Stardeep by Bruce R. Cordell Read Free Book Online Page A

clothing. Next to the pack was a delicate cedar box. He stuffed that into the bag, too.
    What lay inside the box was more precious to him than the daito.
    He left the room, his feet leaving behind a few bloody prints.
    Five men pounded up the stairway, heavy swords unsheathed. They reached the second floor as Raidon watched. The monk tightened the packs straps holding it to his back, held the daito straight out with one hand, then flipped off the edge of the walkway not far from where he’d pushed Huang’s tormentor. Unlike the bloody-handed hatchet wielder, who still lay groaning, his limbs painfully askew, Raidon dropped in a series of graceful rolls, one hand
    free to catch, slow, and moderate his fall. He landed none the worse for wear and sprinted north, toward Waihun Road.
    The men in the lead saw him, yelled, and turned to dash back the way they’d come, but the men below, who hadn’t seen Raidon jump down, suddenly became obstacles to those higher up who reversed course.
    Raidon left them all behind. He plunged into the cloaking anonymity of the crowd.
    The monk passed into the gloriously decorated Shou Gate. The grand sttucture marked the most widely used route between the Shou community and the greatei city of Telflamm that hosted the foreign district. Elaborate lamps sculpted to resemble golden dragons lit the way. Raidon had played near the gate, against the directives of his mother and father, as a child. Pretending to be some silk-draped trader arriving from mysterious eastern lands had been his favorite diversion.
    As the gate fell behind his carefully measured steps, he wondered if he’d ever see it again.
    The streets of greater Telflamm were different from Shou Town. Alien. He recognized many Shou walking the streets, but the smells, the markets, the structures, even the people, Shou and non-Shou alike—everything was atypical of the streets just blocks away. He wondered why the Shou Towners kept themselves apart from the natives of the lands they now called home. Afraid of losing their traditions? Unhappy with the culture of the indigents? Western traditions were somewhat known to Raidon. He suspected he was about to become intimately familiar with many things formerly unknown.
    As he walked, he decided against the docks—it was the first place he’d thought of to flee Telflamm. The Nine Golden Swords would hit on the same strategy. So he hurried down the cobblestone streets in the opposite direction. His
    destination was the trade road that passed southeast out of the city. Perhaps he could sign onto a caravan heading to Two Stars. He’d always wanted to make that trip. It would be his coming-of-age journey, he decided.
    Perhaps he eluded the Nine Golden Swords. Or maybe they gave up the chase of theit own accord. Whatever the reason, Raidon was unmolested when he exited the city proper through high gates. As best he could determine, no Golden Sword marked his departure.
    He questioned a few seedy-looking merchants whose wheeled stalls were set up just outside Telflamm’s legal boundary. They pointed him down the road toward a rambling edifice surrounded by stables, carts, and several large warehouses—an eatery called the Leaping Ogre Taproom. According to one gap-toothed fellow, the place was a touchstone used by caravans departing and arriving in Telflamm down the Golden Way. Raidon learned he could get a job working a trade wagon if he was “good with that swotd you got there—watch it! Put it away, why don’t you?”
    Raidon required a sheath for his daito—a saya, as they called it in Shou Town. Carrying a naked blade in one free hand was attracting unwelcome attention. And despite his joy at regaining the blade, it proved awkward for all activities not related to fighting. He asked among the vendots and found his way to an old chicken keeper. The suspicious looking woman sold him a ratty saya for an obscene price. Raidon didn’t have time to haggle. He had enough coins in his pouch to