Witches of Kregen by Alan Burt Akers Read Free Book Online Page B

make the wonderful and terrible world of Kregen revolve about the twin star of Antares.
    After that the necessary secret words of the initiate in the cult of Lem the Silver Leem were spoken. They were swods within the cult; I pitched myself a little higher, giving myself the ridiculous rank of Hikdar-majis-ponti. At least, they’d be polite from now on.
    They told me much of what I already knew or suspected and a deal that was new.
    Mercenaries were flooding into this northwestern part of Vallia again, coming via Racterland to the north, guaranteed passage by the Racters and payment by Princess Mira.
    I nodded as they spoke as though I understood. But I’d no idea who this Princess Mira was, apart from the fact that as an enemy of Vallia she would have to be dealt with.
    “There is much gold, dom,” said the one called Helvcin the Kaktu. “I saw the ships unloading. The string of calsanys stretched from ship out of sight through the port gate. By Kuerden the Merciless, if one of those beasts had stumbled and spilt his load...!”
    “By Krun!” amplified his comrade, one hight Movang the Splitter. “In the riot I’d have made my fortune. Hanitcha take me else.”
    “Now Malahak is my witness you speak it aright, Movang!” And Helvcin put a gnarly finger into his mouth to free a scrap of food caught in his teeth.
    “These great ones of the world,” I said. “If only Kaerlan the Merciful smiled on me...”
    “Oh, we’ll never smell any more of the gold than our pay. And that’s fair, I grant you.”
    They completely took me for a Hamalese, for I had spent a long time there, and was able to tell them more than they knew about Ruathytu, the capital of Hamal. By chance I also knew Dovad, from which town hailed Helvcin the Kaktu. I’d spent a few days there with Avec Brand and Ilter Monicep before taking the boat down the River Mak. I’d never visited Mardinglee, where Movang the Splitter had been born.
    I expect you can share some of my feelings at this resurrection of memories long ago, of times and places in Hamal. Then the empire had been ruled by poor mad Queen Thyllis, before she became the Empress, and Hamal was a deadly enemy to other nations beside Vallia. Now, with Prince Nedfar placed on the throne by me to become the new emperor, we were allies.
    By their lack of rapiers and left hand daggers, these two betrayed the fact they’d never been Bladesmen, never ruffled it in the Sacred Quarter of Ruathytu.
    Carefully letting drop tidbits of information, I casually built up the image of me I required them to have. When we got onto the topic of Lem the Silver Leem, I did feel relief that neither belonged to the temple to which I’d been taken by Nath Tolfeyr, himself a man of mystery, and been inducted into the vile cult to save my life. They had heard of that temple, though, by the aqueduct in Ruathytu, and accorded me even more respect. Apparently that particular temple held a big reputation among these decadent and torturing murderers of the Brown and Silvers.
    In due time they told me all they knew about Princess Mira. This was pathetically little. She was merely the name by which the paymasters knew who was providing the gold to pay the army against Vallia.
    I ventured a shaft.
    “It seems to me that perhaps Princess Mira will take what you win in Vallia for herself.”
    “If she does,” said Helvcin, spitting, “I shall not care, no by Krun, so long as I get my pay and a share of the loot.”
    Inch would have to wait.
    Even as I dredged their shallow minds for more information, I found myself thinking how grand it would be if Pompino the Iarvin were here. By Vox! He was a tool of the Everoinye, the Star Lords, as was I. He and I had burned a few temples to Lem the Silver Leem. As Kregoinye we both felt that we would burn more, although I desperately sought another solution to this monstrous disease calling itself a religion.
    They left to see to their fluttrells and we parted on the understanding