The Guild of the Cowry Catchers, Book 1: Embers, Deluxe Illustrated Edition Read Online Free Page A

you,
sir?”
    “No. What about the Police themselves? Are
they dying in unusual numbers?”
    Marlo looked uncomfortable. “Being in the
Police is a dangerous job, sir.”
    “You seem to have survived.”
    “I’m…careful, sir.”
    “Does anyone leave the Police alive,
Marlo?”
    “There is Arundel, sir. He was our captain
four years ago.”
    Gerard was surprised. One of Silveo’s
lieutenants. I did not know. “And he was transferred into the
Sea Watch?”
    Marlo nodded. “Some viewed it as a
promotion.”
    “What happened to my immediate predecessor,
Montpir?”
    “He disappeared on Maijha Minor. He was part
of a registered hunting party, so no investigation was made.”
    Gerard snorted. “Was he really hunting, or
was he looking for something?”
    Marlo shrugged. “Montpir was a very private
person. He did like to hunt. His family was from Maijha Major.”
    Gerard nodded and dismissed his new secretary
again. He sat down at the desk and began sorting through the stacks
of paper.
    * * * *
    By the time Gerard returned to his room at
the inn, it was well past midnight. Thessalyn had waited for him.
She was sitting beside the fire in the peculiar stillness that came
over her when she was composing music in her head. Her face cleared
as he entered.
    “You shouldn’t have waited up,” he said.
    “I’m a minstrel. We’re supposed to be able to
harp all night.”
    Gerard stripped off his coat, glad that she
could not see the bloodstains. “I’ve been killing shavier. A couple
of grishnards, too.”
    Thessalyn’s white eyes grew luminous and sad.
“You saved them from Lamire, then?”
    Gerard sighed. She knew him too well. “I
doubt that’s how they saw it.”
    “They will see everything on the Shores
Beyond the World, and they will understand.”
    Gerard shook his head. “I’m not concerned
with the Shores Beyond the World just now, only with Maijha Minor
and my last predecessor in the Police, Montpir. He disappeared
there. I think he was looking for Sky Town.”
    Thessalyn strummed her harp thoughtfully. “So
you really think Sky Town exists?”
    Gerard shrugged. “The Priestess seems to
think so. Montpir did, too, I think.” Gerard told her about Marlo
Snale and what he’d said. He also mentioned Silveo’s parting
words.
    Thessalyn shook her head. “What is wrong with
him? Doesn’t he see that you’re both on the same side?”
    Gerard hesitated. He’d never told Thessalyn
all of the rumors about Silveo. “They say he clawed his way up from
the slums around Slag on Sern.” He watched Thessalyn’s face. The
harbor town of Slag was perhaps the roughest and ugliest in
Wefrivain. The town had a reputation for brothels that catered to
all tastes, and foxlings were especially prized because of their
fine features and child-like proportions. Gerard would have pitied
any such creature, except that Silveo had a way of dissipating pity
as a summer sun dissipates dew. In Gerard’s experience, Silveo
would have been more likely to sell such children than to have been
one.
    Thessalyn was quiet a moment. “Poor
thing.”
    Gerard made a face. “No one can say whether
it’s true, as he seems to have killed nearly every shelt who knew
him as a child.” He hesitated. “However, it might explain his taste
in clothes.”
    “Gerard!”
    “He is cruel, Thessalyn. He hasn’t the honor
of a mud leech.”
    “And you are intimidating, especially
to someone like that.”
    Gerard drew a hand across his eyes. “Alsair
can talk of nothing but eviscerating him since that business with
the Foam . I don’t want to talk anymore about Silveo
Lamire.”
    She smiled. “Then let’s not. Judging from
what Marlo Snale had to say, you’ve taken on a dangerous job,
love.”
    “Frightened for me?”
    Thessalyn stood and walked to him, fearless
now that she’d memorized the layout of the room. Gerard took her in
his arms. “My dear,” she said, “you could vanquish hydras and cross
the deserts of fire.”
    Her