The Grieving Tree: The Dragon Below Book II by Don Bassingthwaite Read Free Book Online Page A

work cheap. Ten silver could clear this all up right away.”
    Singe grumbled under his breath and looked to Natrac. The half-orc reached into a pouch and produced ten silver sovereigns, pushing them across the table to Chain. “There,” he said. “Now—have you heard of the Spires of the Forge?”
    The big man scooped up the coins. “No.”
    Dandra stared at him. “No?” she said in shock.
    Chain shrugged. “Never heard of them.” He raised his heavy eyebrows. “They were what you were looking for?”
    “Yes!”
    “Then we’ve just saved ourselves a lot of trouble.” He drank again.
    Dandra rose to her feet, fury and the close air of the
gaeth’ad
house making her head pound. “You just took our money!”
    “You paid for an answer. I gave it to you,” the big man said. “Don’t blame me if it’s not the answer you wanted to hear.” He remained seated but the goblin had tensed again.
    Singe put a hand on her shoulder. “Easy,” he said. “He’s right.”
    She could tell from the sound of his voice that he wasn’t happy either. She glared at Chain. “What about the Hall of the Revered? Have you heard of that or is it going to cost us another ten sovereigns?”
    Chain’s shoulders tightened, making his muscles bulge. “I’ll throw it in for free,” he said. “No. I’ve never heard of the Spires of the Forge
or
the Hall of the Revered.”
    “Thank you,” said Natrac. The half-orc rose quickly. “We’ll be on our way, then. Maybe someone else—”
    Chain moved with a speed that shocked even Dandra, surging up out of his chair to lean across the table and snap in Natrac’s face. “You try,” he said. “You just try. But here’s another free answer: if I haven’t heard of a place in Droaam, then it doesn’t exist. You ask any other bounty hunter, prospector, or scout and they’re not going to be able to help you either. You’ve already come to the best. If I can’t help you, nobody can!” Natrac flinched back. Chain flung up an arm, pointing back out of the
gaeth’ad
house. “Get out.”
    “I—” Natrac started to say, but Singe grabbed the half-orc with his other arm and hauled both him and Dandra away. Dandra caught a last glimpse of Chain as the big bounty hunter slammed himself back down into his chair. Curious faces peered at them as they hastened out of the house and back into the herb market.
    “Twelve bloody moons!” cursed Singe. “What a—”
    “What a
dahr!”
said Dandra through clenched teeth. She looked at Natrac. “Do you think he was lying?”
    He shook his head. “That was business, Dandra. He had no reason to lie.”
    “What about trying other people? Do you think it was just his ego talking when he said no one else would know anything?”
    “It doesn’t look like he would admit to having rivals, does it?” said Natrac. He shrugged. “There’s no harm in trying to find other sources, but Chain
was
supposed to be the best in the city right now. If he doesn’t know, maybe House Tharashk isn’t the answer.”
    “We were only gambling that Tharashk would have the answers we need, Dandra,” Singe pointed out. “There’s still Natrac’s historian.”
    Dandra took a deep breath, trying to cool her rage at Chain’s grating manners, and lifted her chin. “But we’re gambling on that, too, aren’t we?” she said with determination. “I’m not going to give up on Tharashk that easily. I don’t think Chain knows as much as he thinks he does.”
    “We’ve got time to ask around.” Singe squinted up at the sun, still high in the sky. “We’re not supposed to meet Geth and Ashi for a long while yet.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Twelve moons, we might as well have had them with us all along!”
    Dandra glanced at him. “I don’t think that would have helped.”
    “No, but I would have enjoyed watching them beat down Chain. That would have been worth ten sovereigns.” He smiled wistfully.

    “Do you really think we fooled them?”