The Seascape Tattoo Read Online Free PDF Page B

impressed by him … and if he wasn’t mistaken, there was attraction there. If he had helped things along a bit …
    â€œExcuse me?” Draz said.
    Damn it! He hadn’t realized she was still behind him, and he turned, composing himself.
    â€œIt is a wonderful view,” she said. “But it is not yours.”
    â€œYes,” he said. “Yes, of course.” She was smiling at him, as if she had read his thoughts. And, curse it, as had been the case with the princess, once again he wasn’t sure that she couldn’t.
    He backed out of the room and returned down the long, dark tunnel to his quarters.
    Once there, Neoloth cast off his disappointment and buried himself in the books and spells needed to generate a vision of the future. A great bowl filled with water, and then a handful of eggs from a Vox, a salamander-like creature that lived on the edge between magic and flesh. Vox eggs were thin, transparent, almost fluid, just enough solid matter to feel sticky against his palm.
    Once stirred together, the mixture began to spin, as if a plug had been pulled from the bottom of the pan. Good. It was working. A dim light flickered within. He gazed. This was a tricky part: he had to look at it from the right angle, with his eyes partially closed, and in the right trance state. If everything was just right, it was sometimes possible to …
    He saw the princess boarding her ship, and the ship taking sail. The weather looked good. The ship dwindled to a dot on the ocean, sailing north. Good … that would take it perhaps three days hence, if they sailed on the morning tide. It would take five days to reach their destination, he reckoned, and …
    But then the clouds came. The bowl darkened, the whirlpool diminished. He could see nothing. He had seen, nothing, except a calm voyage, followed by …
    A storm? Misfortune, or the simple failure of his spell, perhaps. Something that happened more and more often these days …
    He didn’t know. And that was the hardest part of it all. He didn’t know. Once upon a time, such knowledge had come readily. And now …
    What was he going to tell the queen?
    A headache was brewing. And that, at least, he still possessed the power to heal.

 
    FOUR
    Aros on the Docks
    Aros crouched behind a tavern, concealed in shadow. He believed he had eluded his pursuers but wasn’t willing to gamble his life on it. The guard would return within the hour, and he had to have an answer.
    How had things gone so badly, so quickly? After last night’s attempt to murder him, he had lurched from disaster to disaster. True, he had successfully avenged himself upon C’Vall, killing him in his own bedroom. Unfortunately, he had been discovered even as he fled the chamber where C’Vall’s sword and skill had fallen before the barbarian’s fury. Discovery and alarum led to another fight during which he had broken the heads of a pair of guards … and then fled before he could be overwhelmed.
    But Aros had been recognized. His position as taxman was lost, and the only real option was to flee east to the desert or south on the morning tide. If he could get to sea, if he could make the right contacts, he might be able to escape the clutches of the law.
    If he couldn’t … his neck itched just where a noose would tighten.
    There was a rustle in the alley behind him. He bristled, prepared to die fighting and free. If necessary. But he’d been so close!
    Questions circled his mind like a cat chasing its flaming tail. Everything had been right, and now everything was wrong. The beast within him warred with the man. It was caught in a trap, but more important even than fighting its way out was finding the reason why .
    The figure approaching him in the dark was more shadow than form, difficult to distinguish. “Who goes there?” Aros snarled.
    â€œIt’s me!”
    Aros recognized the