Forged in Blood I by Lindsay Buroker Read Free Book Online

assassin herself. That was no way to create a better Turgonia. Instincts, angry vengeful instincts, had been guiding her hand.
    Maldynado finished tying up the men and lifted an arm, offering a hug if she needed it.
    Amaranthe waved a hand. She appreciated the gesture, but said, “I’m fine.”
    She was relieved it had been Maldynado here with her instead of Sicarius. That fit of rage… that had been a moment of weakness. She didn’t want Sicarius seeing her like that. Not when she was working hard to make him believe she was all right. And she was all right. She would be. She just needed to finish with this mess and take a vacation.
    And remember how to sleep through the night, the voice in her head added.
    A shadow fell across the stairwell above—someone moving past the railing.
    “We better get out of here before someone looks down the steps,” Amaranthe said.
    “Up or in?” Maldynado asked. “And with or without them?”
    “Up and out, ideally.” Amaranthe didn’t want to be trapped in the basement, though there were more sounds of activity than ever coming from above.
    “What are all those spirits-licked people doing here after hours?” Maldynado growled.
    “Picking up their seditious pamphlets probably. If I’d known the newspaper office would be such a hotbed of activity, I’d have brought Sicarius.”
    “I’m not manly enough for you?”
    “You’re fine. I’m just worried that we missed a good chance for spying. I could have sent Sicarius off after those two.”
    “He probably would have stuck daggers in their backs.”
    Amaranthe bit her lip to keep from asking what would be wrong with that. It bothered her to think that her experience under Pike’s knife had changed her, but she kept thinking that it’d be much easier for their side if they simply ended Forge, Ravido, and their key allies the most efficient way possible. Was it worth turning oneself into a monster if it made the world a better place for everyone else? Or, once one chose the path to monsterhood, could one still accurately assess what qualified as a “better place” anymore? She feared this last year as an outlaw had already tainted her judgment.
    She considered their captives. It’d be hard to escape back up the stairs, forcing them every step. Perhaps it was time to leave them and hope for—
    “Can’t find Evik and Rudev anywhere,” someone called out upstairs. “We may need to search the building, sir.”
    “Uh oh,” Maldynado said.
    “About that doorknob…” Amaranthe said.
    Lights jittered up above—people entering the room with extra lamps.
    “It’s unlocked,” Maldynado said.
    Finally, a bit of luck. Amaranthe stepped past him and eased the door open. Darkness waited inside, so she didn’t think they’d have to worry about being jumped by soldiers, but she crept into the basement warily regardless.
    A few steps inside, she bumped into something and decided to stop and light a lantern. She was about to tell Maldynado to close the door so their flame wouldn’t be seen when someone spoke from the depths of the shadows.
    “It’s not mealtime,” a man said. “I can only surmise you’ve come to your senses and are here to unlock me.”
    • • •
    “Job’s the same, pay’s the same, don’t really make a difference,” one maid said, snapping the sheets in the air before lowering them onto the bed.
    “I know,” a second maid said, the rasping of a straw broom accompanying her words, “but I liked young Emperor Sespian. He never ordered you around like you were some raw soldier to be broken in. He always said ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ when he asked for something.”
    “Piles of good that did him. He’s deader than that roach you stomped on earlier, and I don’t think the new regime will appreciate you waxing fondly on the old.”
    “Marblecrest isn’t the new regime, not officially, and I won’t call him emperor no matter what he’s demanding.” Another firm snapping of the