The Miscreant (An Assassin's Blade Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

I would convincing Braddock to free Lysa. So I’d have to do it in secret, which called for a little assistance from the Rots.
    I arrived back at the Hole about seven days after leaving Erior, thanks to the hastiness of Pormillia. Kale greeted me with a one-finger salute and a wink.
    He flicked his long blond bangs out of his eyes. “You wouldn’t believe the fucked-up job I just had, Shepherd.”
    Hmm. The grass here looked strange.
    “This stable master,” Kale said, and his voice trailed off. He was still jabbering about, but I heard only muffled noises.
    I crouched down, plucked a blade of grass from the dirt and smeared the tip on my finger. The red dollop of liquid had dried to a bubble.
    “Why is there blood all over the ground?” I asked.
    A couple Rots in the distance hooted and hollered.
    Kale had stopped telling his story. He winced and swore under his breath.
    “I don’t appreciate the silence,” I said. “This is a fair amount of blood. Is someone hurt?”
    He reached for the back of his neck, scratching away the consternation that so obviously gripped him. “I’m not supposed to tell you, Shepherd. But, ah. Kind of conflicted here, you know?”
    I crossed my arms and waited patiently. Someone might have demanded silence out of him, but I overruled that someone. And Kale knew it.
    “Vayle,” he said blankly.
    My heart pounded. “She’s here?” I hadn’t seen Vayle since the war had ended five months ago.
    “Was here,” Kale corrected. “She’s gone again. Left yesterday. She had no weapons, a nasty cut along her arm — bleedin’ pretty bad. I helped bandage her up, stuffed some corpsum leaf in the wound. Then she grabbed a couple ebon blades and was gone again.”
    “You know my next question,” I said.
    “Rode for the North, again. She’s been freein’ slaves.”
    Freeing slaves… I should’ve known. Why didn’t she tell me? Maybe she thought I’d chase after her, ask her to come back. And that was exactly what I was going to do. Having a look around the Hole revealed only three Rots, including Kale. Wevel and Slenna were prodding a fire, trading laughs and getting drunk.
    The rest were… still not back. They hadn’t been back since the war ended.
    I could peel Lysa away from Braddock with the help of only three, but Vayle would be of great assistance. Plus, I really just wanted to talk to her again. I’d missed her.
    “Let’s talk over a skin of wine,” I said to Kale.
    The broiling heat oozing out of the fire warmed my face as my Rots and I traded stories and wetted our whistles. Wevel and Slenna had recently returned from an assassination involving a thief who was suspected of stealing from his lord, among other things, a long golden phallus that reportedly stunk. The pleasure wand was later hung outside the lord’s chambers and caused him the sort of embarrassment that’ll have you paying good money for an assassination.
    This was the fifth job that Wevel and Slenna had taken together in the past few months.
    They sat close to one another by the fire, a smile touching her lips whenever he looked at her. He laughed at every joke she told. Touched her knee when he talked, stretched his foot out a smidgen until his toe grazed hers.
    Maybe it was the wine dredging up the bits of romanticism that still existed in my heart. Or maybe it was recalling the Rots lying dead in the arena of Lith. Yeah, that was probably it. Whatever the reason, doubt balled itself up like an orange in my throat. Wevel and Slenna were twenty-two and twenty-one respectively. If grievous injury, death or imprisonment befell them in my attempt to kidnap Lysa, I’d have a hard time living with that.
    Maybe it would be only Vayle and me, like the old times. Or maybe I simply wanted to talk to her one last time, before she left this world. Because deep down, I knew what my greatest friend was up to.
    And with that in mind, I woke up before the sun and set off toward the North. My mouth was dry, and my