Nightlord: Shadows Read Online Free

mouth closed, I flexed my fangs, making sure they were retracted. Yes, they were; the points were a bit pronounced, but when pulled in were only a trifle longer than my other teeth. My teeth did feel a little strange, but I had other things to think about.
    They glanced at each other from this greater distance. The shortest one spoke first.
    “He has a point.” He lowered his weapon. He didn’t put it away.
    “Shut up,” the other two explained, in unison. It sounded practiced. Perhaps they did that a lot.
    “I’m Kammen,” the middle-height one—dark hair, bordering on black—said. “This is Torvil,” he nodded toward the tall one, “and this is Seldar,” the short one. “Now, who are you?”
    “I’ve been called at lot of things,” I admitted, but did not add, Some of them are words you’re probably not old enough to use. “Most recently, I’ve gone by the name ‘Halar’.”
    They all stared at me as though I’d just claimed to be from Venus, or sprouted another head. They muttered together for a moment. They were farther away, so I didn’t follow all their conversation, but I know I heard, “…can’t be. He’s not tall enough…” Eventually, they turned their full attention back to me.
    “We will require that you prove your claim,” said the short one—Seldar.
    “How?” I asked. I didn’t even have a driver’s license on me. Not that they have cars in these parts, of course. On the other hand, Bronze weighs more than most cars, and is about as fast, but she drives herself, really…
    The question did seem to stymie them for a moment.
    “You made stones sing, right?” asked Torvil.
    “Once, yes,” I admitted. “I had a conversation with some, too.”
    “Do it again.”
    I glanced around the courtyard. Aside from ripping a chunk of rock out of the mountainside, that didn’t seem feasible. On the other hand, I had a sword.
    “One moment.” I drew my sword, slowly, as gently as possible. I didn’t want to startle these dangerous-looking people, after all. I held it with one finger hooked through the bell guard. I flicked the curved blade with a fingernail; it chimed nicely. Good. A moment later, after working the vibration spell into the metal and pushing a little power into it, the sword hummed. I tuned the spell a bit, tweaked some of the vibrations for sound quality, and let the sword play back my memory of a piece of music.
    They didn’t recognize my memory of “Princes of the Universe” by Queen—it was in English, after all—but they were still impressed. When the song ended, I put the sword away.
    “Satisfied?”
    They looked at each other. It struck me that they were lifelong friends. That look they shared communicated more in a glance than an hour of conversation could. You don’t see that anywhere else.
    “For now,” Kammen said.
    “What are you three doing here, anyway?” I asked.
    “We’re to spend the night in the mountain, stand vigil over swords, and make sacrifice.”
    “More power to you. I don’t suppose you have anything to eat on that cart of yours, do you? I admit I’m more than a little hungry.”
    The three of them visibly blanched and stepped back, eyes going all round and frightened again. Considering the way my stomach was complaining, I didn’t blame them.
    “Not that hungry,” I assured them, mostly to re assure them. I wasn’t at all certain whether I was telling them the truth or a comforting lie. “Any suggestions on where I can find breakfast?”
    “There are many dazhu down in the plains,” Seldar offered. “The canals fence them in for the ranchers.”
    “Canals?” I frowned. “I don’t recall any canals.” Seldar just pointed toward the courtyard wall. I continued to frown and headed that way until I could look between the crenellations. There were steps all around the base of the wall, presumably so defenders could do what I did, namely, to step up and easily see over the wall.
    Everything was different.
    The