Read Agents of Artifice: A Planeswalker Novel for Free Online Page A

But it’s pretty easy to get turned around in the streets and tunnels between here and Favarial. Even if not, if I hurry, I may still get there soon enough to find Jace before he does, assuming the bastard’s even still in the district.”
    “By which, of course, you mean ‘we,’” Liliana corrected, just the slightest coating of frost on her voice.
    “Ah …” Kallist hedged, realizing just how deep was the mire he was about to step in, “no, that’s not exactly what I meant.”
    “Yes it is. You just haven’t had that fact explained to you yet.”
    “Liliana,” he said, pulling his head from beneath her hand and standing straight once more, “You shouldn’t come.”
    She rose, smoothly, swiftly, until her feet were inches from the floor, her body surrounded by a flickeringaura of black mist, the arcane symbols once more inked across her back and neck. She hovered, higher, until she had to look down to meet Kallist’s gaze.
    Even knowing that she wasn’t about to hurt him, he couldn’t help but shiver at the blood-chilling, vampiric cold emanating from the necromancer. From within the midnight-tinted aura, he swore he heard the whispers and moans of a score of souls.
    Yet her tone, when she spoke, was calm, collected. She was, Kallist realized with something akin to awe, simply making a point, not trying to intimidate him.
    “Do you really think,” she asked him, “that waiting here in Avaric, to find out if you’ve succeeded, is the best use of my abilities? Do you really think you can convince me that it’s a trip you can make, but that it’s somehow too dangerous for me?”
    It had, of course, nothing whatsoever to do with danger. Kallist just wasn’t remotely certain he could stand spending three or four straight days with Liliana, so soon after the crushing conversation of the previous evening.
    Kallist, not being a complete idiot, knew better than to say so. “Yes. I think it’s too dangerous to risk both of us.”
    Liliana laughed and sank until her feet once more touched the wooden planks, allowing the necromantic aura to fade. “So it’s safer for one of us than both? I thought I was supposed to be the illogical one.”
    “Liliana—”
    “Besides,” she said lightly, flicking the tip of his nose with a finger, “you’d be bored without me.”
    Kallist knew when he was beat. It seemed to be happening a lot lately.
    “Fine,” he grumbled with ill grace. “Start packing up what you need. I’ve got one last thing to take care of.”
    The humor instantly fell from Liliana’s face. “Would you rather I do it?” she asked gently.
    “Not even a little bit.”
    Kallist hefted his broadsword from the pile, allowing the scabbard to slide from the blade. Mechanically, he turned and strode across the room to stand above Errit.
    The bound thug, who’d regained consciousness at some point during their discussion, began to thrash. “Wait! Wait a minute!”
    “Why?” Kallist’s voice was as mechanical as his movements.
    “I—there’s no reason! Look, I’m no threat to you! I could even help you! I—”
    “Should have asked Semner exactly who it was you were dealing with.” Kallist brought the heavy blade down with a crash. Then, without a word, he turned away to wash the weapon clean, leaving the body to drain itself dry into the crevice he’d cleaved through the floorboards beneath it.

K allist glowered about as though hoping to cow the rain into submission. The rain petulantly refused to be intimidated, however, and he had to settle for running his fingers over his face, flinging another handful of water to the sodden earth.
    “At least it keeps the worst of the stench and the mosquitoes out of the air,” Liliana told him, her voice cheerful enough that it made Kallist very seriously consider hitting her over the head with the first loose brick he could find.
    He glared at her instead. “Maybe if you’d take one of these packs for me, I’d be a tad less