Warlord Read Online Free Page B

somewhere?”
    “I’ve been summoned.”
    “By whom?”
    “The Plenipotentiary of Westbrook.”
    “What does he want with you?”
    “He didn’t say.”
    Brak was quite alarmed at the prospect. “You’re not seriously thinking of going, are you?”
    “Is there some reason you think I shouldn’t?”
    “Hmmm …” Brak said, feigning deep thought. “Can I think of a reason why you shouldn’t meet with the Plenipotentiary of Westbrook? It couldn’t possibly be because the last time you visited Westbrook you got arrested, I suppose? Or the fact there’s a price on your head for killing the head of the Qorinipor Thieves’ Guild? Maybe I just don’t like the idea—”
    “All right!” she cut in impatiently. “I get your point! And it’s a crazy one. The last Plenipotentiary was killed eight years ago. And on the subject of being wanted for Danyon Caron’s murder … well, that’s all your fault, anyway.”
    “My fault?”
    “It was your friend, remember, who set the guild straight on who exactly plunged a knife into the back of that perverted little cretin. Up until Wrayan Lightfinger opened up his big trap, nobody knew I had anything to do with it.”
    “I believe Wrayan opened his big trap, as you so eloquently put it, to set the record straight because the Qorinipor Thieves’ Guild was threatening to have an assassin sent after him.”
    “He has no honour,” Chyler declared with a wounded look. “He ratted on a fellow thief.”
    “You were going to let him die for a murder you committed, Chyler. Where’s the honour in that?”
    “He could have blamed someone else,” she said, a little uncomfortably. “He didn’t have to tell them the truth.”
    “So it would have been better to blame an innocent person?”
    “That’s not what I mean.”
    “No, what you mean is, you think Danyon Caron deserved to die and it seems patently unfair anybody should be called to atone for it, least of all you.”
    She glared at him. “If you know what I mean, Brak, why do you argue with me about it?”
    “Because I can.” He recognised the determined expression on her face. “You’re still going to go to Westbrook, though, aren’t you?”
    “There might be a profit in it for us.”
    “There might be a gallows waiting for you, too,” he countered.
    She paused, appreciating his concern, although it was clear she had no intention of letting it get in her way. “Just promise me you’ll look after things here while I’m gone, Brak. I can take care of myself.”
    “No.”
    “No, what ?” She looked quite puzzled by his refusal. “Are you saying you don’t think I can look after myself?”
    “No, I’m saying I won’t look after things while you’re gone.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because I’m coming to Westbrook with you.”
    “Why?”
    Brak shrugged. “I’m supposed to be a legendary hero, remember? Maybe, if I go along to watch your back, I’ll get to do something heroic.”
    Chyler looked at him for a long moment and then, instead of smiling at his joke, she nodded slowly in understanding. “You’re leaving us, aren’t you?”
    Brak hesitated before answering, and then finally he shrugged. “I don’t know,” he replied honestly. “I’ve certainly contemplated the idea.” He didn’t add the reason he’d been thinking about it so much. A man had a much better chance of dying in battle than while robbing trading caravans in the Widowmaker Pass.
    “I’ll miss you. We all will.”
    “I actually haven’t said I was leaving, yet.”
    “You don’t have to,” Chyler told him. “I can see it in your eyes.”
    “Chyler .. :”
    She held up her hand to stop him saying anything more. “Look, you don’t have to explain. Not to me. I don’t know what you’ve been hiding from these past twelve years, Brak, and I don’t really care. But it’s eating you alive. I’ve always known that. And I’ve always known whatever you’re trying to run from would eventually chew through that