Thieves' Quarry (The Thieftaker Chronicles) Read Online Free PDF Page B

the wharf ahead of me.”
    “Sleep well, my friend,” Ethan said.
    Diver nodded, but lingered by the table. “I really am sorry. It won’t happen again.”
    “It can’t happen again, Diver. It’s not just my livelihood I’m risking by letting you help me. It’s my life, and yours too.”
    “I understand.”
    Ethan smiled. “Good. Get some rest.”
    Diver left the tavern, raising a hand in farewell as he passed Kelf. Not long after, Kannice came to Ethan’s table, as he had known she would.
    She sat and took his hand. “Do you want to tell me what happened?” she asked.
    Ethan chuckled. “Diver would prefer that I didn’t.”
    “I thought as much. That’s why I asked you.”
    “I won’t bother you with the details, but the upshot is that Sephira learned of my work for Mister Short from a girl Diver knows, and it cost us a few pounds.” He shrugged. “There’s nothing to be done about it now.”
    “She could have killed you.”
    “Sephira has had ample opportunity to kill me, if that’s what she wants,” he said. But Kannice was right. It could have been far worse. For Tanner it nearly was. He wondered if he had been too quick to let Diver work with him again.
    “You know what I mean,” Kannice said. “I understand that he’s your friend, but you’re best off leaving him to the wharves and doing your thieftaking on your own.”
    Sound advice. He would have been wise to take it.
    “You’re already letting him help you with something else, aren’t you?”
    She knew him as well as she did the wood grain of her tavern’s bar, and she was as smart as anyone he had ever known. He would have been well served to have her work with him, but she was too clever for that.
    “It’s not a job,” Ethan said, an admission in the words. “I saw something tonight, and I just want to make sure that Sephira isn’t causing more trouble.”
    She glared at him, lamplight shining in her bright blue eyes. “And you thought it would be a good idea to let Derrey tag along as you meddle in Sephira Pryce’s affairs.”
    Strange that it hadn’t sounded half as foolish when he himself said much the same thing. He didn’t like to admit that loyalty to a friend could be a fault, but perhaps he had been too quick to forgive Diver.
    “Honestly, Ethan, sometimes I think his stupidity rubs off on you, like it’s contagious or something.”
    She shook her head, got up, and started toward the bar. Halfway there, she stopped, heaved a sigh, and walked back to his table. Halting in front of him, she offered a contrite smile. “I didn’t mean for that to come out the way it did. I just remember what’s happened in the past when you’ve crossed her.”
    He remembered, too. Over the years, Sephira’s men had beaten him to a bloody mess, stolen his money, and come close to killing him more times than he could count. “I’m not going out of my way to start a new fight with Sephira Pryce. I promise. But one of the men I saw in here tonight is a conjurer, and I think I overheard him and his friend talking about Sephira. I don’t like the idea of her having access to spells.”
    “I can see that.” She tilted her head to the side, a coy smile curving her lips. “Are you staying tonight?”
    “I’d like to, if you don’t mind having a man as foolish as me in your bed.”
    She grinned and draped the towel she was carrying over her shoulder. “It’s never bothered me before,” she said, and walked away.

 
    Chapter
    T HREE
    Strange, dark dreams troubled his sleep. At first he was chasing Tanner through the narrow fog-shrouded byways of the South End. Soon, though, he was the one being pursued. He couldn’t see who followed him, but he knew it had to be Sephira and her men, and he knew as well that they were intent on killing him.
    Before long, though, he had stopped running. The bespectacled man stood before him, a knife in his hand, blood on his forearm, and the words of a spell on his lips. Ethan grabbed for his