The Beast of the North Read Online Free Page B

the king held a speech at the Sun Court, everyone knew the price of not obeying the king and his laws. The chains sang with the wind, their bells jingling as if the dead were playing with them. There were hundreds of them.
    Father was amongst them.
    Why?
    Mother never told me. I stopped asking, eventually. I fingered a ring on my finger. It was a black metal thing with a precious yellow stone and gold etchings, and Mother had given it to me when I had been young, very young. It was tight, and I never removed it, and I sometimes wondered how it seemed to grow with my finger. I told Sand it was magical, and he laughed at me though not too harshly, for he too believed in magic. But the ring stayed, and I did not budge it. I had promised it to Mother. It was Father’s seal of the family. I did not wish to remove it. Never had. Sand grunted. ‘Don’t be ashamed of your past. The only thing I ever actually wanted was a noble house of my own. And I don’t mean the title. I want a house. Up there on the hill.’
    ‘It’s an excellent goal,’ I said.
    ‘All I want,’ he breathed softly, and I was surprised. He had dreams, just like me. ‘You should change,’ he said stiffly.
    I looked around and saw the crowds were left behind. Sand seemed nervous and gave me the slightest of nods. There was nobody in sight as we made for the harbor. I stopped behind a tall wall of crates, scowled at a cat, and concentrated. It was hard, always hard, but I managed it.
    My face shifted and melted and settled to my own features. I felt drained.
    Dark, long hair cascaded down my back, my beard disappeared and revealed a brooding, thick chin, and my eyes took on a golden brown hue. I was as sturdy of frame as Sand was, but I looked older than he did. Mother often told me I had suffered too much living in the Bad Man’s Haunt.
    ‘That is so damned creepy,’ Sand complained. ‘They would hang you for it, you know. I’ll never forget the first time I saw you do that.’
    ‘You should knock when you enter the restroom, Sand. That’s why you found me out. But I’m happy you know. Even if you pummeled me first.’
    ‘Didn’t expect the moronic beggar from the gate to be squatting over my shit-bowl, in my own apartment, Maskan. If I hurt you, it was your own fault.’
    ‘Didn’t want to be drowned in my excrement, so I rather let you know.’ I giggled.
    ‘Never imitate anyone in our home again,’ he sighed. ‘And please be careful out here as well. They will hang you if you get caught. They hang anyone with strange skills and curses and hints of old magic. Particularly in the south. Remember that only the kings are supposed to be godly, and no human I have heard of can do something like that. Sure, Phibs can conjure spirits, and she performs curses in the Squat Street, but this is too real. Kings are gods. Not commoner scums like you and I. And a king might open you up to find that magic.’
    ‘They cannot catch me to hang me. I never trust anyone. Well. Only you.’ I grinned.
    It was a strange skill indeed. One that I had discovered at an early age. It took a lot of concentration to achieve such a change, and I felt there was something that resisted me, but I could change my face and my hair. Only Sand knew as he had caught me playing in the peace of the toilet ten years past where I had taken a face of a demented old man sleeping on the streets near the Lamb and the gate. Face Thief, he called me, and indeed I could adopt a face I had seen before.
    It was a very useful skill for a thief.
     

CHAPTER 2
     
    T he mighty harbor of Red Midgard spread out before us, and beyond the wharf there was the narrow seaway separating the north from the Verdant Lands. It was called the Arrow Straits, the waters where the western Callidorean Ocean and the Bay of Whales mixed turbulently. In the past, many a war had been waged in the narrow sea-lane. Pirates slipped through it during the night and smugglers as well. There were islands before the