. I spoke close so he would listen. “If she housed a demon as wicked as Jona, she betrayed the whole world of men,” I said. “He never slept. He couldn’t. The stain inside of him kept him awake all night. While all decent folk were sleeping, he was killing people. He was working for the worst criminal in the city all night long. His mother probably knew when she saw the money coming in. I will test her blood myself. We will not hand her over to the guard lightly, but if she helped a demon child murder innocent people…”
    Calipari looked at my hands. They were human. When he spoke, his voice was weary. “That’s not my business,” he said. “That’s Captain’s problem now, not mine. Jona saved my life. I killed him for it.”
    “Why did you do it if you didn’t like it?”
    He looked me in the face. I recognized this face. Calipari was a hard man, ready to fight when it was needed. He was fighting now. “Jona betrayed the city, and the king’s men. Good boys died because of him. It wouldn’t be a duty if it was easy. And it’s not my duty anymore, so I won’t do it. Please, leave his ma alone.”
    “It’s amazing she’s still alive,” I said. “Every man with two masters must choose his side. He chose a third path. He betrayed all his masters for you and for Rachel.”
    “How do you know that?” he asked.
    “I am Erin’s Walker, Sergeant. I see inside the demon child’s mind, even in death. I see all that he remembers. I know there is more for you to tell me.”
    “How can you do that?”
    I shook my head. “You did the right thing, Sergeant. Eventually, every demon-stained mortal succumbs to the wickedness in their blood. You might have saved that part of his soul that passed as human. You can save more people from the Nameless deep in Elishta.”
    He looked back to the window, and the gathering clouds. “No,” he said. “Men like him and me don’t get saved. I know what I did was right. I hate that I did it. Jona was one of my boys for almost three years.”
    “Have you killed many people?”
    “Of course,” he said, “but they were all