The Enchanter Heir by Cinda Williams Chima Read Free Book Online Page A

physiology or a consequence of the drugs he took, the sight of them could be unnerving.
    Gabriel was a man of many demons, with a dump load of pain to forget.
    Gabriel returned to his seat, and Jonah threaded his way around furniture, murmuring greetings to the others.
    “Jonah!” Mose said, with an eager smile. “Glad you made it back safe.”
    “It’s great to see you here,” Jonah said, squeezing Mose’s shoulder. Odd. The more Mose’s body declined, the more brightly his spirit shone through.
    “Charlie was just filling us in on what happened in London,” Gabriel said as Jonah slumped into his usual chair. “Go on, Charlie.”
    “Feel free to chime in, Jonah,” Charlie said. “Like I said, we’d been monitoring the towpath for weeks. Three of us followed two shades onto a canal boat. It was a private event, with several mainliners on board.”
    “Then all hell broke loose,” Thérèse said. “The boat was attacked by an army of shades. We think they were targeting the mainliners.”
    “What makes you think that?” Gabriel said.
    “That’s what we’ve been hearing,” Charlie said. “Mainliners are being killed, all over Europe. As you can imagine, the guilds are in an uproar.”
    “Any change in the old modus operandi?” Mose asked. When met with a blank look from Charlie, he added, in a loud stage whisper, “How are they riffed?”
    “All different ways,” Charlie said. “Tossed off buildings, hacked to pieces, throats cut—nothing too high-tech. Some don’t have a mark on them. They’re just dead.”
    “It’s the perfect crime, Watson,” Mose said. “So many Ssuspects. Everyone hates wizards.”
    “It’s not just wizards,” Thérèse said. “And, anyway, the Anaweir authorities don’t know that.” Anaweir meaning the nongifted. The civilians.
    “Let’s get back to Regent Canal,” Gabriel said.
    “Summer went down fighting,” Charlie said. “We might’ve, too, but Jonah showed up and waded in. The shades split soon after that. To sum up, six civilians dead, including two mainliners.”
    “Mainliners aren’t civilians,” Alison murmured.
    “Dozens of shades freed, two shivved,” Charlie said, “counting Jonah’s. And one slayer down.”
    Freed . That was Gabriel’s term for removing a shade’s borrowed body so you could get at it and kill it. That’s putting a positive spin on it, Jonah thought.
    Alison looked up at the ceiling. “Only two shivved?” She slid a smirk at Charlie.
    “I’ll match my long-term stats against yours anytime,” Charlie said, unruffled. “Then again, why would I want to do that?”
    Jonah spoke up for the first time. “The shades were organized, working together. When they come in swarms like that, it’s really hard to do anything but chop them down.”
    “Is that it, then, Charlie?” Gabriel said, as if eager to move on.
    “Yeah,” Charlie said, “Except we’re running low on shivs.” He slid one of the enchanted daggers across the table to Gabriel. “We like this design the best.”
    “We’re running short, too,” Alison said to Charlie. “Better make ’em count, Dugard.”
    “Alison.” Gabriel raised his hand to quell her. “We’re making them as fast as we can,” he said.
    Shivs were slender silver blades encrusted with runes—the weapons slayers used to dispatch free shades. All shadeslayers, except for Jonah. The runes were layered on, so they took months to make in the Anchorage metal shop.
    Gabriel rubbed at his stubble of beard and turned to Jonah. “Now,” he said. “Tell us about Jeanette.”
    Jonah kept the report short and matter-of-fact.
    “But, I still don’t get it,” Rudy said, when Jonah had finished. “Why would they kidnap Jeanette? She’s retired. She lives—lived—on that farm in Massachusetts.”
    “They were interrogating her about weapon development at Thorn Hill,” Jonah said.
    “Thorn Hill!” Gabriel’s head snapped up. “What about Thorn Hill?”
    “You know the wizard