Slavers of the Savage Catacombs by Jon F. Merz Read Free Book Online

to hit Yasseh’s caravan, that meant they would need to be prepared for it. Ran needed to get out of there and get word back to Yasseh about what he’d overheard. He finished his third drink, belched loudly, and then slumped forward, smacking his forehead on the table.
    The action produced the desired result. Rough hands shook Ran, and he looked up with sleepy eyes. “Huh? Wha—?”
    The tavern owner stood over him. “All right, you, that’s enough. You can’t stay here if you’re not drinking or eating. Sleeping ain’t allowed. Go home.” He muscled Ran out of his chair and steered him toward the door. Ran kept his head down as he passed Ejul’s table. The men sitting there gave Ran only a cursory glance. But Ran heard Ejul mumble something. He hoped he hadn’t been recognized. All he could do was allow the scene to play out and hope for the best.
    The tavern owner got Ran outside, whereupon Ran stumbled away down an alley. He passed the window he’d peered in earlier, but no one at Ejul’s table had risen. Ran took that to indicate he’d pulled the ruse off without a hitch. It was time to get back to Tanka’s apartments, and then tomorrow he would talk to Yasseh. Since the caravan wasn’t leaving until the day after tomorrow, it wasn’t an urgent matter. And given time to prepare, Ran felt they could easily thwart whatever attack Ejul had planned.
    Ran navigated the streets of Chulal easily enough, thanking his instructors back at the Nine Daggers clan for instilling their students with such a good sense of direction. He ducked inside Tanka’s apartment only after completing a loop several times to make sure he hadn’t been followed. The last thing he wanted to do was lead anyone curious back to the resident shadow warrior lair.
    Tanka was asleep but rose as soon as Ran entered. “How’d the walk go?”
    Ran removed his swords and other weapons and set them on the table. “As well as could be expected.”
    “You smell like ale.”
    Ran nodded. “I had to down three tankards of the stuff to find out what was going on at a nearby table.”
    “Something good?”
    “A group of bandits planning to hit the caravans when they leave the protection of the city.”
    Tanka sat up and rubbed his eyes. “How in the world did you happen to stumble on to that?”
    “I broke up an attack on a village the other night. Three bandits set fire to the place. I thought I killed all three of them, but apparently I only wounded one of them. I passed a tavern and saw him inside holding court. Imagine my surprise. The last time I saw him, he was lying facedown in the dirt with no hands.”
    Tanka chuckled. “I’ll bet.”
    “Anyway, I wanted to find out what was going on, so I sat and listened.”
    “Lucky the wounded guy didn’t recognize you.”
    Ran stretched out on a bed nearby. “It was dark the other night. Plus, the way I wore my hair was different. I felt confident he wouldn’t know it was me. I took precautions anyway, like having three drinks and pretending to be drunk.”
    “Are you?”
    Ran eyed him and smiled. “You know that we can handle our drink easily enough. Just a matter of proper conditioning is all.”
    Tanka lay back down. “I have to admit, I always did enjoy those conditioning sessions.”
    “I might have overdone it once or twice,” laughed Ran. “But that’s the price we had to pay.”
    Tanka yawned. “So, what else did you do while you were out?”
    “I got a job,” said Ran.
    “Doing what?”
    “Like we discussed: security for the caravans.”
    “Lucky you heard about the attack then, huh? At least this way you can warn the owners what’s being planned, and they can take steps to handle it appropriately.”
    Ran yawned himself. “I’ll be talking to the caravan leader tomorrow morning about it. I figure since we’ve got this advance warning, we can disrupt it as we see fit.” He turned over. “How was your evening?”
    “Sent the falks off to Gakur. Now it’s just a