The Quest of Kadji Read Online Free PDF

fat pedlar had inquired of the gate guardians. On impulse he decided to stop here, as he was weary and hungry and cold.
    The inns of Khôr, it seemed, were very different from the rude and rickety little inns, simple fare and rough housing he had sampled days earlier at the little hill town of Nabdoor. He could see the difference the moment he guided his pony through the portal emblazoned with the Sign of the Seven Moons.
    Within he found a broad stone-paved courtyard, swept spotless, and a livery-clad stableboy to take the reins of his pony popped up on the instant, as if conjured into being by a magician.
    The main hall of the hostelry was very large and low-ceilinged, stone walls and pillars washed in clean plaster of snowy white and warm peach and creamy rose. There was not just one but three mighty hearths with great fires roaring against the biting chill of the day, and scurrying scullery boys greasing and salting and spicing the, mighty slabs of beef turning on slow creaking spits over the thundering fires.
    The hall was crowded, despite the early hour, and men sprawled drinking at long low wooden tables. They were drinking vintage wine from rare glass bottles and stoppered earthenware pots, rather than sour beer or cheap ale from leathern jacks. These things the boy noted at once, and not without certain qualms, for although his purse was well-stuffed with gold and silver coin, it was not bottomless—Zarouk, had seen him well-furnished of pocket, reminded of the aphorism that the man who pays his way liberally goes a smooth road, while he who pinches his purse is ever in suspicion.
    A fat, oily innkeeper with a smooth smile and cold ugly eyes greeted him effusively and found a room for him on the third floor of the establishment, though at a price that caused the boy warrior to wince visibly. These necessaries accomplished, and a livery-clad servingman having carried his saddlebags up to his room, Kadji turned aside into the hall and found a place for himself near the fire and ordered a hearty meal, although not without wondering how much, it would cost him. When he asked, with a forced and false casualness, the serving girl named a figure so extreme that he had to bite his lip against crying Out the word. “thievery!”— and, sourly, the boy reflected that with prices like these he would have to accomplish his Quest swiftly or find himself sleeping empty-pocketed in some alleyway.
    Kadji devoured the meal with relish, despite the cost, and was finishing his pastry when the noise of an altercation forced itself upon his attention.
    While eating, the boy had noticed in an offhand manner the arrival of a kugar lordling into the inn’s main hall, for the man made so much noise slamming in through the door, and such a great affair of shaking off the snow from his overcloak, and such a proud display of ruffled sleeve and velvet sash and gold buttons that he could hardly be ignored. For all that he was already flushed and somewhat the worse for wine, the young lordling loudly called for more, and so peremptory were his several needs that it took three hurrying maids to settle and serve him. Seated as if throned, booted feet thrust out before him, the kugar rudely stared about him at the others in so offensive a manner that Kadji wondered how the boorish fellow survived from day to day without getting into continuous fights.
    He little dreamed that before the world was an hour older he would be facing this same kugar with naked steel himself.
    IT WAS a sudden explosion of thunderous bellowings that drew Kadji’s attention to the scene.
    The kugar had been sprawled out, feet rudely thrust wide, blocking the aisle between the long low tables, and, it seemed, a passing fellow had stumbled over them. Instead of making his apologies for causing the other man to stumble, the kugar sprang to his feet with a roar of rage and hurled a string of epithets at the inoffensive fellow. Looking up, Kadji saw that the man was a little