Read The Fall of the Dagger (The Forsaken Lands) for Free Online

not going to end well. Expect the worst.”
    “I will. I do. If things go wrong, I have the pieces of the Chenderawasi tail feather.”
    The trouble was that none of them knew quite what to do with them. “Only to be used in the direst emergency,” he said, and addedwryly, “Accidentally swallowing one is not something I’d recommend.” That had changed him, and he would not have wished the result on anyone.
    Juster came out on the deck from his cabin, clad – as far as Saker could tell in the dark – in his best suit of clothes, complete with rings, brooches and an earring, and with his sword at his side. A moment later, Ardhi and Barklee emerged from below, lugging a wooden box between them.
    “Good,” Juster said. “I’ll hire a couple of dock lumpers onshore to carry it to the palace for me. Get it loaded on the pinnace.”
    “He’s daft,” Saker muttered to Sorrel.
    She gave a low laugh in amused agreement.
    Several minutes later the pinnace pulled away, rowed by several sailors, with Surgeon Barklee, Banstel the ship’s boy, Sorrel, Piper and Juster on board.
    Ardhi came to stand beside Saker. “The sailors are going to wait for them at the docks until dawn,” he remarked. “If they haven’t returned by then, the men are under orders to leave for
Golden Petrel
anyway.”
    “And Grig will up anchor and head for Twite.”
    “Those are Juster’s orders,” Ardhi agreed neutrally.
    “Hmm.”
    “What do you think?”
    “Same as you, I suspect.”
    Cranald came to lean on the bulwarks next to Saker and Ardhi. “I can’t leave the ship,” he said. “And that fobbing bastard knows I won’t.”
    “You do realise, don’t you,” Saker said softly, “that I don’t have to be on the ship to persuade that bird of mine to go to Hornbeam. I can do that from the docks… the town… anywhere. Although I do have to wait for dawn, because it won’t fly at night.”
    “I thought that might be the case.” Grig paused and they all fell silent until the pinnace was well and truly swallowed by the dark. Then he added, “I think I’ll order the men to launch the dinghy and leave it tied up to the pilot ladder. Just in case it’s needed…”
    Saker gave a shrug that fooled no one. “Excellent notion.”
    “This ship needs its captain.” Grig’s voice was unusually husky.
    “I agree.”
    “I’m sure I can rely on you to do what’s best.”
    As Cranald walked away, Ardhi grinned broadly. “Juster is going to be
very
angry with us.”
    “So you’re coming with me?”
    “Try and stop me!”

3
Loyalty and Royalty
    “ A re you there?” Juster asked softly.
    Sorrel glanced back over her shoulder to make sure the two dock lumpers he’d employed to carry the salt cellar in its wooden box were not close enough to hear her reply. The hired torchbearer had already pulled further ahead so the taint of burning pitch no longer assailed Juster’s nostrils.
    “Right at your shoulder,” she whispered.
    He jumped. “Sweet nonce and hell’s tomorrows! Do you have to curdle the blood in my veins?”
    “Well, you asked.”
    He stared right through her and lowered his voice. “I can’t see you.”
    “You’re not supposed to. I’m very good at what I do.”
    “So I see. Or rather, don’t see.”
    Afraid that the king would soon be abed if they tarried, she and Juster had not stayed long in the Barklee house. Her heart tight with fear for Piper, she took comfort from Mistress Barklee’s apparent delight at having another child around. If the woman had been astonished to have her husband arrive back with a child and the ship’s boy in tow, she hadn’t let it show.
    Information garnered from the surgeon’s brother-in-law was mostly the same as that given in Agent Rotherby’s letter, all of it more rumoured than confirmed. The man did blame the current troubles on Grey Lancers rather than Primordials, but could offer little information about exactly who they were.
    “You see grey coats and