Wrath of a Mad God Read Online Free PDF

expedition. Jim was one of a half dozen men who were not by any stretch of the imagination soldiers yet were billeted with the soldiers, sent out on missions with soldiers, and expected to follow instructions without question as if they were soldiers. All Jommy and Servan could get from the usually voluble self-confessed thief was he was part of a special group of “volunteers” that were here to train with the combined forces of Roldem, Kesh, the Kingdom, and a scattering of officers from the Eastern Kingdoms.
    The usually curious Jommy was beside himself to discover what was going on, but the last few months of serving with various forces from Roldem had taught him that a young officer’s best course was to keep silent and listen. Servan had that knack by nature.
    Still, Jommy’s curiosity couldn’t be entirely stemmed, so he thought perhaps a different approach to the subject might get him some hint of what was going on. “Jim, you’re from the Kingdom, right?”
    “Yes,” said the young thief. “Born in Krondor; lived there all my life until now.”
    “You claim to be a thief—” began Jommy.
    Jim shifted his weight, lightly brushing against Jommy, then with a grin held up Jommy’s belt pouch. “This is yours, I believe?”
    Servan tried hard not to laugh while Jommy snatched back his belt purse, which had been tucked up under his tunic. “Very well,” he said, “you are a thief.”
    “A very good thief.”
    “A very good thief,” Jommy conceded. “But what I want to know is how a very good thief from Krondor finds himself out here on the edge of the world.”
    “That’s a story,” said Jim. “I’ve traveled a lot, you see.”
    “Oh?” said Servan, welcoming the distraction from the tedious rain.
    “Yes,” said the agreeable thief. “Been to some very odd places.” He smiled, and years dropped away from his visage, showing an almost boyish glee. “There was this one time, not unlike here, when I was forced to seek shelter from just this sort of driving rain in a cave on a distant island.”
    Jommy and Servan exchanged a glance, and both smiled and nodded, silently communicating the same thought: not one word of what they were about to hear would be true, but the story should be entertaining.
    “I was…taking a journey out of Krondor.”
    “Business?” asked Servan.
    “Health,” said Jim, his grin widening even more. “It seemed like a good idea to be out of Krondor for a while.”
    Jommy tried not to laugh. “So you went…?”
    “I took ship out of Krondor, bound for the Far Coast, and then in Carse found a likely bunch of lads who had come by some information on a…venture that would net all involved a handsome living.”
    “Pirates,” said Jommy and Servan at the same moment.
    “Freebooters, out of Freeport in the Sunset Islands.” Jim nodded. “At the time the captain claimed they sailed under a letter of marque from the Crown, though I never saw it. But being a trusting lad at the time, I took his word.”
    Jommy doubted there had been a single moment in the thief’s life when he had ever been a “trusting lad” but he let the comment go.
    “Well, I find myself on this island, in this cave, with this elf lass…”
    “Did you leave something out?” asked Servan.
    “Oh, a lot actually, but I’m talking about strange places I’ve been.”
    “Let him go on,” said Jommy with ill-concealed mirth.
    “Anyway, the lads I had shipped with were out looking for me, as I had tumbled to their less-than-honorable intentions as to my share of the treasure—”
    “Treasure?” began Servan, but Jommy held up his hand. He wanted to hear this story.
    “Well, that’s another part of the tale,” said Jim. “Anyway, as I was saying, I was hiding in this cave when I encounter this elf lass, name of Jazebel—”
    “Jazebel,” echoed Jommy.
    “Jazebel,” repeated Jim. “And she had her own story of how she’d got there. She was trying to keep from being killed by