The Malmillard Codex Read Online Free

reached her
side. "And two tankards of ale, barkeep, if you please."
    "I greatly fear, milady, that we're all full
up," said Frague. "All full up, the Toad is tonight."
    Two overflowing tankards appeared before
them on the bar as if by magic. A coin appeared just as magically
in Madryn's fingers, a thick bright silver coin that gleamed in the
murky light. She laid it on the wooden surface, took one tankard
and pushed the other towards Valerik, then turned to their
host.
    "Quite full, Master Frague?" she asked with
a lazy grin, then took a sip of the rich amber liquid.
    Valerik slurped a mouthful of the sharp ale
and at once felt a glow begin to spread throughout his exhausted
body, and much needed heat coursing through his veins.
    Frague laughed his burbling laugh, his
barrel-shaped belly shaking. "Well, perhaps not quite filled up, to
be sure," he replied as his eye took in the silver filigree of
Madryn's sword hilt. He added the decoration to the thickness of
the coin he had just seen and calculated to a nicety the value of
her boots, the fineness of her jacket cloth, and the cost of the
hint of lace that peeked out at her throat. "Let me just see what I
can do, while we find you and your friend some supper, shall we?
Come, I'll show you to a private dining room."
    Valerik drained the rest of his ale in four
hefty swallows and set the empty tankard down on the bar. Wiping
his mouth on the back of his hand, he followed Madryn and their
host through a door to the right of the bar. The door opened onto a
hallway lined with many other doors, through one of which Frague
gestured them into a snug small room with a round table and three
chairs. A fire crackled cheerfully in the tiny grate, sending out
waves of warmth and sparkling on a shiny pewter plate that sat in
lone majesty on the snowy cloth.
    "This room was reserved, but the gentleman
has not appeared. I'll send the potboy along with another setting
and some dinner for you," promised Frague as he began maneuvers to
remove his massive bulk back out the narrow door.
    "Master Frague?" Madryn said before he could
shut the door.
    "Milady?" A faint crease appeared in the
approximate middle of their host, the only sort of bow possible to
such a stout and impressive figure.
    "My friend here has need of some new
clothing. Thieves on the road…you understand," she waved a
negligent hand, as if to say how common it was for her or indeed
anyone at all to be traveling with a near naked man wrapped in a
cloak.
    "Or mayhap the gentleman has left his
breeches beside a bed somewhere?" asked Frague, with a good-natured
leer at Madryn and a wink to Valerik
    Damn the man , thought Valerik—he gave
a ghost of a grin as he considered his naked and scarred
state— he thinks I'm some sort of traveling bedmate-for-hire .
An uneasy memory of his former mistress, now deceased, ran across
his mind with icy feet.
    "You are speaking of my friend," said
Madryn, her tone frigid.
    "Certainly, milady. Of course, milady. Your
pardon, I'm sure, sir and milady.
No-offense-intended-and-none-taken, I hopes. I have a servant who
is about the noble gentleman's size and will have something he can
put to use, I do not doubt, until he reached his no-doubt fine
estates. I'll send Radisin along with some clothes and your supper,
just as soon as ever I can."
    The door closed behind the flustered
innkeeper.
    Madryn gave Valerik a wry smile of relief as
the latch snapped home.

Chapter Three
    Valerik slid the
saddlebag under the table and dragged one of the chairs closer to
the fire. He sank into it with an almost inaudible sigh of
contentment and held out frozen hands to the blaze. The black cloak
bunched about his broad shoulders.
    Silence, broken only by the crackle of
flames. He chanced a glance at his companion, wondering for the
hundredth time that hectic day why she had risked her life for
him.
    "Why are you helping me?" Valerik jerked out
at last, unable to put off the question any longer. He had been
half