Reckoning (The Empyrean Chronicle) Read Online Free PDF Page A

heart to sell the place. But why stay all the way up there? Our modest
town may not be as bustling as what you’re used to, but we have our share of
reputable Inns.”
    “And no doubt they are quite hospitable, Miss,” Slade said, “but
I have invested a significant portion of my bankroll in my recent venture to Kvesh,
and what with having recently lost a guard to a better offer from a brothel in
Sanders, I am reticent to leave my cargo out in the open. I’m sure that Knoll
Creek is quite safe, but one cannot be too careful these days.”
    “Indeed,” said Elias, “and it is just as well. Old Mayfair
is actually closer to us than town. Your camp at noon, then?”
    “Perfect,” Slade said and offered Elias his hand. “I’m sure
that we will both profit quite well from this venture, and with luck this will
be the beginning of a continuing business relationship.”
    Elias and Asa thanked Slade and bid him farewell. As they
walked away Elias all but glowed with his good fortune. He took a long pull
from his mug of ale and winked at Asa who grinned and nuzzled closer to him.
    The gregarious Danica had attracted an even larger crowd. She
related an anecdote about an elderly man who had come to the Academy seeking a
remedy for a personal problem. “It turns out,” Danica said, “that his plums
were sore because he was quite constipated, having subsisted on a diet of
cheese and mutton for the last fifty years!” She had her audience, many of whom
were pliant from liberal indulgence of whiskey and ale, in stitches.
    Elias sat down for the show, twining his fingers absent
mindedly in Asa’s flaxen curls. His mind wandered as he finished his mug, a
lazy smile lighting his face. It had been a good day, despite Macallister’s
intrusion. He had managed an impromptu sale—with hardly any effort on his part—that
would give the Duana coffers a boost for months to come. Mostly, however, he
found his spirits lifted by Danica’s unexpected visit.
    Elias had missed his sister fiercely since she had gone away
to the Academy. The two had been inseparable as children, lacking many alternative
playmates as far removed from town as they were out on the prairie, and their
relationship only became closer when their mother died. He was twelve when the
strange fever claimed the vibrant Edora Duana and Danica ten. Even now, more
than a decade later, Elias did not like being without his sister for long.
    Elias did not remember many of the details of his Mother’s
death. He recalled her white nightgown and chestnut tresses spilling over her
pale face, the bright burn of her jade eyes as she held him, whispering in his
ear, comforting him, when it had been he who was trying to comfort her. As he
grew, though, time betrayed him. In the months and seasons following her death
he could summon her face in his mind’s-eye as easily as drawing breath, but as
the years passed they erased the details of her countenance. Now, when he
summoned her image, it was like seeing her from the corner of his eye, and when
he turned she was gone.
    His father did not talk about his mother much, or her sudden
and withering illness. He would sometimes say that she had been an
extraordinary woman, and a cryptic look would creep over his features. Of her
past he would only say that they had met in Peidra, before he began his last
mission for the crown.
    Asa nudged Elias, breaking the spell of his reverie. She
nodded her head, pointing over his shoulder with her chin. He turned, following
her gaze, and exhaled a nigh inaudible groan. Cormik Macallister approached,
sauntering toward them with a long, slow gait, his eyes fixed on Elias.
    Cormik was a striking man in his mid twenties, blue-eyed and
graceful and slender as the rapier buckled to his waist. He wore black suede
boots, black cotton pants, a black moleskin belt, and a white shirt with laces
at the throat and the over-sized sleeves that were the fashion in Peidra. His
cloak was his crowning glory and