Tahn by L. A. Kelly Read Free Book Online Page A

could take a full three days before plunging a victim’s head under the dark waters. But Samis did not always give them that long.
    The millhouse was near the back of the complex. He could scale the wall near the water and—
    Tahn stopped suddenly and smiled. The water. It went under the wall. Perhaps he could get in and out without ever setting foot on Valhal’s cursed ground. He continued up the slope at a steady run, angling left away from the sentry’s best vantagepoint. Soon he would need to use the rocks to hide himself as he edged toward Valhal’s back wall.
    The water’s passage was small beneath the stone. But it was big enough. The stream was icy cold, but that was worlds better than flames. He took a deep breath and swam with the current under the wall. When he surfaced, the millhouse was ahead of him, and he could hear voices. He ducked back beneath the water and continued his progress. He did not surface again until he reached the outer wheel on the millhouse wall.
    The water flowed beneath it and right through one huge inside room where Samis’s wheel was mounted. He could see that the paddles of the outer wheel blocked his access through the wall. There was not space between them for a man’s progress, though the hole was big enough. It looked like he would be crunched in the back with one before he could get all the way through. He watched the wheel for a moment as he listened for those voices. It seemed he would have to get out of the water and risk encountering opposition at the door.
    But then he saw what he needed. One paddle of the old wheel had broken off. How long had it been that way? Perhaps it was God’s mercy on Vari. He shook his head. The gap was edging downward. He dove beneath the water.
    His timing was good. He surfaced in the millhouse, where the water flowed much slower. Vari was bound to the wheel, his body quivering, his head less than two feet from the water. No one else was inside. “Vari,” he whispered. “Don’t make a sound.”
    The boy’s eyes popped open. He looked strange and wild.
    Tahn cut the ropes one by one and caught the big youth as he fell. “You will have to do exactly as I say,” he told him in a whisper, wondering about the paddle gap on their way out. The boy was not hurt. Just scared out of his wits and stiff. “We’re going through this wall and the outer wall. I will take this one first and signal you.”
    But Vari was still shaking, and it was from more than the fear of his near death. Tahn recognized the problem as the boy spoke. “I need my measure,” he said in a trembling voice. “Or I can’t make it. Please.”
    The young warrior supported the youth with one arm and dug into a pocket. Heartsick for the boy’s plight, he pulled out a small bottle. He was dependent already. Another complication. But perhaps it was well for this night, at least. The drug would dull him to all that was happening. But the icy water would surely keep him awake.
    Vari drank what little remained of Tahn’s opiate tincture and dropped the bottle in the stream.
    “You have to make it now,” Tahn told him. “Through the wall when I whistle. You understand?”
    The boy nodded, but he looked confused. “I thought you’d come to put me out of my misery. Why do you risk yourself? Why would you help me?”
    But Tahn only sank beneath the water to the hole in the wall. The paddles were difficult to judge on this side. And then he thought he heard the door.

    It was Johns who faced Vari. He had come often, checking the wheel’s progress for the exact moment Vari’s head would reach the water.
    “What the devil?” he exclaimed. “How … ?”
    Vari dove beneath the water, fearing a knife or sword thrust.
    “Come up, you little devil,” Johns exclaimed. “Samis will surely be interested in such a clever skunk as you.”
    Johns walked toward the edge of the water. “There you are, you—”
    He reached his big hands to grab the boy, but it was Tahn that surfaced