The Dusk Watchman: Book Five of The Twilight Reign by Tom Lloyd Read Free Book Online Page B

had been lying low, trying to decide upon his next course of action, but he was never without the few essentials any good necromancer needed to escape self-righteous persecution. He withdrew one of these now and held it lightly between thumb and forefinger, ready for use as he rapped on the door and waited for it to be answered.
    With his sometime benefactor, the vampire Zhia Vukotic, off to the West, Nai’s thoughts had been turning towards stepping away from the conflict entirely. It wasn’t his fight, after all, and he owed no one much, but a necromancer knew the value of earning favour. Some instinct told him Azaer would prefer the term master to benefactor , and that could prove lethal to a mage of Nai’s minor skills, but King Emin was sufficiently amoral to be a good alternative.
    The King of Narkang was unburdened by piety and ever the champion of pragmatic business. He would almost certainly be happy to buy Amber, and consequently the magical link he bore to Ilumene, off Nai. He didn’t expect much negotiation to be possible, but anything would be better than staying here. He glanced at Amber. The big soldier was near-insensate.
    Though they’d parted on bad terms and Amber was a man who lived by the sword, Nai had enough respect for him to think he deserved better than a club to the head or a hangman’s noose. He had no idea what sort of life King Emin would offer him, but it couldn’t be any worse: they both had to rely on that.
    The workshop door jerked open and a slender Litse poked his head out, pushing back long wisps of blond hair as he peered down at Nai.
    The necromancer gave him his best smile and raised what he was holding to show the man. It was a peach stone, cleaned and smoothed, with three symbols carved into each side. ‘I was asked to give you this,’ he said.
    The man looked from the stone to Nai and back, his mouth opening to speak, but confusion made him hesitate and quick as a snake Nai shoved the stone into the man’s mouth. The Litse recoiled, closing his mouth reflexively as he did. He took a frightened step back and then stopped, his expression of fright fading into glass-eyed blankness. Without waiting, Nai dragged Amber inside with him, nudging the Litse aside and closing the door behind him.
    When a voice quavered, ‘Who are you?’ he turned and saw a young boy frozen in the act of rising, a chisel in his hand as though he was ready to attack Nai. The boy took a second look at Amber and opened his mouth to shout, but Nai already had his knife to the unresisting man’s throat.
    ‘Don’t scream or I kill him,’ he commanded, and ushered the man, clearly the boy’s father, forward. He moved willingly, staring vacantly ahead at the space between them.
    ‘What have you done to him?’ the boy asked quietly, trembling as he spoke.
    ‘I’ve put a spell on him,’ Nai admitted. ‘He’s entirely under my control now. If you don’t want me to order him to put his head in the fire, you’ll not cry out or try to escape, understand?’
    ‘A spell ?’
    The necromancer nodded and lowered his knife, pointedly turning his back on the man. ‘Go and stand by the door,’ he ordered. The peach stone was a popular necromancer’s tool, but it was only useful for short periods, unless one had an inexhaustible supply of people: the spell would last until the stone was taken out of his mouth, but the victim could neither do it themselves, nor eat or drink with it in.
    ‘What do you want?’ The boy was no more than eleven or twelve winters, Nai guessed, old enough to be learn a trade but still just a skinny child when it came to intruders.
    ‘Somewhere to spend the day quietly. We’ll leave once nightfall comes.’
    ‘He’s a Menin.’ He pointed at Amber.
    ‘One the enemies of his people are keen to capture, so I cannot allow the duchess’ men to hang him before then, do you understand?’
    The boy nodded and Nai helped Amber into a chair, where the big man slumped wearily