Rise of the Seventh Moon: Heirs of Ash, Book 3 by Rich Wulf Read Free Book Online

to a small side office and stepping inside.A middle-aged man in a scholar’s dumpy gray robes looked up from his reading with a start, nearly knocking over the lamp on his small desk.
    “Norra?” he said, shocked. “Is that you?”
    “I won’t deign to address such a stupid question, Petra,” she said. She set her bag on the floor and sat on a stool across from him.
    “I see your trip has not softened your demeanor,” he said. “I didn’t expect to see you again after your quarters were found empty.” His eyes widened as he spoke. He shifted nervously, as if he expected her to leap at him at any moment. Petra Ghein had been a junior librarian at the university as long as Norra could remember. He was always a nervous man, but at least that made him reliable. He didn’t have the courage to turn on her.
    “Honestly, I didn’t expect to come back,” she said.
    “I feared as much,” Petra said. “A gentleman named Baron Radcul has been sending messengers to ask about you. They’re rather rude. Something about a debt. He sends a man once a day. I think Master Larrian is beginning to get annoyed.”
    Norra looked around the office, distracted. “Do you have anything to drink, Petra?” she asked.
    “Of course,” he said, chuckling. “How else am I to be expected to deal with the students at end of semester?” He reached under his desk and took out a long-necked wine bottle and a sturdy metal cup.
    Norra ignored the cup and took the bottle, drinking from it directly.
    “You seem upset,” Petra said, watching her guzzle the alcohol with mild astonishment.
    She looked at him coldly and took another drink.
    “Stating the obvious; I know it annoys you,” he said. “Perhaps I can be of help?”
    “You can start by not telling anyone you saw me here,” shesaid, “and maybe by helping me put some reagents together so I can craft myself a cap of disguise.”
    “Norra, what’s going on?” Petra asked. He picked up the cup and held it out to her tentatively. She poured some of the wine into it, and he sipped nervously.
    “I never told you why I was going to the Frostfell,” she said. “I know you think it was some sort of archaeological research, but it wasn’t. I knew what I was looking for. I went there expecting to die for a cause.” She smirked bitterly. “As it turns out, I didn’t.”
    “Fantastic,” Petra said. His sudden grin faded when he noticed her dark expression. “Isn’t that good?”
    “Good in some ways, bad in others,” Norra said. “I was so sure I wouldn’t come back, I used it to my advantage. I squandered every resource I had funding that trip to the Frostfell. I borrowed a lot of money I can’t afford to pay back.”
    “This Baron Radcul, presumably, is a creditor?” Petra asked.
    “The worst kind,” Norra said. “He was a brutal mercenary during the Last War. When the War ended, the Brelish army owed him a lot of money. Boranel settled the debt by awarding him some holdings on the Droaam border.”
    “The land of monsters?” Petra asked, wincing at the name. “Boranel must not have liked Radcul much.”
    “Probably not; rumor has it he was a vicious killer,” Norra said. “Radcul turned the snub into a victory by leasing his properties to House Orien, helping them establish the Droaam trade route. He made a ridiculous profit, left his son to look over his holdings, and bought private estates in Sharn. Now he makes a comfortable living arranging independent loans for the desperate at ridiculous rates of interest.”
    “A usurer,” Petra said.
    “And a vindictive one,” she said. “If I wasn’t using magic to obscure myself from detection and scrying, he probably wouldhave found me by now. I don’t even want to think about how much I must owe him by now.”
    “Well, you should be safe enough while you’re within the university,” Petra said. “Master Larrian would not take kindly to his staff and students being threatened by a glorified street