Nightfall (Book 1) by L. R. Flint Read Free Book Online Page A

between the voices and ourselves, we kept close to the ground, at a quick pace. We hurried across the empty space surrounding my home and dropped easily to the floor of the roofless portion of the cellar. I forced the air from my lungs in one long gush. “That was close,” I finally said as we leaned back against the stone wall, finally able to calm the fierce pumping of adrenaline racing through our veins. We both smiled and chuckled briefly in relief.
    “What if—”
    Eskarne cut herself off as Ekaitz’ face appeared through the tanned hide door. “What in the name of Lietha were the two of you doing?”
    “We went for a walk?” Eskarne offered, still panting slightly.
    “And you could not resist playing a prank on some poor Guard?” Ekaitz joked.
    I coughed purposely. “Something like that,” I lied.
    “Would I happen to know the poor, undeserving lout?” Eskarne laughed and said that it was not likely. “I know a few who could use some good one-on-one time.” A wide grin spread across his face as he said it.
    “Aye, ‘tis quite true,” Eskarne said in a posh manner. Her refined attitude made Ekaitz and I laugh at the irony of it and Ekaitz disappeared back inside, the smile still lingering on his face.
    Eskarne leaned in close to me, and whispered in my ear, “I feel like we need to warn the people.” I nodded, not voicing my own opinion that it would not even be worth the time we spent doing it. She then continued, “But if the King or any of his Guards finds out about what we have done, csst .” She drew a line across her neck, with her finger, symbolizing death by beheading.
    “Agreed.” I stood up. “Want to go back?” She looked up at me for a moment, in confusion, before shrugging noncommittally. Deep down I knew I would be returning one day, but when—I could not be sure; hopefully it would be sooner, rather than later. I gave Eskarne my hand and hoisted her to her feet before we followed Ekaitz inside and inquired whether or not Arrats had made an appearance since our earlier departure.
    Apparently Arrats had shown up only minutes before the two of us had returned, asked where we had wandered off to and had then proceeded to leave again. Eskarne suggested that we go and find him so we left Ekaitz alone with his book—an old tome we had found carelessly discarded in someone’s garbage pile. That book was the only one any of us could remember ever having owned and, since we were among the few street urchins who could read, it was one of our more prized possessions.
    “Should we tell Ekaitz and Arrats of our discovery?”
    I thought about pointing out the fact that I had seen the tunnel long before her, but discarded it, knowing that the true discovery was not solely to my credit. "I would love to see their reactions, and I do think we should tell them, but not yet.”
    “Can you keep it a secret?” she asked, only halfway serious.
    “Possibly,” I teased.
    “You better.” She glared at me as she began weaving her way through the crowded street we had just come upon and I had to hurry to catch up.
     
    ~ ~ ~
     
    It took us quite some time to find Arrats but eventually—with the help of the streets’ grapevine—we found him just in time to watch him win a pride-centered bet between him and the leader of a rival pack. In the gathered crowd I saw a handful of scamps my trio had close ties with and some with far distant ties whom I vaguely recalled meeting. When Arrats finally won his bet, it became obvious that the majority of those gathered were in favor of him and not his opponent. After finding him it took some effort and not a small amount of time to tear him away from admirers and random friends. As we walked away from the dissipating crowd Eskarne mentioned that Arrats seemed to have quite a few admirers. “Should I leave the two of you alone with this conversation?” I joked. Arrats objected and Eskarne glared hotly at me.
    As we returned home I eventually remembered the