The Wordsmiths and the Warguild Read Online Free PDF

building, the victim of a subsidence, looked
just about ready to fall over. Outside, huge timbers shored up the walls.
Inside, the place was a maze of props and cross-struts. As the baron entered,
the building was alive with hammering; it had taken an alarming lurch sideways
that afternoon, and emergency reinforcements were now being put into place.
            The proprietor, a
foul-smelling hunchbacked dwarf with a huge goitre, directed the baron to
Togura's room.
            "Take me
there," said the baron.
            The dwarf flattened his
nose against the back of his hand, which, in those parts, was an emphatic
gesture of refusal.
            "I don't venture
upstairs," said the dwarf.
            The baron saw the wisdom
of that as soon as he started up the rickety stairs, which creaked and groaned
beneath his feet, imploring him for mercy. Reaching Togura's door, he hammered
against it with both fists. A slow dust of powdered dry rot began to sift down
from the beams above; alarmed, the baron stopped hammering.
            "Togura!" he
yelled. "I know you're in there."
            Silence from within.
            The baron threw his
shoulder against the door. The floor shook, the stairs creaked alarmingly, but
the door held.
             "Come out, boy," shouted the baron.
            From within, a muffled
voice responded.
            "Go away!"
            "Open the door, so
we can talk."
            Silence replied.
            "Come on, open the
door!"
            There was a pause, then
confused sounds from within. Then the door was opened a crack. The baron, with
a roar, threw his weight against it. A crossbeam overhead ruptured, showering
him with sawdust. But the door still refused to admit him.
            "What have you done
to the door?" demanded the baron.
            Togura replied, but the
baron, sneezing vigorously because of the sawdust in his nose, failed to hear.
            "What was
that?" he said.
            "You heard
me," said Togura.
            "I suppose you've
wedged the door with a baulk of timber."
            "That's what I
said."
            "You're not going
to cry again, are you?" sneered the baron, hearing the distress in his
son's voice.
            "Go away,"
said Togura.
            "I will not go
away," said his father. "You will open the door, quit this place and
come home with me. Then, once we've had a little talk together, we'll go back
to the palace. To see Slerma."
            "No!" howled
Togura. "No, no, not that. I'd rather die."
            "Stop being
melodramatic," said the baron impatiently. "I can't see what you're
making all this fuss about. When all's said and done, she's a healthy young
girl with a moderately wealthy father."
            "She's
obscene."
            "Many men like
their women a little plump. After all, you've got to have something to hold
onto once you get in the saddle."
            "A little plump!
Paps, that woman's a horse, a cow and a whale all rolled into one. She's -
"
            "Don't call me
paps," snapped the baron, who hated hearing that kind of tiny-tot talk
from his son. "It's time to grow up, Togura. Be a man. You're not going to
kill yourself, so you'll just have to live with the life you've got."
            "Yes, I want to
eat. That man-eater would kill me. I - "
            "Stop that! Togura,
face facts. You're not going to inherit. Cromarty gets the estate. If you
marry, you get the king's title and his property once he dies. He's an old man,
he can't last much longer."
            "Neither will I if
I - "
            "Enough! Listen!
Soon, Togura, this wretched town of Keep is going to fall into the ground or
slide into Dead Man's Drop. The king's property will be more valuable than
ever. Anyone wanting to mine the gemstock will have to - "
            "I won't sell
myself for money,"