Stranger of Tempest: Book One of The God Fragments by Tom Lloyd Read Free Book Online Page B

o’ yours?’ Toil said.
    ‘How’d they find us?’ Anatin shook his head. ‘No – doesn’t matter. We move, head for the gate.’
    ‘Got Tyn’s patch,’ Olut announced, brandishing a square of cloth. In the pale light of the Skyriver, Lynx could just make out the depiction it bore. Jester of Snow.
    Never a joke from her
, he thought in a moment of reflection,
just the flame-burn that gave her half a smile.
    ‘Olut, Lynx, Safir, watch our backs. Teshen and Reft, lead the way.’
    As the pair set off right down the street, Lynx automatically counted the rest of the group, checking there was no one left inside. Nine again, one added and one lost. Not far away was the corpse of the Princip, face down and still on the cobbled ground. The near-side leg and arm were both at unnatural angles, a black pool of blood forming around the mess of his head. In the room behind, Tyn’s ruined face was still half-frozen, perfectly white around the coin-sized hole in her cheek and frost in what was left of her hair.
    ‘Load sparkers,’ Olut reminded the two remaining with her as the rest set off. She shoved a cartridge into the breech of her own weapon. If they did have a squad of Knights-Charnel in pursuit, their best chance was outgunning them. The soldiers would only be carrying icers for fear of collateral damage to the city.
    Lynx replaced his cartridge and slapped his gun’s breech closed as they set off, keeping up as best they could while watching behind the group. The empty street echoed with the sound of their boots. It sounded dull after the thunderous gunfire, but was more than enough to make pursuit simple. The houses were dark, but he glimpsed faces at the windows – fearful merchants peeking past their curtains.
    They turned the corner and entered a wide avenue of tall three- and four-storey houses. Sandstone walls and pale brick fascias loomed on either side, shuttered shopfronts hid in the shadows of awnings. The street ran straight for fifty yards towards a square colonnade, in the shadows of which Kas waited with the horses. Safir held back, waiting at the corner to spy for pursuit while the remaining mercenaries scurried towards their horses.
    Two figures staggered out from an alley and the whole group slewed right, guns coming up like a disciplined unit before one of the drunks yelped and fell backwards. The other stared open-mouthed at the mercenaries then turned tail and fled, leaving his friend on the floor, but before that one could move they had set off again. Just as they reached the alleyway a hiss cut through the night, then the thump of Safir’s boots and flutter of his long kilt as he sprinted to catch them up.
    ‘More Charnelers,’ the man spat as he reached them. ‘Five or six at least.’
    ‘Ulfer’s crumpled horn – a whole squad?’ Anatin shot Lynx a dark look. ‘Sure you didn’t meet any trouble today?’
    ‘None,’ Lynx said calmly, ‘and I checked for a tail before I got back. This ain’t me.’
    ‘In case none of you noticed,’ Toil broke in with a fierce grin, ‘tonight’s all about me.’
    ‘This is your doing?’
    ‘Dumbshit mercs,’ she muttered. ‘You think I couldn’t get out of there by myself if it was just the Princip and his guards? The man was negotiating with the Orders, expanding their numbers in the city to smooth over any obstacles to his control of the Council of the Assayed. There’re patrols all over the city, slowly extending their grip.’
    ‘Expanding their numbers?’
    ‘They’ve more’n three times the soldiers than the Assayers. Soon he’ll have the army he needs.’
    That stopped Anatin. ‘An army ready to take over? And we just tweaked the Lord-Errant’s beard? Oh, bloody thanks for not telling me that before.’
    Toil rolled her eyes as he mounted hurriedly. ‘Shattered gods, man! Not all of ’em will be ready to ride out in the middle of the night.’
    ‘Fuck does that matter?’ Anatin snapped, sawing at the reins of his horse