Dagger's Edge (Shadow series) by Anne Logston Read Free Book Online

when she inherited the throne of Allanmere.”
    “And many of Allanmere’s rulers have been younger,” Argent agreed. “Jaellyn, have you ever lain with a man? Or a woman, for that matter?”
    Jael flushed bright red.
    “I thought not.” Argent stroked the tumbled curls away from his daughter’s face. “Have you ever felt the desire to do so? Has your body yet burned for another’s touch?”
    “Father!” Jael protested, blushing even more fiercely.
    “You see?” Argent touched her red cheek gently. “Your breasts haven’t grown much, either. In some ways you’re a child yet. Heir or not, you will not be married until you have reached your womanhood, and as you’ve said, you’re too old to be sent to foster. I’m hurt that you’d think your mother and I would make such plans without even discussing it with you. So your question is answered, isn’t it? Now eat your supper.”
    “I’m sorry, Father.” Jael sighed. “I just seem to be the only one in this family who doesn’t fit in anywhere.”
    “You,” Argent said firmly, “are a fortunate young woman. Remember Ria, the first High Lady of Allanmere. She was raised for decades among humans, the wild blood burning in her veins with no one to understand her. You have a loving family and friends of both races who want to help you. You spend too much time feeling sorry for yourself. Now promise to eat your supper, and I’ll leave you alone.”
    “I promise,” Jael said honestly. When Argent was gone, Jael wrapped up the roast fowl, bread and cheese, and baked tubers, and ate the rest of her supper. As soon as she was done, she locked her door and slipped out the secret passage, and from there out to the city.
    Allanmere was a city that lived a double life. During the day, farmers and travelers and tradesmen and merchants flocked to the market, to the shops, to the temples and taverns and brothels. At night, after the merchants had closed their stalls and the farmers had returned to their land, a different crowd inhabited the city: bored young nobles looking for excitement, thieves who preyed on the nobles, and others with a shadier sort of business to transact.
    Except for a few sects that held rituals at night, under the full moon or some such, the Temple District was largely empty of its normal population. In the nighttime it was filled with beggars looking for an empty doorway to sleep in, patrolling City Guards, and other characters of less definable interest, such as Jael herself.
    Jael paused outside the Temple of Ebraris, scowling at the erotic statues as she remembered her father’s words. Still a child, indeed! In an instant Jael had charged up the steps; then she stopped. The Temple of Ebraris made just about anyone welcome—very welcome indeed, from what Jael had heard— but Jael didn’t have so much as a copper in her pocket for an offering, and without an offering she wouldn’t be admitted. This realization caused a rush of emotion that Jael finally decided bordered between annoyance and relief. She sighed disgustedly at herself and stomped back down the steps.
    Jael approached the abandoned Temple of Learon the Twisted with a little more care. Most of the beggars who made their home in the temple were harmless, but there were a few who were desperate enough to jump even the High Lord and Lady’s daughter, maybe just for a rough tumble, maybe to sell to one of the child brothels or pain houses that seemed to spring up no matter how the City Guard tried to keep them out. Always best to avoid trouble.
    Fortunately it was early enough that most of the temple’s residents were still out wringing a few last coins from pitying passersby. The temple was dark and filthy, cluttered with trash, but Jael’s elven night sight was, it seemed, the one blessing her elven blood had given her, and the little moonlight coming in through cracks was enough to see by. Jael picked her way quietly to the cellar, and from there to the opening she had