Thief With No Shadow Read Online Free Page A

heavily on him that he almost fell to the ground. The edges of his vision were dark with exhaustion and despair. “Did you get paid well?” His voice was slurred, rasping, nearly unintelligible. The farm. His parents. So many deaths, so much suffering. For nothing.
    The wraith’s dirty fingers curved protectively over the man’s black hair. “Yes. Go away and leave us.”
    Understanding was slow to come. He stood stupidly for a moment. “You bartered the necklace for him.”
    She didn’t look at him. “It was the price.”
    “The price of your thieving is my sister’s life!” Or perhaps his own.
    The wraith made no sign that she’d heard his words. Her attention was wholly on the man. She stroked the hair back from his face.
    Bastian’s gaze flinched from the man’s injuries—the peeling, charred skin, the livid bruises, the swollen and blackened eyes. Does he live? he asked Endal.
    He smells of death. He will die soon.
    “Your thieving is for nothing,” Bastian told her, the words bitter in his mouth. “He dies.”
    The wraith’s fingers clenched in the man’s hair. “No.” Her voice was fierce. She didn’t turn her head to look at him. “He will live.”
    Bastian shook his head, but she didn’t see. He took a clumsy step backwards, away from her, and shook his head again.
    Endal whined. His anxiety pressed into Bastian’s mind.
    The salamanders have the necklace , Bastian told him. We are too late. He pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes. Blackness.
    Endal barked.
    Bastian lowered his hands and opened his eyes. Endal stood at the heavy door to the salamanders’ den. He barked again, loudly, futilely.
    “No.”
    Endal gave another deep-throated bark,
    “No! Endal, don’t!”
    Bastian made it to the door in fast, stumbling steps. He grabbed the leather collar around the dog’s neck and pulled him back.
    Too late.
    Metal scraped against stone. Heat billowed out at him and peppery musk gagged in his throat. He saw shadows and sleek red skin and fiery eyes.
    “Yesss?”
    The salamander was smaller than he was, much smaller, and yet Bastian trembled to hold his ground. His heart beat hard, urging him to run. Endal whimpered. He pressed against Bastian’s leg.
    Bastian had read the tales. He’d heard storytellers speak of salamanders, had seen sketches drawn by those who’d encountered the creatures and lived, but second-hand description was no match for reality. The domed skull with its needle-sharp crest of spines, the elongated jaw and slitted nostrils, the lipless mouth, the eyes...so bright, like staring into the heart of a fire.
    “Yesss?”
    Words choked on his tongue. It was useless to utter them, hopeless. Salamanders didn’t give back their treasures. The necklace was lost.
    Endal nudged his leg. He whined again.
    Courage. For his sister Liana, he had to have courage. Bastian swallowed. “The necklace she gave you.” The words came out in a rush. “I’d like it back. Please.”
    The salamander uttered a gleeful, hissing sound, like steam rising from the spout of a kettle. A tiny wisp of flame licked from its mouth. “And what do you offer in exssschange?” it asked.
    Bastian’s mouth was dry. He struggled to breathe. The sharp scent of the creature’s skin choked in his throat. Sulphur stung his nostrils. He had no gold coins, no jewels, nothing that might tempt a salamander. The silver signet ring on his finger was too plain. “Her.” He gestured at the wraith. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her head rise swiftly. “I offer her.”
    The salamander laughed its hissing laugh again. Its eyes narrowed in delight. “We do not want her,” it said.
    Bastian inhaled a shallow breath of musk and sulphur. “I have nothing else to offer.”
    The ember-bright eyes blinked slowly. The creature smiled, showing teeth that were small and neat and sharp. “You are male.”
    He’d heard the tales in the taverns, had laughed and scoffed outwardly, and recoiled inside himself.