Warlord by Jennifer Fallon Read Free Book Online

Raven. He’ll be most relieved.”
    “Do you have children, Master Miar?”
    “If you know as much about me as you claim, your highness, you shouldn’t need to ask.”
    He’s quick, this lover of Alija’s, which made Marla wonder what someone as obviously intelligent and astute as Galon Miar saw in that aging old whore.
    “You have two daughters and a son, if my informants are correct.”
    “You’re remarkably well informed.”
    “Remarkably,” she agreed coolly. “Tell me, would you apprentice your son to the Assassins’ Guild?”
    “I already have.”
    She raised an eyebrow curiously. “Like father, like son?”
    “Only if he grows up to be a legendary lover, a sparkling conversationalist and a brilliant assassin,” Galon replied with a grin.
    Marla found herself intrigued, despite herself. “You’re pretty damn sure of yourself, aren’t you, Galon Miar?”
    “Comes with the job, your highness.” He shrugged. “A lack of confidence in one’s own abilities is fatal in my profession.”
    “I imagine it would be,” she agreed, wondering what it would take to rattle that supreme self-confidence. “Is that what Alija sees in you, Master Miar? Or is it just your welltoned body she lusts after?”
    He smiled. “Why don’t you ask her?”
    “Maybe I will,” she replied. “Of course, I’m actually more interested in what you see in her. Is it the power a High Arrion of the Sorcerers’ Collective represents that has you so enchanted with her?”
    “Don’t you find power arousing?” he challenged, shifting slightly from one foot to the other, the only sign Marla had that he might not be as at ease as he seemed.
    “Not when it’s Alija Eaglespike wielding it.”
    “You should try it sometime, your highness,” Galon suggested persuasively. “You might find it even more stimulating than money, which—according to popular belief—is what you find attractive.”
    Marla’s expression darkened. “Don’t even presume to think you know anything about me, Galon Miar. Go back to your guild. Give your superior my answer. This audience is over.”
    Unapologeticalfy, Galon bowed low, with all the courtly elegance of a nobleman. “As you wish, your highness.”
    Marla didn’t answer. Instead, she ignored him, leaning forward to pick up a plum from the tray, examining it closely as if it was the most important thing in the room before biting into it, giving the blood-red fruit her undivided attention.
    Taking the hint, the assassin turned and walked from the room, leaving Marla alone with the platter full of fruit and her racing pulse. She couldn’t say for certain, however, if it was the looming threat of exposure by the Assassins’ Guild that left her so unsettled or the unexpectedly disturbing presence of Galon Miar.

CHAPTER 5
     
    D amin Wolfblade reined in his horse and turned off the road, allowing the column of Raiders to ride by, the dust of their passage whipped away by the crisp breeze. It was a beautiful day. Too beautiful to be marching to war, even with the knowledge the God of War favoured his endeavour.
    As he watched his Raiders riding along the road, their pennons snapping in the breeze, and tried not to dwell on the meaning of being visited by a god, Tejay Lionsclaw spied him and pulled away from the column, trotting over to where Damin was waiting. Dressed like a man in a tooled red leather breastplate bearing the rampant lion escutcheon of Sunrise Province, she didn’t look like the mother of four small children. She looked more like the girl Damin had known when he was fostered at her father’s stronghold as a child—fierce, determined and as tough as any Raider in her father’s army.
    Tejay circled her skittish mare and came to a halt beside him. “Something wrong?”
    Damin debated telling her about Zegarnald’s visit, but decided against it, for no reason he could readily identify. Instead, he shook his head. “I was just wondering what Charel Hawksword is going to make