Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone Read Free Book Online

in truth as well as title, and it’s hard to watch. This is a stupid idea, but I won’t stand in your way. In fact, I’ll lay you a soul and a half that you won’t be able to find her and learn what she knows before my two week deadline’s up.”
    “Three thousand thaums.” Two months’ payment on his house. Buy-in for one hell of a high-stakes game. “Odds?”
    “I’ll give you two-to-one against. I don’t want to bankrupt you.”
    “You sure you can cover it? I don’t want to send you running back to Mama when I come to collect. I know how uncomfortable your family makes you.”
    “You should talk.”
    “You’re on.”
    They shook. The yellow skeletons grinned.
    He grinned back at them.

 
    7
    The next day’s dawn clawed at Caleb’s eyes. He tugged his hat brim low, and climbed the gravel path that wound up the sandy hill toward Heartstone’s headquarters. The driverless carriage that had brought him rolled away into heat and haze.
    Caleb felt about sunrise the way he felt about RKC’s accounting department: necessary, and best kept at a distance. But Alaxic, Heartstone’s chief executive, was a busy man, and when he set the meeting early, Caleb hadn’t argued—he needed this talk to end well. If Alaxic took pressure off the King in Red, the King should relax his grip on Tollan and the Wardens, leaving Caleb free to search for Mal. If not, Caleb’s chances for finding her dwindled to nothing. Especially if the Wardens decided to peek inside his head for any details about the runner he might have missed.
    Dry dwarf pines rustled beside the path. Caleb turned to look, and a slender blade settled against the swell of his throat. He froze. Sharp points and edges pressed into his back. A needle breathed over his right eyelid. He heard the silence of something large standing still, and near.
    “State your name and business,” said a voice like chalk on slate.
    “Caleb Altemoc.” He swallowed. His throat pressed against the security demon’s claw. “I’m from RKC, here to see Alaxic.” Slowly, he reached into his pocket, and slid his badge out of his wallet. “I have an appointment.”
    The claw did not slide across Caleb’s throat, nor did the spines of the demon’s chest impale him. This was probably a good sign.
    Caleb waited.
    The Tzimet in Bright Mirror Reservoir were to proper demons what a monkey was to a man: similar in shape, sometimes even stronger, but pale imitations with regard to intellect and cruelty.
    Minutes passed. He waited on the hillside, millimeters from death.
    Footsteps. He tried to turn his head, but the thorns at his cheek prevented him.
    A woman entered his field of vision: skin a shade darker than Teo’s, face round, red-tinged hair pulled back in a bun. She wore a khaki suit with a knee-length skirt, and carried a clipboard. She glanced from his face to the clipboard, and held out her hand. “You must be Caleb. I’m Allesandre Olim. Mister Alaxic is eager to meet you.”
    Claws, blades, and thorns released him. One moment, a sneeze would have driven ten spikes through Caleb’s skull; the next, he stood free on the path. Caleb accepted Allesandre’s hand and shook it. Her grip was firm, and she did not smile.
    “Apologies for the security. Our work here is delicate, and dangerous. This way, please.”
    “You have effective guards,” Caleb said, and would have turned to look behind him. Allesandre shook her head, and he stopped. “The demon’s still there, isn’t it?”
    “Will you follow me?” she said, and left the path.
    Caleb followed. The hillside where they walked looked rocky and uneven, tangled with sagebrush and weeds, but he felt a smooth stone walkway under his feet.
    Allesandre led him to a circle of standing stones. With a wave of her clipboard she slid a five-hundred-pound altar aside, revealing a rough-hewn tunnel into the earth, and rock steps descending.
    They climbed down the steps for a long time.
    At first the tunnel felt warm as desert