Scholar of Decay Read Online Free PDF Page B

time Dmitri worked out he was being herded, it was long past the time when he could do anything about it. One final shove—he flailed his arms searching for something, anything, to grab—and the dark water closed over his head.
    A half-dozen large, furred bodies slid in after him, their pointed heads and naked tails barely rippling the river. Five were dark enough to blend with the night; the sixth gleamed like a corpse-light in the darkness.
    Fear finally began to burn through the numbing effects of the wine. Water-sodden clothes wrapped shroudlike around him, Dmitri struggled toward the surface. A heartbeat after he desperately gulped a lungful of air, claws caught at his vest and playfully yanked him back under.
    A powerful kick slammed into his shoulder and set him spinning. He lost all concept of up or down. He had to breathe, but he didn’t know which way to go. Sleek bodies brushed by him on either side, squeezing him between them as they passed. Claws raked open chest and back, leaving sizzling lines of pain behind.
    He had to breathe.
    Had to breathe.
    Had to …
    Then his arm splashed out into the night, and he pushed his head out after it. Gasping and choking, he abandoned pride and screamed for Aurek.

    The elongated shadows of the partygoers through the filth-covered windows a flickering background behind him, Aurek dropped to one knee and scooped a pile of clothing off the path. Everyone in the city below a certain age dressed in the fashionable “rags and tatters,” but he’d seen this fabric before. Brows drawn in, he tried to remember.
    On the dock. Fluttering from the arm of a young man who bore the distinctive physical features of the Renier bloodline.
    “Aurek!”
    Names and terror both carry power. Dmitri’s voice tore through the myriad sounds of the night. Heart pounding, Aurek leaped to his feet and raced toward the sound, hands curled into fists and pale hair streaming out behind him like a banner. If Dmitri had been injured in any way …
    He reached the river’s edge in time to see his brother’s face break the water’s surface, cough, and be pulled under yet again. Dropping to his knees and leaning out as far as he dared, Aurek’s desperate reach fell short. As he clutched futilely at a handful of murky water, he felt a coarse pelt pass mockingly under his fingertips.
    Humped shapes twisted and played in the area around Dmitri’s struggling body. The size of the wererats in comparison to the size of their prey didn’t seem to matter. Not only were there six of them, but they swam with an eel-like agility, almost as much at home in the water as they would be on dry land. Above pointed muzzles, eyes glittered with the enjoyment of the game. Claws ripped at Dmitri’s clothing, caressed crimson streamers from his skin, and every now and then allowed him to breathe lest their fun be over too soon.
    A muscle jumped in Aurek’s jaw as he raised both hands to shoulder height, palms toward the water. His brother would not die as sport for such as these. His lips parted, and the air around him became unnaturally still.
    “Enough!”
    The power in that single word snapped his mouth closed. It was not a voice that could be argued with. Not by him nor, apparently, by those in the river. Finding Dmitri shoved suddenly within reach, Aurek hauled him, choking and gasping for breath, up onto thealgae-covered rocks of the riverwall. His clothing had been ripped into a grotesque parody of fashionable dress, but the wounds below were less serious than they had at first appeared.
    “Has he been bitten?”
    Aurek twisted and was not surprised to see Jacqueline Renier advance from the shadows, her expression showing only polite curiosity. As the horrifying implications of her question sank in, he quickly examined his brother’s injuries more carefully.
    “No,” he said at last, sitting back on his heels, relief making him weak. “No bites.”
    “Good.” It was clear from her tone that the word