The Crossroads Brotherhood Read Online Free PDF Page A

the rest of tonight and tomorrow to find out all that we can about the unfortunate tribune.’
    ‘Precisely, and then we will have to somehow lure or force the poor man into that unusual circumstance in which he will be found dead.’
    ‘Tricky but not impossible. Get the lads onto it immediately.’
    ‘I will Brother,’ Servius confirmed as a knock sounded on the door.
    ‘Yes?’ Magnus called.
    Marius stuck his head into the room. ‘Magnus, they’re here waiting outside, them Albanians, and a strange fucking sight they are too.’
    ‘I don’t care what they look like, so long as they’ve got the boys.’
    ‘Yeah, they got them all right.’
    ‘Good. Go and tell Cassandros to bring the boy into the tavern, I’ll send for him when I need him.’ Magnus rose to his feet. ‘Shall we go and do business, Brother?’
    ‘I think we should,’ his counsellor agreed following him out.
    M AGNUS SURVEYED THE four bizarrely attired easterners waiting in the moonlight by the tables outside the tavern. Two pretty youths in their early teens, one with blond hair and one dark, stood next to them, staring at Magnus with frightened eyes, knives held to their throats.
    ‘Who speaks for you?’
    ‘I do,’ a middle-aged man said stepping forward. He wore a long-sleeved, saffron tunic, belted at the waist, that came to just below his knees, half covering a pair of dark-blue baggy trousers bunched in at the ankle to expose delicate, red-leather slippers. His oiled hair was jet black and fell to his shoulders framing a lean, high-cheek boned face dominated by a sharp, straight nose. Two dark, mirthless eyes stared back at Magnus; his thin mouth was just visible beneath a hennaed red beard that came to an upwards-curling point.
    ‘And you are?’ Magnus asked, trying to keep the contempt that he felt for this outrageous-looking whore-boy master out of his voice. Behind him Sextus and Marius led half a dozen brothers, armed with knives and cudgels, out of the tavern
    ‘Kurush,’ the Albanian replied resting his right hand on the hilt of a curved dagger hanging at his waist. ‘And you must be Magnus?’ His Latin was precise and with little trace of an accent.
    ‘I am. Let’s get this over with; show me the two boys.’
    ‘They have not been harmed or even interfered with; I can assure you of that with my word.’
    ‘I’m sure you can but, nevertheless, I wish to see them closer.’
    ‘A man who won’t take another man’s word is not worthy of trust himself. Let me see my boy. His condition will determine the state of the other two.’
    ‘Sextus, tell Cassandros to bring him out,’ Magnus ordered, keeping his eyes locked on Kurush.
    They waited in silence, staring at each other, for the few moments that it took Cassandros to appear with his charge.
    ‘Bring him here,’ Magnus said as the Greek dragged the struggling youth through the tavern door.
    ‘This man raped me,’ the whore-boy shrieked at Kurush, pointing an accusatory finger at Cassandros, ‘and paid nothing.’
    Magnus spun round. One look at Cassandros’ face confirmed that the boy was telling the truth: he could not meet his eye.
    ‘It would seem that we have a problem,’ Kurush observed. ‘I don’t take kindly to people making free with my property.’
    Magnus grabbed the youth from Cassandros’ grasp with his left hand and cracked his right fist into the Greek’s face, felling him. ‘I’ll take care of it once we’ve done the exchange; he’ll be punished, I give you my word.’
    ‘Why should I take your word when you wouldn’t take mine just now? But I’m not interested in him being punished, you can do what you like to him; I’m interested in a fair exchange.’
    ‘This is a fair exchange, more than fair, I’ve already given you one of your boys, let’s complete the transaction and then we need have nothing more to do with each other.’
    Kurush smiled icily and turned to his three companions speaking to them in their own language.