City of Masks by Kevin Harkness Read Free Book Online

gossip is any guide, would be miraculously chosen by those ‘random’ lots to sit by his side. A sign from Heaven, one could say, or the manipulation of a clever steward serving her master. But Lysere had other ideas! She wanted you to take her seat so that Trax could get something from you. What was it?”
    Blushing deeper, he told her.
    Salick ran a finger along the scar that marked one of her cheeks.
    “Helping with research? Well, I can’t see any plot in this . . . yet. And we do owe Barick something, I suppose.”
    “Salick, why do they draw lots anyway? Why can’t Trax just decide who sits where?” Garet asked, hoping to change the subject. “He is the king, after all!”
    Salick shrugged. “Because people would complain. The King’s table is the highest honour, and besides, there is always one Ward Lord feuding with another—you must have seen how Lords Sacourat and Birsal glared at each other. There’s a reason they were at different tables. No king wants a duel fought with fish forks at his feast!”
    She glanced at the door to the dining hall, but it was still closed. It may have been Garet’s imagination, but he thought he heard raised voices beyond it. Salick tapped the butt of her trident lightly against the tiles and continued her explanation.
    “Supposedly it was the first King, Shirat was his name, who decided on the lots. The story goes he just had enough of arguing one night and declared it law, if you can believe it.”
    Garet smiled. “Oddly enough, I can.”
    He began to tell her Trax’s story about the vegetable seller, but at that moment the door to the dining hall swung open, and Hallmaster Branet stormed out.
    “Give me my club! You two, come along. Garet, why did you say yes to this history nonsense? It was not your place to agree, and we can hardly spare Banes now when attacks . . . well, we shouldn’t forget our duties.”
    Garet looked at Salick, then back to the Branet. “But Hallmaster, the King told me you had already agreed, so I . . .”
    Branet snarled and glared at the door he had just exited.
    “Did he? Well, never mind. But you will report to me all that he asks you! Is that clear?”
    Garet nodded at Branet’s retreating back. It seemed no agreement on his part was really necessary. Branet expected it as his due.
    The two younger Banes left the Palace as they had entered it, running to keep up with their Hallmaster.
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter 4 Beneath the Plaza
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    THE PALACE GUARDS saw them off with an air of satisfaction and returned to their duties of standing and looking fierce. Since Garet knew such courage would collapse at the first touch of a demon’s fear, he ignored their splendour.
    He couldn’t ignore this latest tongue-lashing from the Hallmaster. He fumed as he walked.
    “I thought him fair when he was just a Master,” Garet said to Salick. They trailed him at a safe distance, or at least safe enough for quiet conversation in the empty plaza.
    “ Just a Master?” Salick said and rolled her eyes. As a Gold, her efforts were almost wholly directed to proving she could one day be “just” a Master.
    “You know what I mean! He fought beside Master Mandarack against Adrix, and he was a popular choice to follow him as Hallmaster. So why is he so . . . angry all the time?”
    Salick didn’t answer for several steps. She was never one to criticize the Banehall if it could be avoided. It had been her life and salvation, and her instinct was to defend it like a mother bear defends her cubs.
    “He has near three-hundred Banes to worry about, Garet! And remember, he was never . . . an easy man to begin with, though he is one of the bravest Banes of his generation, or so others say, even Tarix.”
    If she hoped to quiet him by conjuring his Master to support her point, Salick was disappointed.
    “What does that matter?” Garet asked. “Even that tyrant, Adrix, patrolled and killed demons, which made him brave enough,