The Lawkeeper of Samara (The Fourth Age of Shanakan Book 2) by Tim Stead Read Free Book Online

as far from Kane as possible. From here she could see most of the bar by turning her head. Kane seemed to be ignoring her.
    Hekman pulled a piece of paper out of his tunic, and Arla recognised it as the sketch she’d made back at the law house. He put it in front of Ella. Arla had to admit that Hekman didn’t waste time. There were no pleasantries. He told her the story, plain and simple, the murdered boy, the death man’s evidence, the warehouse, the room beneath it, and the fire. Ella listened patiently.
    When Hekman finished it was Arla that she turned to.
    “This is what you saw?”
    Arla nodded. “Aye.”
    “Do you know the symbols?” Hekman asked.
    “You’ve been burned,” Ella said, still looking at Arla. Arla shrugged.
    “Had to try and see,” she said.
    “It was a brave thing to do. Foolish, perhaps, but brave, and it paid off.” She turned back to Hekman. “I can’t tell you what they mean now,” she said. “But I’ve seen something like this before, and I think I know the book.” She passed the paper back to Hekman. “I think this is magic, Sam,” she said.
    “Magic?”
    “Not like the Faer Karan,” she said. “Not like the Mage Lord. This is something older and darker, but I can’t be sure. I’ll have to read the book again. I’ll come to the law house tomorrow.”
    “Thank you,” Sam said. He made to stand up, but Ella waved him down again.
    “Stay and eat,” she said. “I want to hear about everything else, and the icefish here is wonderful.”
    Hekman didn’t quite sit again. He was poised between up and down. “I need to get back to the law house,” he said.
    “Nonsense,” Ella said. “The world won’t descend into chaos if you take half an hour for lunch. Besides, I’m sure Arla wants to try the icefish, and I’m paying.”
    Arla didn’t want to answer, but Ella looked at her and she decided it would be impolite to remain silent. “I prefer meat,” she said. Ella frowned.
    “Honest if not diplomatic,” she said, and the frown turned into a smile. “But I guarantee you’ll like the icefish. They only serve it when they’re running off the coast, just once a year for a couple of weeks.”
    Arla nodded. It looked like she was going to get to try the icefish.
    She noticed that Kane was smiling.

Ten – The Black Bow
    After the icefish, which much to her surprise had been quite palatable, Arla left Hekman and went up onto Kettle Lane. It was one of those streets in the old town that had attracted a large number of artisans of the better kind. The people whose shops filled Kettle Lane were not men and women who lived over their shops. They were skilled, prosperous, and expensive.
    The bowyer’s shop was at the northern end. It was easy to find. The bowyer had erected a large sign in the shape of a drawn bow above the door so that it could be seen from a distance. Arla hesitated on the doorstep. She wasn’t used to buying bows. At Ocean’s Gate they’d made them, though that hadn’t been a skill she’d picked up herself.
    A man appeared in front of her. “You want a bow?”
    It was not a particularly polite enquiry, and for a moment she thought about turning away, but Hekman had said this was the best bowyer in town.
    “If you have something suitable,” she replied.
    The man looked faintly surprised, then he smiled. “You’re an archer,” he said.
    Arla shook her head. “Any fool with a bow can call herself an archer.”
    “Ah, a guard archer.”
    “A lawkeeper,” she corrected him.
    His face changed. It changed, she realised, because he was expecting a lawkeeper archer. He had been told not only that she was coming, but who she was.
    “Please come in,” he said.
    She stepped through the door. Her first thought was that she had never seen so many bows in her life. Her second was that there were not many that she would buy.
    “A recurve,” she said. “Fifty pound pull, about forty inches. I have a twenty seven inch draw.”
    The bowyer nodded. He