A Mage Of None Magic (Book 1) by A. Christopher Drown Read Free Book Online Page B

his nose and mouth with his collar and trotted ahead toward where the alley again met the street.
    For an instant he thought he’d stumbled. When his shoulder and head slammed hard into the wall, however, Niel realized someone had shoved him.
    Dazed, he fell to his hands and knees. He opened his mouth to cry out, but all that came was the sour spew of his lunch thanks to a brutal kick to his stomach.
    “I think we have a winner,” someone said.
    “Told you it’d just take one,” another giggled.
    Someone used the toe of his boot to roll Niel onto his side. “Get it over with, will ya? You take too long.”
    Niel managed a feeble struggle, but he couldn’t stop his pack from being yanked off his shoulder. His head throbbed, his vision spun, and the putrid stench of the alleyway and his own vomit made him heave once more.
    “Wait,” he groaned. “You don’t—”
    A final blow to his head brought a dazzle of light, and didn’t let him finish.
    ***
    Niel, Biddleby said. Niel, it’s time to get up.
    Overslept again. Late for chores.
    But he wasn’t in bed.
    Where, then?
    Dirt gritted in his teeth. Something smelled awful.
    Alleyway. Lunch.
    He hoped he hadn’t made that little dog even lumpier by feeding it.
    “Niel,” the voice said again, but it wasn’t Biddleby’s. “Come on, I need you to wake up.”
    Niel slowly, painfully opened his eyes. A watery form quivered in front of him.
    “Arwin?”
    “There you go,” Arwin sighed. “Had me worried. But then, I imagine a head as hard as yours can take quite a lot.”
    “That’s not very funny,” Niel whispered despite the vice clamped around his skull.
    “I know,” Arwin replied. “Let’s get you to your feet. We have to get moving.”
    Moving? he thought. But I haven’t packed...
    Niel gasped, snapping back to lucidity. “Wait! My pack! Where’s my pack?”
    Arwin’s grip tightened on Niel’s arm as he wobbled. “Afraid that’s gone, friend. They took it.”
    Gone? Took it? Just the thought brought stinging tears of fear and anger.
    Panicked, Niel gathered himself to search the alleyway, then froze in place as his eyes fell on the form of a man lying face down in the muck barely three steps away. A dark oval of crimson soaked the man on one side, flowering out to a rosy hue as it spread through his dirty shirt. The oval reached up toward his shoulders and down below his belt line. The man gazed in glassy amazement at his own pale hand resting just a few thumbwidths from his face.
    Niel had seen dead bodies, though not many—the elderly, the sick—but he’d never seen anyone who’d actually been murdered.
    “Niel, I need you to listen,” Arwin said.
    Niel wiped his face on his sleeve. “Did you do that?”
    “He was going to kill you. So yes, I stopped him. The other one ran off before our friend here even hit the ground.”
    Niel stared. He’d never seen anyone who’d actually committed murder, either.
    Arwin sighed. “Look, I know you’re banged up, but we need to get you out of town.”
    Niel shook his head. He should have gone straight to the College. He’d been so stupid.
    “No,” he said. “I need to find the Lord Sheriff, or whatever passes for one in this piss bucket of—”
    Arwin jutted his thumb toward the end of the alley. “Those two probably worked for the Lord Sheriff. Odsen’s his name. It’s an old frontier-town arrangement. But whether they’re acquainted with Odsen or not, this isn’t going to go over well. So we need to leave.”
    “You don’t understand.” He tried to keep his voice steady, but heard himself growing more shrill with each word. “My whole life was in my pack. I’ve got no money. I’ve got no letters of introduction. I don’t have a thing. Without it I can’t get home, which means I can’t get into the College. Ever!”
    Arwin took Niel’s arm and led him to the near end of the alley. “I do understand, but first things first. Objects can be replaced.”
    Niel jerked his arm