Wardragon Read Online Free Page B

that he had said something wrong.
    ‘Someone has to do the clerical work. Would you prefer to be back in D’loom, in Zimak’s stead?’
    ‘At least being here working with us would be swatting the fat off him. Instead, he’s wenching, revelling, eating to excess, and – and White Quell alone knows what he’s doing to my body this very moment.’
    ‘So are you going to quibble about his fee when we are eventually paid?’
    ‘I’m a swordsman, not an accountor.’
    ‘My point exactly. Think of him as a treasure map: he may not do much, but without him, no treasure. Now, to work, and we need to get up there before nightfall,’ she said, nodding toward the ragged cliffs.
    Daretor sighed. ‘At least Zimak’s body is good for climbing.’
    Jelindel put a hand against Daretor’s chest. ‘But first, I want to talk to some of the witnesses to the attacks.’
    ‘Unless you have a way to contact the afterlife, there are few of those. It appears the best defence seems to be to stay at home after dark, with the doors and shutters firmly locked. Those that did see anything also keep their lips fastened.’
    Jelindel dropped her hand. ‘Then we have to unfasten them.’
    ‘Force and magic don’t answer every problem,’ Daretor said moodily.
    ‘No,’ Jelindel agreed, hefting her pack, ‘but bribery is a very fine substitute for either.’

    Merris was very susceptible where coins were concerned. The scrawny lad was continually wiping his nose on a filthy sleeve, as if there were a leaking pipe within his head. He also had the unnerving habit of regarding Jelindel first with one eye, then the other, as if his ancestors had been birds rather than humans.
    ‘So, you saw the thing that attacked your uncle?’ Jelindel asked.
    Merris nodded. The lad then smeared snot across his upper lip with the frayed cuff of his sleeve. Merris was a boy of few words, especially around merchantmen, and even more so around powerful folk in the employment of the duke.
    ‘I need a description, Merris,’ Jelindel wheedled.
    The boy shrugged. Jelindel removed an argent from her coin pouch and held it up. His eyes gleamed with interest, but also a faint contempt which made Jelindel frown. Merris reached for the coin but Jelindel closed her fist around it.
    She wagged a finger. ‘In words, please.’
    Merris licked his lips, removing some of the glistening snot. ‘It was pointed.’
    ‘Pointed?’
    ‘S’pose. And fast. Faster than an arrow. Faster than a bolt from a crossbow. If I’d a blinked, I’d not have seen nothin’.’
    ‘Fast and pointy?’ said Daretor with a glance to Jelindel. ‘We’re paying another argent for that?’ His scepticism annoyed the boy.
    ‘You wasn’t there, mister, was you?’
    Jelindel waved Daretor silent. ‘What else, Merris? Be quick now.’
    ‘It come down out of the sky, but not steep like. And it swayed from side to side. But fast .’
    ‘What did it look like?’
    The boy became uneasy, as if this part worried him.
    ‘You’ll laugh.’
    ‘Try us,’ said Daretor.
    ‘It looked like a big fish, sort of like those in the market, but lots bigger. And it grabbed my uncle, sort of shook him around to soften him up, then swallowed what hadn’t fallen off.’
    ‘How big?’ asked Jelindel.
    ‘Like a horse, maybe.’
    ‘So a flying shark the size of a horse ate your uncle,’ said Daretor.
    ‘Accounts for the mess,’ said Jelindel.
    Merris took his leave, pocketing his coins then burying his hands deep into his breeches to keep the coins from jangling.
    They got little more from the other surviving witnesses, most of whom answered their questions from behind closed doors. In the early afternoon they returned to the hostelry where they had lodgings and ordered a meal of assorted fish in a thick white sauce. It was here that the landlord handed Jelindel a letter which she read in silence, then folded and slipped into her pouch. Despite Daretor’s enquiring look, she did not discuss the