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from him. It was late afternoon and she knew he had been looking since the
moment he finished talking with Aejys the day before.
Taun's squarish, blunt featured face looked tired and depressed. He shook his
head dispiritedly. He had his Kwaklahmyn father's broad cheekbones and
coloring, deep brown skin and long glossy black hair tied back with a simple
leather thong, and his mother's sea-green nerien eyes. The thin lines in the
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sides of his throat looked more like scars to the casual glance, than what
they actually were  the pouchy coverings of his gills. He worked hard to
distance himself from his mixed species heritage so that he would be accepted
simply as a healer first. Taun was not ashamed of it: but it had proven so
awkward at times for his patients and clients that he simply chose to downplay
it, rather than lose them to less skilled, but more racially acceptable
practitioners.
Aejys harbored no racial or species prejudices, often going out of her way to
hire the 'breeds' as most folk referred to them. The ha'taren  paladin of
Aroana  hired only tolerant people, so her household with all its rogues,
outcasts, and pariahs ran smoother than any other in Vorgensburg: the societal
castoffs responded to her faith in them by giving her unswerving loyalty and
steadfast, unquestioning faith. So Becca, learning of Taun's situation and
nature shortly after Aejys left last summer for Shaurone to fetch her daughter
home, brought him into the household and put him on retainer.
Becca sighed heavily in a mix of frustration and irritation at Josh's being
back to his old habits of running away and hiding when things got awkward for
him. "Clemmerick knows all his bolt holes. But he isn't here."
She missed Clemmerick; the big ogre hostler always knew how to handle Josh.
He was her right hand man and Becca depended on him heavily, but with the
passes snowed in he could not start home until spring with the rest of Aejys'
household. "I guess we'll just have to wait until he decides to show again."
Taun looked unhappy with that. "If he keeps drinking..."
Becca patted his hand. "I know. But there may not be anything you can do
about this." She liked Taun, regretting only that he preferred his own gender
sexually which meant she would never be able to satisfy her bedroom curiosity
about water-breathers. "Listen. I'll tell you  Shit!"
The exclamation startled Taun, causing him to flinch thinking it was directed
at him, then he followed her gaze across to the front door.
Thomas Cedarbird, his black hair meticulously braided and adorned with two
eagle feathers, entered the Cock and Boar accompanied by three of the other
syndics of Vorgensburg. "I want to see the tavern master," he told a serving
mon who approached him. The merchant carried himself with a haughty air, the
youngest son of a Kwaklahmyn chieftain and only child of his third wife, the
daughter of the wealthiest merchant in Vorgensburg, Cedarbird had inherited
both wealth and influence. Until Aejys captured the archenwyrm's treasure by
killing the monster and set up for herself, Cedarbird had  to all intents and
purposes  ruled Vorgensburg. The Lion of Rowanslea had indirectly challenged
him by her mere presence and reputation even before she gained a fortune that
far outstripped his own. She had refused to put herself in his debt for even
so much as the smallest political favors he offered her, rarely siding with
him in anything. What made it worse was that for a time he was quite
infatuated with her. It was when his agent Briarmottë had revealed her
relationship with Tamlestari that he had finally gotten over wanting Aejys. He
had now relegated her to the ranks of his rivals and enemies, and those whom
he could not influence or dominate he destroyed.
Becca turned to Taun. "Stay here. I'll see what's going on." Becca strode
across the common room. "What the hell do you want, Cedarbird?"
"Becca," Cedarbird said politely, but with an edge. "I think we should speak
privately."
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"What is this about?" Becca bristled. One of these days I'm going to shove
your slimy face in.
"Privately..."
"Uh Uh." Becca folded her arms, taking a spread-legged, feet firmly planted,
no-nonsense stance she had picked up from Tagalong. "Not until you tell me
what it's about."
Make me call the bouncers, asshole, she thought grimly. Her bouncers were a
cohort of pixies, tough little knee-high soldiers in cloaks of invisibility.
Their captain, Grymlyken, was in Shaurone; however, his lieutenant, Fezelbaum
was just as capable of rallying the troops to eject the unwanted and
troublesome as he was.
Cedarbird tried unsuccessfully to stare the woman down, but Becca would not
be moved. Finally he said simply, "Aejystrys Rowan."
Should have figured he would hear the rumors as swiftly as everyone else. If
not sooner. "Upstairs  follow me." She signed Taun to come with her. As the
healer moved to her side, she whispered, "Get hold of Skree quick if we need
him."
Taun nodded.
Cedarbird frowned at the mon, but said nothing until they were sitting in the
formal meeting room at the top. He sat down at the head of the horseshoe table
and that rankled Becca, for that was Aejys' chair. "I received word from
Rowanslea  from an unimpeachable source  that Aejystrys is dead, but there
are also rumors that she is alive ... here at the Cock and Boar." His manner
suggested to Becca that he held to the former. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]