False Covenant (A Widdershins Adventure) Read Online Free

growled through a cage of teeth, “Was. My . Caper!”
    “I don't see your name on it.”
    Her jaw dropped. “Did you really just say—?!”
    “Besides, Shins, you're one to talk about stealing a job out from under someone. Not after you swiped the d'Arras Tower job out from under Lisette.”
    Widdershins swallowed the bitter medicine of an angry retort, and Olgun—despite the outrage and frustration he shared with his worshipper—couldn't help but chuckle.
    “I hate to break it to you, oh master schemer,” she said instead, “but you didn't think this through. Yeah, Rittier should have a lot of coin on hand, but not enough to make the score worthwhile once you split it seven ways—let alone if you bring me in! The risk's not worth it! You—”
    “Coin? Shins, who said anything about coin?”
    A second time Widdershins's jaw hung loose—this time, she was sure, low enough that she'd probably have to pick soil out from between her lower teeth. “You can't be that stupid!” It was barely a whisper; perhaps a prayer.
    But she knew, even as she spoke the words, that he could be. And it explained why he needed so many thieves for the task.
    “The table settings, the art, the jewels…You have any idea what those'll bring, even on the street? Hell, Widdershins, you can have the coins if you want!”
    She was just about squeaking now. “There's no way you can sneak out with that much loot without being spotted!”
    “And who,” he asked, his hand dropping once more to his blade, “said anything about sneaking ?”
    It was a perfect cue, and sure enough, that last word was punctuated by the shattering of glass and a sudden scream from the manor.
    “Come on!” Simon insisted, turning toward the commotion. “We're missing all the—”
    He never got to explain what they were missing, because at that moment Widdershins hauled off and punched him as hard as she could in the jaw. It wasn't all that impressive a blow, really; young and slight, Widdershins tended to rely more on speed and stealth than on strength. But with Olgun adding a touch of divine “oomph,” it was more than enough to drop Squirrel like, well, a squirrel.
    “We need to go !” Widdershins hissed to her unseen ally. “We do not want to be around when this fiasco decides exactly which of the ten thousand possible ways it's going to go bad. Also,” she added, shaking her hand, “ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow…”
    And indeed, she was several paces nearer the outer wall, already tensed to leap, when the next batch of sounds escaped the manor and caught up with her. The sounds not of a forceful robbery or frightened victims, but the clatter and clash and shouts of…
    “Combat?” Widdershins yanked herself to a halt so abruptly that the muscles of her back and legs twinged in protest, and Olgun let out a startled yelp. “Who in…?”
    Then she was running once more, this time toward the heavy stone structure—and through an ever-thickening wave of strenuous objection from her divine partner.
    “I know, I know !” she argued between gasping breaths. “But I need…to know what's…going on!” And then, grinning despite herself, “Kind of like…old times, yes?”
    Olgun spent the next moments explaining, in no uncertain terms (well, emotions and sensations), exactly what he thought of “old times.” But at least it kept him occupied.
    Another leap, a scuttle up the side of the wall that a circus-trained spider would have been hard-pressed to match, and Widdershins was peering in through a window overlooking the dining room.
    No trace of the marquis himself, or any of the remaining guests. Instead, she saw four of Squirrel's compatriots, now wearing masks pulled over their faces, locked in combat with…
    With Rittier's servants?!
    Except that even as she watched, the servants revealed themselves for who and what they really were. She saw hidden weapons appear from within their dull-colored uniforms. Blades, yes, but also