The Shadowhand Covenant Read Online Free Page B

too. There’s nothing normal about this.”
    â€œOh, stop making a fuss,” she chided. “It’s really not that big a deal.”
    My mother didn’t do humble very well.
    â€œOut with it then,” I said. “What’s the story?”
    She sighed. “Not much to tell. Honest. It was a long time ago. Just after your da and I got married. Word about my forgery skills had gotten around, I was summoned, and Iaccepted the invite. Tripled our income for a while, I can tell you. Oh, the heists we pulled . . .”
    â€œSo what happened? You said you were a Shadowhand.” Then a thought occurred to me. “Or . . . or are you . . . ?”
    â€œNo, son, I’m not still a Shadowhand. And, yes, I know that’s what I’d say if I were still a Shadowhand, but I give you my word that I’m not. I gave it up just after you were born. We settled down here in Vengekeep, and glamorous as the Shadowhand life was, it was far too dangerous for a new mother. So I walked away.”
    â€œAnd they let you?” I didn’t imagine that was easy. She knew the identities of her fellow Shadowhands and all their secrets. It didn’t seem like something you just walked away from.
    â€œThey asked me to reconsider, but when I told them no . . . well, yes, I walked away. They knew I would keep quiet. I’d signed the Shadowhand Covenant, and breaking it would have meant placing my family in more danger than anything all the High Laird’s troops could’ve mustered. I’m bound to the Covenant. For the rest of my life.”
    I didn’t like the sound of that last bit.
    â€œDid you know that Mr. Oxter is a Shadowhand?” I asked.
    She shook her head. “Hadn’t a clue. He must have joined after I left. But chances are he knew I was. He’d have seen my name on the Covenant.”
    I was about to ask Ma what being bound to the Covenant meant exactly, but we’d arrived at the Oxter house. Three stories high with copper trim around the windows, it put most other houses in town to shame. We slipped down the alley between the Oxter house and the pie shop next door. Ma and I waited near the back door until Maloch showed up, followed shortly by Da.
    Once inside, Maloch led us through to the dining room. A long table with ten chairs sat below a massive crystal chandelier. A light coat of dust covered everything. It looked like it had been some time since the room had been used.
    Maloch reached behind a large hutch containing colored glass plates and pulled a hidden lever. The whirring of gears filled the air as the hutch slid to the side, revealing a small room beyond. Maloch led us in, allowing the hutch to close behind us.
    Da lit an oil lamp atop an old, ornate desk at the centerof the room. Piles of parchment camouflaged the desk’s surface. Ma looked around.
    â€œMaloch, I thought you were bringing us to see your father,” she said.
    Maloch didn’t say anything. He produced a key from his pocket, unlocked the middle drawer of the desk, and pulled out a green leather-bound book, which he handed to Ma. She squinted at the pages, then fluttered her eyes.
    â€œOof!” Ma said with a bemused chuckle. “’S been a while since I’ve had to read shadowscript. Give me a mo.”
    I looked over her shoulder at the writing in the book. I didn’t recognize the language—it looked like a bunch of meaningless symbols—and guessed it was a special code used only by Shadowhands. On closer inspection, I saw that the writing was moving. I would focus on one character, and a moment later, it would squirm on the page and shift into a new symbol. In a blink, it would shift again to something entirely different. Each character transformed among three different shapes. I found it harder and harder to focus on the page, as every symbol wriggled and contorted. I finally had to look away.
    Ma ran her finger across the