Brokedown Palace by Steven Brust Read Free Book Online Page A

Power and he demanded fire. After a moment it came, and the twigs and leaves began to smoke, then to burn.
    He dropped the pack he carried on his broad shoulders. He pulled off his boots and set them by the fire. Then jerkin and tunic and leggings. Then he dived into the clear waters of Lake Fenarr.
He swam with the long, easy strokes of one who has been around water since boyhood, augmented by muscles built from two years of toil.
    It was almost dark when he emerged, dripping and cold, and sat naked by the dying fire. He threw a few small branches on it. When it was going well again, he threw into the flames yellow jerkin, green tunic, and brown leggings.
    From his pack he took the worn, ragged clothing that had been his as a Prince and slowly dressed himself. Only the boots remained of the outfit he had worn upon arriving at this spot. The fire burned high and bright.
    Prince Miklós slept.
     
    THE NEXT DAY MIKLÓS SPENT SKIRTING THE NORTH SHORE of Lake Fenarr. The mountain wall on that side sometimes met the water, forcing Miklós out into it, but usually he could walk between lake and mountain. Diminutive streams and waterfalls fed the lake, forcing Miklós over, through, or under them. But this, too, was all right. He ate a few of the biscuits he had taken with him, and slept without a fire. It was around noon of the next day that he began to hear the distant roaring of the waterfall. An hour later, after passing a ledge of rock that forced him into the lake up to his knees, he began to see the fine mist kicked up by the cascade.
    Then he was on a ledge above the falls. He looked down, but the bottom was hidden in the mist and spray. He remembered the climb up, though. Nearly a thousand feet, the water fell. Yet the path had been easy. He looked for signs of it, but didn’t see any.
    Some of those he had lived with (the term “friends” never entered his mind) had been able to leap from great heights, landing as soft as a leaf. But they had been old and had practiced the use of the Power for many times the length of his life. He wouldn’t be able to do that with the little he knew.
    He walked along the ledge for nearly an hour until he had convinced himself that the path was no longer there. This being the case, there was nothing to do except go down without one.
    There was no point in hesitating. He took a good look over the edge, found a footrest below, and made for it—going feet first over the edge, scrabbling and straining. He found a small ledge a little farther down. His hands gripped rock, his feet settled onto the shelf.
    He carefully turned himself around, scraping his right shoulder, and looked down between his feet. A momentary vertigo he banished with an act of will.
    The next ledge was wider but farther away. He slowly bent his knees, letting his back scrape against the side of the mountain, until he could sit. From there he turned quickly while grasping with his fingers. He hung for a moment, then let go. The drop was only a few inches, yet for an instant he nearly went over backward. He recovered his balance, then his breath.
    It occurred to him that descending a mountainside was its own art—one that could probably be studied and learned. There were many things to study and learn. He would have a chance to study none of them if he were unable to make his way safely down the mountain.
    As he faced away from the cliff, the edge of the waterfall was visible fifty feet to his right. He twisted and looked up. The top, from which he had started, was about fifteen feet above him. Only nine hundred and eighty-five feet left to go.
    He began looking for another hand- or foothold below him.
     
    HE SLEPT IN A SHALLOW CAVE HALFWAY DOWN THE CLIFF-SIDE. He had made considerable lateral progress away from the falls, though at one point had had to go nearly under it. His descent
had been painfully slow after the first two hours, as he was afraid that exhaustion would do the job of carelessness.
    While he sleeps,