The Living Sword by Pemry Janes Read Free Book Online Page A

door and when he said nothing more, Eurik took it as an invitation.
    Being among stacks of paper and parchment again felt good, but it didn't last long as Rolan came to meet him. “Can I help you,” he asked Eurik.
    “I hope so. I have here a letter from your—” he faltered as he still couldn't remember the relation between the two. “From Patheos is-Ilad,” Eurik settled for, handing over the piece of paper.
    “You do?”
    “Yes, I'm trying to find out what happened to my parents and he offered to help, but someone was waiting for him at the dock. Apparently his patron wanted to see him right away, so he gave me this letter instead.”
    Eurik waited while Rolan examined the seal, then opened the letter and read it. “When the head of the family asks, what can we do but say yes,” Roland said after finishing the letter. He looked up. “This won't be easy,” the Linesan warned Eurik. “We do have records for every human ship that foundered, stretching back fifty years, but that just means there's a lot of hay for your needle to get lost in. And you're assuming the ship was lost.”
    “The situation must have been serious for them to have chosen the use of a small boat in those waters. Especially without adequate supplies,” Eurik countered. “And we can narrow things down to a specific time frame as well as an area where it must have happened. It happened sometime in the first half of the year 904, probably early spring. South of the island—I mean San. The ship might have been heading for Linese,” he added.
    “Well, I'm not going to find it in the next five minutes, and Mister Dogall won't let you hang around here until I do. Where will you be staying?”
    “I'm staying at the Charging Anauceros.”
    Rolan bobbed his head. “I'll come by tomorrow morning to share what I've found, or didn't find. You best be up early.”
    “Of course. Thank you.” Eurik bowed.
    The Linesan grinned. “If you want to show your gratitude, buy me breakfast tomorrow.”
    “I will keep that in mind.”
    Once back on the street, Eurik found himself at a loss what to do now. Patheos had promised to show him around the city, but that couldn't happen today. His search for what had happened to his parents was in the hands of another at the moment, and he would have to wait for the results. He could go find somewhere to eat—he hadn't had much back on the Ichiru .
    “I think I'll buy us lunch. You know a good place to eat?” he asked Dak.
    “Sure, but it's nowhere near here.”
    “That's fine, I want to see more of this city anyway. Lead the way.”
    This time, their journey took them over one of the broad bridges spanning the tributaries of the Endria. Eurik stopped for a moment to examine one of the statues lining it, and the traffic flowed around him. Like all the other stone statues he had seen, this one had been painted in vivid colors. It showed a man wearing nothing but a cloak and a dagger stabbing himself in the thigh. Since this was the Bridge of Heroes, it had to be a figure from Nesan legends; like all the others on this bridge. Eurik couldn't figure out who it was supposed to be, though.
    “What are you looking at?” Dak wondered.
    “That statue, I was wondering which story it is from.”
    “Story?”
    “Yes, like that one,” he indicated a sculpture ready to throw a spear. “The slayer of the boar of Illysia, Tithos. And next to him, the dragonslayer Sinean. They're all statues of heroes from Nesan legend, but I don't recognize this one.”
    “It's Vulpos,” Misthell supplied. “He's about to plunge the dagger into his leg to make his trail more alluring for Suran's hounds so that they'll stop chasing his friends and go after him. When the god caught up with him, Vulpos boasted how he outsmarted the god of hunters once again and that his horn was long gone. As punishment, Suran turned Vulpos into a fox so that he would have to outsmart hunters for the rest of his life.”
    Angling his head Eurik