Soulbreaker Read Online Free PDF

physically, but also mentally. Think about it. Even when we’ve provided the assistance you speak of, we do so in secret, in fear of the nobility’s reaction. When the people take advantage of the comforts we offer, they hide and sneak and pray not be discovered. No crime is being committed by accepting our help, but to us and to them , it feels that way. That sensation of some ethical misconduct is gone when it’s the king’s men making the same offers. We cannot win out against that, not yet. Now, go, let everyone know they will receive their instructions by the usual method.”
    “Fine—” A pattern of three knocks, four, then two, cut off Tomas’ response. Both men glanced toward the door, and then nodded to each other.
    The heavy thuds of boots and the jangle of armor reverberated from the street. Thar snatched a look through the crack in the window slats. Militiamen poured out from the alleys to the right, spears and longswords bared.
    Thar ducked before anyone saw him and crept to the closet across the room. Tomas followed. Once inside, Thar waited for Tomas to close the door behind them. When darkness engulfed the space Thar drew on the energy of his soul, using it to enhance his vision. Night became day. With his boot he pressed down on a floorboard two planks from the wall. A latch released. The wood in front of them slid aside to reveal a dark space beyond.
    They were almost to the first floor in the hidden staircase when the first soldiers entered the building. The men shouted to each other as they searched each room. Under cover of the racket Thar and Tomas made it to the basement and into the sewers.
    No matter how many times he’d been in the sewers Thar always found the stench revolting. He cupped a hand over his nose for a few moments until his senses adjusted. They hurried along the tunnels, manipulating soul to prevent the splash of boots through all manner of filth, while rats protested their passage in squeaks and squeals. Occasionally, they stopped to listen for signs of pursuit. There were none.
    Running through the passages conjured memories of Thar’s early days when he first turned from his calling as a King’s Blade. Elysse recruited him back then, taught him much of what he knew today. The introduction to the tunnels had come as a surprise. Who would have thought such an extensive network existed under Kasandar?
    The tunnels ran all the way south to caves within the Cliffs of a Thousand Sorrows, north to the mines in the Whetstone Mountains, or east to various exits along the River Ost. Through them the Consortium had done brisk business, smuggling in goods from across Mareshna. And then there was the Undertow—the ancient city beneath Kasandar, filled with rich history and knowledge if one knew where to look. He spent countless days and nights learning its debris-strewn streets.
    A series of turns and four-way intersections later, Thar held out a hand to stop Tomas. Their breathing was loud in the silent stillness. He didn’t have an exact reason for halting; it was a reaction to the odd sensation in his gut. Their escape had been too easy. The king knew of the guilds’ use of the sewers. Surely, the militia had been informed. Thar’s brow furrowed. How had the militia appeared so quickly? I should have seen them sneaking through the alleys. If not myself, then the lookouts should have given earlier warning.
    With a thought Thar drew on the tenth cycle, jin , a combination of sintu , sera , and lumni , extending his soul away from his body, the nimbus thinning to almost invisible, and spanning some three hundred feet in every direction. Something too big to be one of the sewer’s many creatures broke the nimbus. Two of them. Focusing, Thar picked out the familiar patterns of other souls. He pulled Tomas closer to whisper in his ear. “We’re being followed.”
    “How? We would hear them.”
    “Not if they held back the soldiers and only sent Blades or Farlanders capable of