A Clash of Shadows by Elí Freysson Read Free Book Online Page A

enough to slip through and then knelt on the floor to be less visible.
    She looked at the bed and saw faint outlines of people beneath the blankets. Two mounds, moving slightly in rhythm to the breathing. The room was utterly normal for what Katja expected from the servants of a rich man and they slept like babes.
    It was a strange thought that circumstances would be no different whether these people were connected to the Brotherhood or not. The demon scum looked like anyone else. Until one started turning rocks over and peeking beneath them.
    The final part , Katja thought and tried to reach the half-trance state again. Doing it again and again was a drain on mental stamina. But she had to get used to it. She had to learn .
    She felt the shadow of pain in her chest, heard a scream and smelled and tasted blood. She gasped and fought to separate herself from the past. A murder had been committed in this room, many years before. The deed stank of anger and shame and fear and grief. But it was all human. She detected nothing supernatural here.
    Well, so be it.
    Katja returned and couldn’t help but touch her chest to reassure herself it didn’t contain a knife blade.
    Best get moving.
    Katja turned around and bumped her elbow on a candlestick. It fell of f the stand and Katja managed to dart her palm out beneath it at the last moment. She looked back. The mounds were still breathing calmly.
    She wanted to hit herself in the head but couldn’t risk the noise.
    Come on now! Focus, Katja!
    She carefully returned the candlestick and exited the room. She closed the door in the same way she had opened it and went up the stairs on all fours.
    Serdra waited exactly where she had been.
    “Well?” the woman whispered.
    “I sense nothing here,” Katja said. “The spell wasn’t cast here. We must search elsewhere.”
    “Are you sure?”
    Katja looked at her mentor for a moment before crossing her arms.
    “Yes,” she said a bit harshly. “I am sure,” she stated, despite feeling a hint of doubt. She wanted to be right. She wanted to be capable on her own.
    Serdra was silent and utterly still and the doubt became worry.
    “I sense nothing either,” she then said. “Let us go to the council hall.”
    Katja again got to go first. She gave the wire to Serdra, made sure no one was outside, made her way down the wall and hurried into the darkest shadows. Serdra closed the window shutter and then followed her down. And then they continued.
    The warm up was over. Now they would sneak into the most dangerous place in Amerstan. The killer being there wasn’t a certainty. This mission could be a total waste of time. But somehow Katja suspect ed the answers awaited them in the council hall, beyond armed guards and sturdy walls.
    Now this would get truly risky.

 
    5.
     
    They had watched the hall from a distance many times and discussed how best to break into it. It was the most secure building in the land after all, with much to learn from it. But they had never actually done it. Such an endeavour wasn’t something Serdra was willing to embark on needlessly.
    They had agreed that the sewer was probably the easiest way, but that the stench clinging to them afterwards would be a liability once inside. The sewer would be best reserved as an emergency escape route.
    They knelt side by side in an alley right by the wall surrounding the council hall lawn and awaited their chance. The night was quiet enough for them to hear the rattling of armour over some distance and they waited for it to fade into the north east.
    The council hall guards were probably the most dangerous men in the city. They were better armed, better trained, better paid, more respected and were simply generally happier than the watchmen who ambled along the streets with drooping eyelids. However, they rarely had anything to do and Katja understood they greeted trespassers with vicious glee. She understood that feeling just fine but had no particular desire to be the