Broken World Book Two - StarSword by T C Southwell Read Free Book Online Page A

singing
and drunken laughter wafted. Up the street, some cutpurses
lingered. Talsy pushed open the door and entered the dingy, ill
lighted confines of a common ale room. The smell of liquor mixed
with the stench of the vomit and urine that soiled the rushes on
the floor. Pipe smoke thickened the air and added to the
claustrophobic atmosphere. Carved furniture and wooden panelling
told of a more prosperous past, reduced to dull seediness by ill
use and lack of repair.
    Elbowing her
way through the torpid throng to the counter, she tried to catch
the eye of the harassed barkeep, but gave up when she realised that
he was as drunk as his clients. The foul swill he passed over the
counter looked as if it had been brewed from garbage, and smelt
almost as bad. Casting her eye over the motley mob, she spotted a
more respectable elder man in semi-clean clothes sitting in a
corner, and approached him. He rose politely at her approach, his
blue eyes brightening. Talsy leant close to be heard over the
baritone hubbub.
    "I'm looking
for Shern the seer."
    The man's
happiness faded, his smile becoming sad as his eyes raked her. "I
wish I could lay claim to that title at this moment, but I'm afraid
Shern's over there, a bit the worse for wear."
    He pointed at a
large, hirsute man sprawled across a table, his mouth open to emit
loud rasping snores. As she turned to leave, the man grabbed her
arm.
    "Stay awhile,
my company is better than his."
    She tried to
jerk free. "I have business with him, not you."
    "I'm surprised
he can afford you."
    Anger washed
through her at his assumption that she was a trollop, and her free
hand dropped to her knife. Kieran stepped up to the man, his eyes
like chips of obsidian.
    "Let her
go."
    The elder
released Talsy like a hot coal and sank back into his seat. She
contented herself with a glare before marching away, pushing aside
drunken patrons. Shern proved impossible to rouse, so deep in his
drunken stupor that she could have throttled him without his
knowing it. Kieran solved the problem by hoisting the man's arm
over his shoulders and dragging him from the alehouse. In the
street, they propped him against a wall, and with the-none-too
gentle administration of slaps and cold water, roused him
sufficiently to learn his address. Kieran dragged him along several
dingy side streets to a dilapidated house with a sagging red tile
roof. Kicking open the door, Kieran entered a seedy room with grimy
yellow walls, dusty shelves covered in brick-a-brack, a tatty grey
rug and a hearth overflowing with ash that three worn brown leather
chairs faced. Going into the cramped, stuffy bedroom that led off
it, he dumped Shern on a creaky bed with a frayed patchwork quilt
and turned to Talsy.
    "Better wait
outside. Sobering him up won't be pretty."
    With snort, she
left to kick up her heels in the street for almost an hour before
Kieran poked his head out to invite her in again. Shern sat at the
kitchen table, clasped a mug of hot tea and stared owlishly into
space. Several copper pots, green with verdigris, hung above a
soot-blackened stove, and soiled cups and plates were stacked
beside a basin of scummy water on a table in the corner. He
focussed on her when she sat opposite, his thick brows drawing
together.
    "That was
almost five dolran of good liquor your manservant rid me of, lady,
just so you could have a seeing, which means that's what I'll
charge you."
    "You won't
charge me a cent. I'm not here for a seeing, I'm here to save you
and all the chosen in this city."
    His bloodshot
eyes narrowed. "What chosen?"
    "You had a
dream in which you were told to take all the chosen and leave the
city, didn't you?"
    "Fat lot of
good that would have done."
    She leant
closer. "You don't hate Mujar, do you?"
    Shern slurped
his tea. "You know what happens to Mujar lovers in this city?
They're branded and chained to the wheel."
    "You're a seer,
and therefore one of the chosen. Do you know what the mark on my
brow is?"
    He shrugged.