Two Pieces of Tarnished Silver Read Online Free PDF Page A

above, shaking the ridge.
    “I knew it would be just like this,” he said with a grimace, drawing his slender sword. His companions stood just beyond the reach of his voice in the whipping wind, surveying the land beyond the cliff’s edge. He buttoned his open shirt with his right hand as he approached them.
    “What a delightful little world we’ve found,” he said as he reached the rocky ledge, almost yelling over the howling wind. Aebos looked back over his shoulder and smiled at his friend’s arrival.
    “Don’t let the club fool you—Aebos is a lot smarter than he looks.”
    “Perhaps not so little,” the cyclops shouted in response. He gestured toward a vast expanse of land that spread from the mountain below into a wide plain spotted with violet pools and copses of feeble, dun-colored trees. Jagged mountains hung like curtains in a ring around the arid flatland. The roiling black clouds above cast everything in a pallid gloom, as if the whole of the demon’s realm stood poised at the moment just before the breaking of a terrible storm.
    Creeg pointed to a distant glow, perhaps a dozen miles away beyond a wide swath of sickly woods. “Look there, in the distance,” he said. “I think something is burning down there!”
    The alchemist removed a large rucksack from his shoulders, placed it upon the ground, and rummaged through its contents, finally producing an elegant spyglass. He held the device to his right eye and glanced at the vista for a moment before furrowing his brow in frustration. “It’s definitely a fire,” he said, “but I can’t make out much detail from here. I think it’s some kind of building.”
    “Let me have a look,” said Aebos, snatching the glass from Creeg without waiting for the dandy’s permission. The alchemist sneered. Aebos smiled right back at him, pointing to the center of his forehead. “I’ve got an eye for this sort of work.”
    Without aid of magnification, Korm could just make out the bright spot beyond the woods that had captured Creeg’s attention. Aebos glared through the alchemist’s scope and narrated what he saw.
    “It’s definitely a structure,” he said. “Looks like some sort of mansion, like you might find in Andoran or Taldor. Human construction. Well made, too, but it’ll be totally consumed within the hour.” The cyclops frowned. “Too bad.”
    “There are ruins not too far from the house,” he continued. “Broken stone walls, columns… There are people down there! Hmmmm. No. None of them are moving. Statues. Lots of statues. It seems ancient. Must be the remains of some kind of garden. Looks like the whole place is abandoned.”
    “Scan the rest of the land down there,” Creeg ordered. “See if you can make out any other settlements.”
    Aebos brought the spyglass across the landscape in a wide, slow arc before shaking his head and handing the implement back to the alchemist. “I see nothing else but pools and trees.”
    “Then we will set off toward the garden and the burning building,” said Creeg. “Juval must be found there, and there is no time to waste.” He shouldered his pack and began walking away, seeking a path down from their lofty perch.
    “Just wait a second, chef,” countered Korm. He pointed in the direction of the distant glow with his saber, letting his spirit rise slightly with the flinch of the pompous alchemist. “How do we know Juval is down there? That’s miles away, and we haven’t the proper equipment to climb down a sheer mountain. Why would the demon put the entrance to its lair so far away? And how do you fit twenty miles of hellscape inside a glass lens the size of a giant’s shield, anyway?”
    “I work in chemicals, Calladan,” said Creeg. “Not planar physics. Even I don’t fully understand how all of this works. But I do understand that Juval has placed the entire kingdom of Nex in danger, and that said danger will not be resolved here on this ledge. We’ve a long walk ahead of us,