Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski Read Free Book Online Page A

looked at her surprised. Yennefer smiled.
    “Greetings from Dijkstra, Dandilion.”
    Now the bard glanced around timidly. His astonishment must have been evident and his expression amusing because the sorceress allowed herself a quite derisive grimace.
    “While we are on the subject,” she whispered, leaning across the table, “Dijkstra is asking for a report. You’re on your way back from Verden and he’s interested in hearing what’s being said at King Ervyll’s court. He asked me to convey that this time your report should be to the point, detailed and under no circumstances in verse. Prose, Dandilion. Prose.”
    The poet swallowed and nodded. He remained silent, pondering the question.
    But the enchantress anticipated him. “Difficult times are approaching,” she said quietly. “Difficult and dangerous. A time of change is coming. It would be a shame to grow old with the uncomfortable conviction that one had done nothing to ensure that these changes are for the better. Don’t you agree?”
    He agreed with a nod and cleared his throat. “Yennefer?”
    “I’m listening, Poet.”
    “Those men in the pigsty… I would like to know who they were, what they wanted, who sent them. You killed them both, but rumour has it that you can draw information even from the dead.”
    “And doesn’t rumour also have it that necromancy is forbidden, by edict of the Chapter? Let it go, Dandilion. Those thugs probably didn’t know much anyway. The one who escaped… Hmm… He’s another matter.”
    “Rience. He was a wizard, wasn’t he?”
    “Yes. But not a very proficient one.”
    “Yet he managed to escape from you. I saw how he did it – he teleported, didn’t he? Doesn’t that prove anything?”
    “Indeed it does. That someone helped him. Rience had neither the time nor the strength to open an oval portal suspended in the air. A portal like that is no joke. It’s clear that someone else opened it. Someone far more powerful. That’s why I was afraid to chase him, not knowing where I would land. But I sent some pretty hot stuff after him. He’s going to need a lot of spells and some effective burn elixirs, and will remain marked for some time.”
    “Maybe you will be interested to hear that he was a Nilfgaardian.”
    “You think so?” Yennefer sat up and with a swift movement pulled the stiletto from her pocket and turned it in her palm. “A lot of people carry Nilfgaardian knives now. They’re comfortable and handy – they can even be hidden in a cleavage—”
    “It’s not the knife. When he was questioning me he used the term ‘battle for Cintra’, ‘conquest of the town’ or something along those lines. I’ve never heard anyone describe those events like that. For us, it has always been a massacre. The Massacre of Cintra. No one refers to it by any other name.”
    The magician raised her hand, scrutinised her nails. “Clever, Dandilion. You have a sensitive ear.”
    “It’s a professional hazard.”
    “I wonder which profession you have in mind?” She smiled coquettishly. “But thank you for the information. It was valuable.”
    “Let it be,” he replied with a smile, “my contribution to making changes for the better. Tell me, Yennefer, why is Nilfgaard so interested in Geralt and the girl from Cintra?”
    “Don’t stick your nose into that business.” She suddenly turned serious. “I said you were to forget you ever heard of Calanthe’s granddaughter.”
    “Indeed, you did. But I’m not searching for a subject for a ballad.”
    “What the hell are you searching for then? Trouble?”
    “Let’s take it,” he said quietly, resting his chin on his clasped hands and looking the enchantress in the eye. “Let’s take it that Geralt did, in fact, find and rescue the child. Let’s take it that he finally came to believe in the power of destiny, and took the child with him. Where to? Rience tried to force it out of me with torture. But you know, Yennefer. You know where the