The Darkslayer: Book 02 - Blades in the Night by Craig Halloran Read Free Book Online

felt around in the rock for the keyhole, inserted a key, and gave it a turn. The door swung open.
    Inside was a stone tunnel, taller than a man, sloping down toward the distant sound of rushing water. He approached the source of the noise: a large storm drain with an old steel grate, beneath which water rushed some fifty feet below. As soon as he had passed over it, the corridor began to slope upward again. By the time he reached the end of the tunnel, Venir had risen again to ground level. There, a large ancient wall loomed before him. He tripped a simple latch and the low ceiling roof dropped downward, revealing a large opening. He walked up a massive plank, tripped another hidden mechanism, and the floor raised back up, sealing the secret opening.
    He was now in a hay-filled stall inside the great stables of the City of Bone. Only he and a few others knew of this long-neglected secret passageway. He stepped out of the stall into a barn of massive proportions. Hundreds of stalls and stables lined two rows north to south, illuminated by a massive hole in the roof, its rim streaked with gray and white pigeon litter. Venir welcomed the strong smells of hay and manure after the barren Outlands he had just jogged across in the sweltering heat. In the distance, he could see some activity in the northern stalls, but the southern stalls seemed mostly vacant. This barn had always been the least active of the six giant buildings that housed mounts for Bone’s City Watch and the Royal families. He peered over the stable gate to see if anyone was in the immediate area, then treaded out. He hadn’t taken two steps before he heard a yell.
    “ Vee!”
    Georgio came running toward him from a mere twenty paces away, causing an unwanted commotion.
    “ Vee, you’re back!”
    “ Hush!” Venir said with a wave of his arm.
    Georgio covered his mouth and ran on tiptoes, stumbled to the ground, then scrambled back up again, sending pigeons fluttering. No one seemed to be around. Venir hugged the husky farm boy who smiled and nodded in return.
    “ Man, I’m so glad you’re back, Vee!” Georgio whispered.
    “ It’s been little more than a week, Georgio. You act like I’ve been gone a year.” He rubbed the big boy’s head. “So how’s it been going?” He regretted the question as it left his lips.
    “ Melegal’s grouchy all the time. Lefty keeps writing. I get bored. It’s no fun when you aren’t around. They won’t play with me. Melegal and Lefty play games but they say I’m not smart enough. I tell them I am, but they still don’t let me play. And after I come to take care of Chongo and Quickster, Melegal asks fifty questions about Quickster and I tell him to go check himself. Then he starts cursing and lecturing. He gives me a headache with all his yakking. It’s better when you’re here.”
    Georgio sighed, shaking his brown curls. Then his eyes grew round with excitement, and Venir already knew what he was going to ask.
    “ So how many underlings did you kill? Tell me!” he blurted. “Ten? Twenty? Tell me, tell me!”
    “ Six,” Venir responded.
    “ Six?” Georgio shook his head again. “That’s it?” Then his eyes lit up again and he snapped his fingers. “Wait! You killed them all! Only six were left on Bish?”
    “ No,” Venir said.
    Georgio frowned.
    “ I didn’t have much luck tracking them down,” Venir said. “It happens. Besides, there were enormous sand spiders, too.”
    Georgio perked up again. “I’ve heard about them. How many did you kill?”
    Venir knew that just one wasn’t going to impress the boy. Lefty would want all the details, plus Venir was eager to hit the town, so he opted for the truth—at least this once.
    “ I fought two, but I only had to kill one. See what the spider spit did to my legs.”
    The boy’s eyes grew at the sight of the thick red burns healing on his hero’s leg. “Wow! That’s nasty.”
    “ I’ll tell you all about it later. Let’s see how