Shadow's Son by Jon Sprunk Read Free Book Online Page B

We'll arrive just a moment too late to save them."
    "And their killer?"
    An evil grin dimmed the prefect's chiseled features. "Sadly, he'll be
killed trying to elude capture."
    "Perfect."

    A moment later, Ral was out the side door and down the alley,
heading toward home. He had his own preparations to finalize. A horse
was waiting for him at the west gate, reserved by the offices of the Elector
Council, with remounts at every roadhouse and garrison station between
here and his target. Tomorrow night, the culmination of his dearest ambition would begin. He would rise higher than his departed father had ever
dreamed. Soon people would call him the most feared man in the city, and
in the process he would eliminate his only true rival to that title.
    Tomorrow night
Caim, Low Town's favorite son, would die.

     

CHAPTER FOUR
    it showed up while
Caim stalked down a narrow lane between
two dark rows of houses. One moment he was strolling by himself, eyes darting back and forth in search of hidden threats, and the next
she was walking beside him. Or rather, she levitated beside him; her
dainty feet never touched the cobbles.
    "Welcome back, Kit. Off gallivanting again?"
    "I don't gallivant, darling. I might flit about sometimes, or stop to
watch a caterpillar weave its cocoon. Did you know they could do that?
It's amazing! But I never, ever gallivant. As it happens, I was looking after
your interests."
    Kit flipped over so she was hovering upside down in front of him. In
defiance of gravity, her long silver hair stayed curled around her slim
shoulders. Her violet eyes twinkled mischievously as she regarded him,
and it was all he could do not to chuckle.
    Those eyes were his first memory, peeking over the side of his cradle
when he was a babe. She claimed to have been searching for a little
brother and stopped when she found him, but with Kit the truth was
often difficult to ascertain. Whether real or imaginary, she was without
a doubt the most interesting person he'd ever met. She'd been everywhere, it seemed, and seen everything there was to see. She could fly so
high into the sky he lost sight of her, or dive into the earth and return
with tales of the secret lives of voles and worms. After he'd lost his parents, Kit had become his family. She was all he had left. If there were
times, such as during his turbulent adolescence, when he tried to drive
everyone else away, Kit always did as she chose. No one could sway her
once her mind was made up. In that they were much alike, to his constant chagrin.

    "Forgive me." He turned onto one of Low Town's many crooked,
unnamed streets. "What interests are those, dear lady?"
    A pair of drunken merchant marines passed him in the gathering
dusk. If they thought him odd for talking to himself, they said nothing,
but murmured behind his back once they were past. Caim chewed on the
inside of his cheek and ignored the itch in his palms.
    "Hubert's on his way to the Vine," Kit announced.
    He touched the heavy lump of the purse inside his shirt. "Good.
That's where I'm headed now."
    "And he's not alone."
    "Is that right?"
    "He's got a whole gang of roughnecks with him. Most of them look
like vagrants, but a couple might be able to handle themselves. One is the
disinherited son of a former pimp."
    Caim smiled to himself. Ever since he had taken up his current
lifestyle, Kit had endeavored to be useful to him. He had to admit she was
an exemplary judge of people's capabilities. She could look at someone
and spy out what they hid from others. That ability had saved his ass too
many times to count. The trouble was that Kit couldn't be relied upon to
always be where he needed her. She had a disturbing penchant for leaving
him for days at a time and, even more unnerving, showing up with
knowledge of things she shouldn't know, things no one could know.
    "Should I be worried?"
    Kit shrugged, turning around to stand right side up again. "He seems
in a good mood. I'd