The Colour of Vengeance Read Online Free PDF Page B

barred, but it opened out just a small way from the courtyard. Most people would be able to hear at least a dim buzz that was many voices talking from a distance but Jacob could hear almost every word.
    It's reassuring, he thought and his mind decided to agree. The world hasn't ended. It's not just me sat here, alone in my cell, for all time. They haven't forgotten about me. Not yet.
    Jacob looked at the door to his cell just as he heard a soft sigh and a knock. He continued humming for a few seconds; letting the man outside reach a level of frustration that made him knock again, more forcefully this time.
    “Can I help you, Arbiter Fields?” Jacob asked in a pleasant tone. His voice had always been described as having a musical quality to it. Sarah had once pointed out it was the prettiest thing about him. In every other way he was just normal but his voice was pleasant.
    “I... uh... you were humming, Jacob,” the muffled voice said from behind the heavy iron door.
    “There's no music, Arbiter. I just felt like humming,” Jacob replied.
    “Right. I'm opening the door then.” There was a pause, Jacob didn't say a word. “Is that OK?”
    Jacob sat up on the stone bench he called a bed and stretched. “I can't stop you.”
    “I... hmm.” A few moments later Jacob heard a key turning in the first lock on his cell door, then the second lock, then the heavy metal bolt being pulled aside. Arbiter Fields waited, coughed and then pushed the door open.
    Jacob sat on the bed and watched the small Arbiter step into the cell. His face was wrinkled and wore a cautious expression. He was wringing his hands together around the key to Jacob's cell. There was some bruising around the Arbiter's neck, faint but starting to discolour. Whatever had happened to him had happened recently. Jacob could just about make out finger marks in the bruising.
    “Arbiter...” Jacob said after the old man had been standing in the doorway for a while.
    “No music? You're certain?” Arbiter Fields asked.
    Jacob almost smiled but stopped himself; he'd never smile at Arbiter Fields. “No music.”
    “It has been a long time, Jacob.”
    Ten years since you put me in this cage and left me to rot. It if wasn't for some of the others letting me out from time to time I might have gone crazy. Jacob laughed inside his head but his face remained as passive as the stone bench he sat on.
    “You look well,” Arbiter Fields said. Despite the old man's nervousness he kept eye contact with Jacob the entire time. Jacob decided to sway a little from side to side and he saw the Arbiter take a hesitant step backwards.
    “What is it you want, Arbiter?” Jacob asked. “Not often that people come to visit me, least of all the one that put me in here, and when they do there is always a reason.”
    Arbiter Fields coughed again, rubbed at his neck and winced at the pain. “Well... Inquisitor...”
    “One of them escaped didn't they?” Jacob knew he was right as soon as he asked. “One of your experiments. Your neck...” Jacob pointed at the bruising around Arbiter Fields neck and the old man stepped backwards again.
    “How much do you know about recent events?” the Arbiter asked him. Jacob could hear the old man’s heart pounding in his chest.
    “This and that.” Jacob stood on his bed and pushed onto his toes. From here he could just about see out of his window into the Inquisition courtyard. “I know Arbiter Karkland failed his three year report. Did they burn him for heresy or did they give him to you? That I haven't heard. Clerk Veril is in love with clerk Yurn but the coward is too frightened to tell her. Probably a good thing; clerk Yurn is sleeping with an initiate. I haven't managed to catch the name yet.
    “Arbiter Vance is set to bepromoted to Inquisitor very soon. That could just be a rumour but it seems a lot of people aren't pleased about it. He is very young after all and only graduated a few years ago. It wouldn't surprise me though, him