The Sword Of Angels (Gollancz S.F.) Read Online Free PDF

bring elegance to the Stallion, pretty thing like you. Don’t worry – I’ll take care of you.’
    ‘Thank you,’ said Mirage as the barman turned away. She sat back, trying to get comfortable while she waited for her meal, feeling remarkable suddenly. She was free. No longer tied to Lukien or the library, she could go anywhere she wanted, and not answer to anyone. During her long years in Grimhold, she had craved freedom, almost as much as she craved her old, unscarred face. Now she had both. She dared to look at the men in the room, noting with satisfaction the way they stared. They frightened her, yet it was so much better to see hunger in their eyes than revulsion.
    But they’re the enemy, she told herself.
They conquered Liiria.
    The bar girl brought her a tankard of beer and laid it sloshing on the table. She was gone in an instant, Mirage barely noticed her. She lifted the beer and tasted it while she scanned the tavern’s patrons.
    I’ll have to live among them if Thorin will have me,
she realized.
    While Mirage drank she noticed a man in the opposite corner, looking at her. He sat alone, nursing his own tankard and spinning a coin on the tabletop. The taut skin around his face pulled back in a sharp smile when their eyes met. The man did not wear the uniform of a soldier but rather dressed himself in black, a long cape draped around his shoulders. He had a strangely familiar face. Mirage was sure she’d seen him before, probably at the library. Was he a Liirian, one of Breck’s men? She was nearly certain she had seen him at the farm, where the survivors of the siege had fled, but she did not know his name or even remember speaking to him. The stranger’s smile faded and he went back to spinning his coin.
    If he was at the farm, what was he doing here, Mirage wondered? As though deliberately ignoring her curiosity, the man stood, pushed back his chair, and walked out of the Red Stallion, leaving his coin spinning on the table. He hadn’t eaten – there were no dishes near his seat. Mirage wasn’t even sure he’d been there when she entered. But when the proprietor finally brought her plate of food, she forgot about the stranger entirely.
    ‘For you,’ the man said proudly, laying down a feast of meat and bread. ‘This should get your strength back and then some.’
    Mirage nearly melted when she smelled the food, the odour of which rose up from the plate like a steaming bath. ‘All this?’ she exclaimed.
    The man winked at her. ‘Enjoy it. Stay as long as you like.’
    Mirage picked up her fork and dug into the buttery beef. Already there were benefits to beauty, she realized, and she smiled secretly as she ate, her confidence soaring. Thorin would take her in, she was sure.
    Mirage stayed in the Red Stallion for more than an hour, far longer than she intended, taking her leisure while the innkeeper occasionally refilled her tankard, free of charge. He was plainly smitten with her and stopped by to chat from time to time, mostly, he claimed, to protect her from the other patrons. Once they had got used to her, the Norvans in the tavern stopped leering and offered to buy her drinks, all of which Mirage politely refused. She also got dirty looks from the Stallion’s prostitutes, but these she ignored as well, realizing none of them were a danger.
    By the time she left the tavern the night had gone completely dark. The boy she had left outside with her horse had slumped into something like sleep at the edge of the cobblestone street. Mirage untied her horse without disturbing him, guiding it quietly down the lane. Her belly full, she felt wonderfully contented as she walked, lost in the effect of allthe beer she had drank and loving the cool night air. The streets had thinned of people. A few soldiers straggled along, most of them mercenaries and most of them far more drunk then she. She was a long way from Lionkeep, and the dark streets intimidated her. Only the Red Stallion seemed open for