The Amber Legacy Read Online Free PDF Page B

light. Two were soldiers. The dark-haired man in the middle wore a light blue robe. ‘What do you want?’ Samuel asked warily.
    ‘Some friendly hospitality would be a good start,’ the man in the blue robe said, as he surveyed the clutter inSamuel’s cave. ‘You know we’ve travelled a long way to come here.’
    ‘Then you know how far you have to travel back,’ Samuel replied.
    The Seer smiled wanly. ‘It is a harsh world when a disciple of Jarudha cannot feel welcome in another man’s home.’
    ‘What do you want?’ Samuel repeated. The Seer nodded to one of the soldiers and the two men pushed past Samuel into his den. The old man protested, ‘This is my cave. There’s nothing here of any use to soldiers.’
    ‘Evidently true,’ the Seer remarked, appraising the chaotic jumble of odds and ends scattered across the cave and its crude furnishings, ‘but you and I both know that what I’m here for isn’t of any use to soldiers either.’
    ‘Leave,’ Samuel ordered.
    ‘Or you’ll do what?’ the Seer taunted.
    A pottery jar smashed, and Samuel turned to see a soldier sweeping his hands along a shelf, knocking the contents to the floor. ‘Stop that!’ he demanded. He hobbled towards the soldier, who stopped and waited for the old man to reach him. As Samuel lowered his lantern and squatted to retrieve parchments that had been brushed from the shelf, the soldier kicked the old man’s shoulder and sent him sprawling. The lantern tipped and burning oil spread across the ground.
    ‘Put that out and light another one,’ the Seer ordered. As the soldiers hurried to obey him, he stood over Samuel, who was struggling to sit up. ‘Now, old man, the time for games is over. I know who you are, I know why you are here and I know what you have.’ Fresh lantern light filled the cave as Samuel went to rise, but the Seer used his boot to push him back down. ‘You sit there and listen. I don’t want you to think that this is going to get any better for you.’ The Seer paused to lickhis lips, and to the soldiers he gave the quick order, ‘Find it.’ As the rummaging through Samuel’s possessions recommenced, he returned his attention to the old man. ‘My father spent his lifetime hunting down the Conduit. The records are confused, and the myths and the legends even more so, as I suspect you already know. But he searched until he was certain that it had come on a long journey out of the ashes of the old Empire, and that it had come to this place.’
    ‘I have no idea what you are talking about,’ said Samuel. Another pottery jar smashed and he flinched.
    The Seer snorted, and grinned cynically as he rubbed his hands together. ‘Samuel Kushel, son of Erol Kushel, grandson of the sea captain Kosek Kushel, on the descendant line of Julian Kushel, son of Sardek Kushel.’ He shrugged and squatted beside the old man whose craggy features had blanched. ‘My father was a scholar, old man, of considerable intelligence and diligence, and a committed disciple of Jarudha. To have the Blessing is a rich reward for serving our Lord, but to have the Conduit to amplify the Blessing—now that is what every Seer has sought, and my father’s scholarship has brought me to you.’ He rose. ‘No more games, old man. Give me the Conduit.’
    ‘I don’t have whatever it is you’re talking about,’ Samuel said, in a quiet but shaky voice.
    The Seer snarled and kicked the old man under the chin. Samuel, spreadeagled onto his back by the kick, rolled his head to his left and coughed and spat broken teeth between his bloodied lips. As he raised his bony right arm to use the sleeve of his ragged green robe to wipe away the mess, the Seer sank a boot into his exposed ribs, curling the old man into a spasm of agony. ‘Anything?’ he growled at the soldiers, who were standing in the detritus of Samuel’s shattered and scattered possessions.
    ‘Nothing, Your Holiness,’ one replied.
    ‘Are you sure?’
    ‘There’s nothing