The White Road - Lynn Flewelling [168]
"We'd be out of work if they didn't."
The third missive was from Tyrien, a Street of Lights courtesan Alec had met the first time he'd blundered under a green lantern. The young man wanted someone to rob the house of a patron who'd wronged him.
"I wonder what he'd think if he knew it was you he was writing to?" Seregil said with a grin.
Alec ignored him and picked up the scroll tube. Breaking the seal, he shook out the rolled letter. "Let's hope Magyana has something more challenging for us. This is dated just four days ago. She must have left it as she went out of town."
Seregil pulled the edge of the cloak up under his chin. "That sounds promising."
"'My dear boys, if you return before I get back, I have a small matter that might be of interest to you. Please visit Lady Amalia as your lordly selves as soon as you can. Tell her you are in my confidence, and know of someone trustworthy who can help her. It's a small political matter. I do hope you had a pleasant adventure.'"
Seregil grimaced. "'Pleasant' is not the word I'd use to describe it. What about you?"
Alec pushed Seregil's feet off his lap. Going to his discarded saddlebag, he took out the false slave collars they'd worn and propped them up on the cluttered mantelpiece between a box of loose gems and a broken lock.
"Are you sure you want to save those?" Seregil asked. How could Alec look at them and not think of Sebrahn?
"It's all right," Alec assured him as he sat down beside him again.
He didn't say more, and Seregil didn't ask. Instead, he made a show of weighing a letter in each hand. "What do you say, tali? The lady or the whore?"
"Magyana first, then the whore, and then the lady," said Alec. "On one condition, though."
"You're leveling conditions now? All right, what is it?"
The flickering firelight made Alec look a bit menacing as he grinned and said, "That I don't hear you complain about being bored for at least two months."
Seregil gave him a mocking seated bow. "You have my word. I'm sure this old whore of a city can keep me entertained for a bit. Besides, it's nearly spring, and people do all sorts of foolish things in the spring. Ah, Alec--a good honest brawl and jobs waiting." He yawned and stretched, then uttered the words he had not said since the Cockerel Inn burned.
"It's good to be home."
The White Road is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
A Spectra Mass Market Original
Copyright (c) 2010 by Lynn Flewelling
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Spectra, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
SPECTRA and the portrayal of a boxed "s" are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Map by Virginia Norey
eISBN: 978-0-553-90701-8
www.ballantinebooks.com
v3.0
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36