Dagger's Edge (Shadow series) Read Online Free Page A

bite or two, and I’m starving.”
    “The Temple of Baaros opened not long after you left last year,” Donya told her. “I didn’t think anything of it at first— just another mercantile sect, god of profitable trade, you know the type. But it’s becoming a problem. The High Priest, An-karas, has been preaching that elves are soulless creatures, descended from the union of demons and animals.”
    “Now, that’s imaginative,” Shadow laughed. “That explains the pointed ears, I guess, but could he explain why we don’t have tails?”
    “It’s not funny,” Donya said impatiently. “Shadow, you haven’t been here, not enough to see what’s going on. The city hasn’t been the same since the Crimson Plague. You remember what happened then—humans blaming elves for the plague, riots, murders—”
    “Oh, come now,” Shadow protested. “There’s always bound to be a fuss when something like that happens. After your wedding, when everybody was well again, things settled down again pretty quickly.”
    “Yes, for the year before you turned the Guild over to Aubry and flew off to see the world,” Donya agreed, “it settled down. More than a third of the human population of Allanmere had died, Shady. But the resentment was still there, especially following so soon after your Guild—and consequently the elves—made such a comeback at the expense of the Council of Churches. People remembered that, Shady, especially the Council of Churches.”
    Shadow grimaced.
    “I’d have thought that lot would have gotten over it by that time,” she said. “Even old Vikram.”
    “Vikram died in the Crimson Plague,” Donya told her. “And that wasn’t overlooked, either. Three years after that the elves discovered that new dye process and set the Dyers’ Guild back half its profits. Then five years later, when the elves discovered that gold up by North Heart and flooded the market with it so the value of the Sun dropped—”
    “Oh, please,” Shadow chuckled. “Most of those forest elves had never held so much as a copper in their hands in their lives. Is it any wonder they threw their new wealth around foolishly?”
    “Hmmm, seems I’ve seen a certain city elf do a bit of that herself, and she’d certainly had plenty of time to learn better,” Donya sniffed, but she had to chuckle at Shadow’s wide-eyed, innocent expression.
    “Well, what’s this got to do with this Temple of Baaros?” Shadow asked. “And Jael, for that matter?”
    “All I’m saying is that the seeds of anti-elven sentiment were planted before Jael was even born,” Donya said patiently, “and it just kept growing as one thing after the other seemed to—well, as if your Fortune had Her right hand on the elves and Her left on the humans. And then when Jaellyn was born alone, instead of twins, and the way she looks—”
    “Oh, Fortune favor me,” Shadow groaned. “I thought that mess died down a few months after Jael was born.”
    “Well, it did,” Donya admitted. “The general consensus was that the House of Sharl had been marrying into elven blood for so many generations that it really wasn’t the same anymore as an elf-human marriage. That caused a little consternation among the humans, but at least they stopped muttering about Jaellyn. But then when Mera and Markus were born, it all started up again, worse than ever, with the anti-elven faction shouting the loudest, of course. And of course it doesn’t help that disaster seems to follow Jaellyn around like a wolf on a trail, and that she can’t seem to master any useful skill.”
    “How bad can it be?” Shadow shrugged. “I mean, Jael’s plainly got elven blood; that’s never been disputed. And there’s certainly no doubt in the world she’s your daughter, not when you went into labor in the middle of a Fortune-be-damned City Council meeting!”
    “The city’s splitting apart, Shady, and Jael’s the wedge,” Donya sighed. “Argent and I have been fighting this