Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Mercedes Lackey Read Free Book Online Page B

Book: Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Mercedes Lackey Read Free Book Online
Authors: Mercedes Lackey
Tags: Science-Fiction
sardonic thought crossed his mind that in weather like this, even murder came second to getting across the street without falling.
     
    Weak sun shone out of a high sky full of even higher, wispy clouds, as it hastened across the sky towards the horizon. The only ice now was in the form of icicles hanging and dripping from most eaves; as if relenting a little for the battering the city had taken beneath the ice-storm, winter had worn a smiling face for the last few days.
    And it was Tal's day off; with all of his leads gone cold, he was pursuing his private time, for once, in a little ordinary shopping. He needed new shirts, preferably warm—and having no vanity and not a great deal to spend, he was looking through the bins in one of the better secondhand clothing stalls. Although it was late for shopping in the "better" part of town, in the district where Tal lived, full of folk who had to work during most of the daylight hours, street-vendors and shopkeepers accommodated working folk by opening late and staying open past sunset.
    "Tal!" A vaguely familiar voice hailed him from across the street, and he looked up. From beneath the overhanging eaves of the building directly opposite, Constable Kaelef Harden beckoned slightly.
    The shirts he'd found so far weren't all that good a bargain, and there didn't seem to be anything better hidden in the deeper layers of the bin, so he dropped them back and made his way across the street to his colleague.
    "Brock says you're collecting the murder-suicide, vanishing-knife cases," Harden said without any preamble whatsoever, and his voice seemed strained to Tal. "I had one first thing this morning, he said to come tell you about it. Little street-beggar girl got snuffed by a trash-collector, then he threw himself under the wheels of a carriage. Weird. Very weird."
    "In broad daylight?" Tal asked, surprised. "Witnesses?"
    Harden nodded. "Me, for one. I saw it, or most of it, anyway, and I couldn't stop it, it all happened so fast."
    Now his voice had a tremor in it that Tal didn't like. He took a second look at Harden, who was one of the younger constables, less than a year on the job. Harden was white beneath his weather-tanned skin, and visibly shaken. Tal put a steadying hand on the man's arm, and Harden made no move to shake him off.
    Hell. Poor lad's in shock. And he doesn't recognize it, because it doesn't occur to him that a constable could or would have any such weaknesses.   
    "Are you on duty now?" he asked.
    Harden shook his head. "Just got off, and Brock was just coming on; he made a point of saying I should come talk to you, since Rayburn just threw the report in a drawer and didn't even glance at it. I checked at the Gray Rose and they told me where you'd gone."
    Huh. Brock probably wants me to talk him through this one, and that's why he sent the lad to me, whether or not this case fits my pattern. It's an excuse to get him to a veteran. Still, Harden was a good man, and it was pretty obvious that Rayburn wasn't going to do his duty by the lad. The Captain was supposed to help a new man through things like this, but Rayburn—
    Rayburn is too busy kissing feet to take care of his men, and that's the end of it.   
    "Come on back to the Rose," he replied. "We'll get something to eat, and you can tell me about it there."
    "Not—I'm not really hungry," Harden said, his lips white, but he didn't pull away when Tal took his elbow and steered him back to the inn that was his home. There were never really crowds in this part of town, and a constable's cape always made traffic part as if there were flunkies clearing the way. Two constables together—even if one was out of uniform—prompted people to choose the other side of the street to walk on. It wasn't long before they paused under a wooden sign boasting a rose that might once have been red, but which had long since faded to a pale pinkish-gray.
    The Gray Rose—which may once have been known as The Red Rose, when its

Similar Books

The Duke's Last Hunt

Rosanne E. Lortz

Riverbend Road

RaeAnne Thayne

The Outcast

Calle J. Brookes

Pure Lust Vol. 3

M. S. Parker, Cassie Wild

One Wild Night

Kirsty Moseley

Beyond the Doors of Death

Robert Silverberg, Damien Broderick

Heart of the Druid Laird

Barbara Longley

Killing Sarai

J. A. Redmerski