Well of the Damned by K.C. May Read Free Book Online Page B

you a
plate.” He beckoned one of the guards and instructed her to
keep an eye out for this boy returning with another.
    The
boy’s mouth dropped open in disbelief at first and then widened
into a smile. He bowed deeply several times, thanking Gavin profusely
as he did.
    “Off
you go then.” Gavin smiled, wishing all the people were as easy
to please and help.
    The
morning brought one request for aid after another, most having to do
with problems caused by the rain. Businesses were suffering, people
weren’t getting enough to eat, cesspits were overflowing into
the street, the river water was too dirty to drink, and there wasn’t
enough dry wood to burn to boil water. Gavin asked himself, what
would a king do? But he had no answers, only a question: why was
this happening?
    A
messenger, dressed in the Lordover Tern’s red and black livery,
entered at the back of the hall. His face was familiar enough that
the guards checked him quickly for weapons and let him through
without an escort.
    “Good
morning, my lord king,” he said, handing the message to Gavin.
    “Hail,
Hanik. How’s the little one?” Gavin broke the seal and
handed the folded note to Edan without looking at it.
    “Much
better, sire, thank you. She can’t stop talking about how you
healed her arm.”
    Gavin
smiled. “Give your wife my best.”
    Hanik
nodded with a crooked smile. “Thank you, sire. I will.”
    Edan,
looking at the note, said, “The Lordover Tern writes he’s
questioned Cirang Deathsblade extensively with the aid of a
well-respected shadow reader. He concludes she is blameless for the
crimes with which she is charged, and requests you hear her for
yourself within a week’s time or he’ll exonerate her and
set her free.” He tossed the message onto the table
dismissively.
    “Can
he do that?” Gavin asked.
    “According
to current law, the limit on her time in gaol without a formal
hearing is three months, and she’s been in gaol for nearly
that,” Edan said. “You should question her yourself. Your
magic will tell you if she’s lying.”
    “If
her lips are moving,” Daia said, “she’s lying. She
was well known at the Sisterhood for her ability to sell rubbish no
matter its stench.”
    Edan raised his brows in
encouragement. “She helped Ravenkind escape justice. If she’s
truly blameless in Rogan’s death, you’ll know.”
    Gavin
sighed heavily and rubbed his brow.
    “I
know you don’t want to do this,” Edan said, “but
you need to make a judgment. Once you get this task done, it won’t
be tapping your shoulder every other day.”
    Gavin
nodded. “Write a reply to tell him we’ll send someone to
get her tomorrow morning.”

Chapter 8

     
 
    Rain
beat relentlessly on Adro Fiendsbane’s cloaked head and
shoulders as he rode beside the queen’s carriage on their
return to Chatworyth Palace. Their visit to the orphanage had been
eye-opening and disturbing.
    From
inside the kitchen had come the sounds of feet stomping on the wooden
floor. When they’d opened the door, a rotund woman of perhaps
forty and a teenage girl had paused their stomping and looked up in
shock, their faces flushed. On the floor were dozens of roaches in
various states of squash, white goo oozing from their bodies, and
many more as yet unsquashed that went about their business with tiny
clicks of their feet on the floor.
    Queen
Feanna had managed to keep her head, even when the bugs started
climbing onto her boots and up her skirt, but her poor handmaiden had
started screeching and couldn’t be calmed. The queen had cut
the visit short, and even now, she sat with her arm around Eriska’s
shoulders, offering comfort to the distraught girl as they rode
through the wet streets of Tern.
    Adro
had never been a squeamish man, but the sight of all those roaches
had started a fit of shudders he still hadn’t gotten over.
    Astride
his warhorse, he tried to calm himself by watching for danger,
overeager citizens and drunks — problems he