The Iron Ghost by Jen Williams Read Free Book Online

padded over to the plinth and ran a hand over the smooth top. ‘First, what is it? And second, do you know who took it?’ She cleared her throat. ‘And third, how much are we getting paid?’
    Tamlyn Nox frowned. ‘The item that was stolen was the Heart-Stone, Skaldshollow’s most precious artefact. It was kept here, on that very plinth you are currently rubbing your greasy fingers over.’
    ‘Big plinth for a stone,’ said Wydrin, taking her hand away.
    ‘It was a big stone,’ said Nuava, speaking for the first time. She picked up one of the books and turned to a page that showed a drawing of the room they stood in. The illustration showed the plinth in great detail, and on it stood a huge green crystal, squarish and half as tall as a man. ‘The Heart-Stone is actually smaller than this drawing suggests.’ Her voice was quiet, scholarly. She did not meet their eyes as she spoke. ‘This illustration was made over fifty years ago, and since then the stone has dwindled.’
    ‘By the Graces, though, that’s still a big damn lump of rock,’ said Wydrin. ‘Your thieves just walked out of here with it stuffed up their jerkins?’
    Tamlyn Nox glowered at her. ‘It was stolen by the Narhl, a tribe of –’ her face twisted as though tasting something bitter – ‘a tribe of people from beyond the northern mountain pass. We have long been enemies.’
    ‘Why would they take it?’ asked Sebastian. The big knight had been strangely quiet, watching the proceedings without comment.
    ‘Why?’ Tamlyn snapped. ‘The Heart-Stone is the centre of Skaldshollow, the foundation of our lives, of our every success. You have seen the werkens? The Heart-Stone wakens them for us, and Skaldshollow prospers. Without it, we are crippled, limited to the werkens we have already constructed. To see us fail . . .’ She touched the beaded necklace at her throat. For the first time, Frith noticed that, like Bors, she had a piece of green rock embedded into the palm of each hand, and two more pieces set into the lobes of her ears. ‘To see us fail is the only goal of the Narhl.’
    Nuava pulled another book from the plinth and flicked through the pages. Almost absently she added, ‘The Narhl believe the mountains to be sacred, and that the Heart-Stone is truly the physical heart of a great mountain spirit. They object to us chipping bits of it off.’
    ‘Superstitious nonsense,’ snapped Tamlyn. She shot Nuava a dark look. ‘The Heart-Stone is pure Edeian, that is all.’
    But Sebastian’s long face was stern now. ‘How do you know it is not the heart of the mountain? How do you know you are not doing harm?’
    Tamlyn scowled. ‘When I employed the Black Feather Three, I did not expect superstitious objections. I expected action.’
    ‘And you’ll get plenty of that, don’t you worry,’ said Wydrin hurriedly. She fingered the pages of one of Nuava’s books. ‘These Narhl – you believe they’ve taken this Heart-Stone back to their own settlement?’
    Nuava passed her a map. ‘They live beyond the treacherous mountain pass known as the Crippler, in a fortress called the Frozen Steps. This is where they have taken the stone.’
    ‘Why do you not retrieve it yourselves?’ asked Frith. He saw Wydrin glare at him from out the corner of his eye and ignored it. ‘These werkens of yours seem formidable. Can you not take a force of these creatures and storm the fortress?’
    Tamlyn Nox snorted. ‘Do you not think we would have done that if we could?’
    Nuava cleared her throat. She briefly met their eyes before looking back down at her books. ‘The pass is called the Crippler for a reason. It is so narrow that men and women must walk it single-file, and therefore much too narrow for a force of werkens. The Frozen Steps itself is made of sheer ice, impossible for a werken to scale. The Narhl have an interesting relationship with ice.’
    ‘But you three,’ Tamlyn came over to them, her dark eyes narrowed, ‘if the stories