The Fall of Ventaris Read Online Free PDF

direction. She tried several times to bring up his failure to appear that morning, but each time something stopped her. Instead she found herself approaching the topic sideways, by mentioning how, like Minette, she needed help.
    “If you want spies, you don’t have to look very far,” he said after hearing her out. “But chances are that any spy in your pay is taking coin from three more people, and selling out each to the others.” He gazed up at the sky thoughtfully, although the stars were, as usual, hidden by the cloud cover.  
    She winced. He was correct, of course, and she’d never know the true from the treacherous. She bit her lip. “All right, maybe I don’t want spies around right now. I’m thinking about someone to watch my back. A sellsword?” she said.
    Lysander shrugged. “That’s simple enough. There are lots of blades in the Deeps, and if the gold is good every one of them is for sale.”
    “For sale to my enemies as well,” Duchess pointed out. “I don’t want some thug who’s as likely to stab me as to save me. I need someone with...a code of honor.”
    Lysander hooted laughter. “Honor in the Deeps is like virginity in a whorehouse: for enough money, everyone will claim it.” He rubbed his neck. “Whoever you hire is going to be getting involved in some shady business, right? Nobody with honor would have helped you with the Eusbius job.” It was said lightly enough, but she sensed sharpness beneath.
    They climbed the stairs to the garret, which was, as usual, a mess: clothes stacked to knee-level and empty wine bottles scattered about. The hearth was cold, but in summer no fire was needed. Lysander lit some candles while Duchess picked her way through the mess and took a seat on his bed. They sat in silence for a long time. Duchess watched Lysander in the flickering candlelight. He did not look back. Finally she could take it no longer and her anger burst out of her in a rush.
    “You and the girls don’t usually drink at the Bier . Must have been a special occasion to make you forget our meeting.” Lysander did not reply for a long moment, then he simply nodded, which just infuriated her all the more. “No worries though,” she snapped, touching her bruised cheek. “Got into a bit of a scuffle, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”
    He said nothing.
    She found herself babbling. “Worked out fine in the end. I’ve got a whole plan in motion already. The girl worked out fine — just has some problems with the guild, but I’ve already got something going there, too. Didn’t need you at all, in the end, it turned out. So it was all for the best, really.”
    Lysander sighed and turned away.
    “I guess I’ll just have to take it that way from now on, then? That’s just how things are now that...” Her voice caught and she felt tears forming. She was not going to cry in front of him, not now. She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, trying to calm herself. “I didn’t see Poor Gabe tonight, nor Pete,” she said, casting about for a new line of attack. “Are they too good for the rest of us?”
    “For us? No.” His emphasis on us excluded her. “Gabe’s got some client in the Foreign Quarter.” Lysander’s voice was flat, his expression blank. “A Ulari merchant who likes to tell Rodaasi boys what to do.” A candle went out and he relit it from one of its brothers. “And Pete’s dead.”
    She gaped. “Dead?” She almost laughed, it seemed so ridiculous. “ Manly Pete? I thought...but he....there’s no way. I mean, he was seeing a woman now. The one with the husband who’s always away?”
    “You know that wasn’t trade, and a ganymede’s got to work, doesn’t he?” Lysander’s expression was unchanged. “Women are always safer, but most of them don’t feel the need for a ganymede, and most of the rest don’t have the silver. So when the man’s a bit shady...well, we all take our chances.” He stood and moved to the window. Lysander