Lost Covenant: A Widdershins Adventure by Ari Marmell Read Free Book Online

just have to scour Lourveaux for answers all on my own.” She didn't even attempt to make the eyelash flutter that followed appear at all genuine.
    Olgun guffawed in her head, and she was hard pressed to keep from joining in, at Maurice's horrified shudder—not at fear for hersafety, she well knew, but at the thought of what might happen to Lourveaux with her loose in its borders. He glared at Shins for a long moment and then, with what sounded like an honest-to-gods “harrumph,” turned his face back to his bowl.
    “Did he just choose eating more of that unholy corruption over talking to us, Olgun? I think I might be insulted! Are you insulted? I feel insulted. You should smite him. Are you allowed to smite monks of other religions? Or is that, I don't know, rude or something?”
    For some time she went on, nattering at Olgun—and Maurice, when he wasn't sufficiently blatant about ignoring her—but all the while, her eyes flickered left and right, her casual gestures and shifts allowing her to survey the room.
    She was not especially taken with what she saw.
    It was, in a word, tavernish. This, in itself, was hardly surprising, what with it being a tavern and all. Shins hadn't been able to read the sign on the way in, but then, nobody could, as it hung, face turned inward, from a single chain that had long since rusted. The inside was a labyrinth of mismatched tables, rickety chairs, sagging floorboards, and rafters whose population of rats probably kept the place well stocked in stew meat. The patrons ranged from merely down on their luck to genuinely and even proudly disreputable, which at least had the advantage of producing enough body odor to overpower the so-called food.
    Given the sorts of establishments she'd frequented in Davillon—the Flippant Witch was more upscale than this place, but not by terribly much, and she'd run that one for a while—Widdershins felt right at home.
    And that, in essence, was the problem. She knew enough to recognize that at least a few of the people here could prove dangerous, but she hadn't the first notion of who was connected to whom, what factions might be at play, or what the local underworld etiquette might be.
    The more she thought about it, the less amused Widdershins grew. When Maurice had begun talking clandestine meetings and shifty dealings, she had literally laughed until she cried. Even minutes ago, it had taken everything she had not to do so again. But she'd been expecting silly, upper-class-slumming sordid.
    This place? This was authentic sordid. An honest monk shouldn't know people who knew people who knew people who would frequent this place!
    “Maurice…” Then, when he appeared to still be ignoring her, “ Maurice! ” That, and a well-aimed spoon bouncing off the bridge of his nose, finally snagged his attention. “Maybe you'd better tell me about this ‘contact’ of yours, yes?”
    “I thought we agreed that you weren't going to ask any questions.”
    “That was back when I didn't take you seriously. Now I'm un-agreeing.”
    Maurice appeared to be chewing his cheek, but perhaps he was simply struggling not to lose the so-called stew he'd foolishly so-called eaten; Shins couldn't be certain from across the table. Several times his lips began to part, he drew breath to speak, and several times he clearly decided against whatever he was going to say.
    “That's all right, Maurice.” Shins leaned back in her chair, arms crossed, smiling cheerfully. “I'll just follow him after our meeting. We can learn all we need that way, can't we, Olgun?”
    The monk looked as if he'd just seen a ghost, and realized he owed it money. “You can't!”
    “Uh…Actually, it seems pretty simple, yes? Just watch him and walk where he does.”
    “Widdershins…” So distracted was he, Maurice had actually begun fidgeting with the bit of stew left in his bowl. The thief was moderately horrified to realize that it was briefly retaining whatever shape her companion's