Read Book 3 - All Darkness Met for Free Online

in silver. The things he could do for Ethrian and Nepanthe....
    Ragnarson deposited the second coin atop the first, dropping his eye to table level while aligning their rims. He produced another.
    M ocker changed subtly. Bragi sensed it. He stacked the third coin, folded his arms.
    "Woe!" Mocker cried suddenly, startling the group. "Am poor old fat cretin of pusillanimity world-renowned, weak of head and muscle. Self, ask nothings. Only to be left alone, to live out few remaining years with devoted wife, in peace, raising son."
    "I saw the place where you're keeping my sister," Turran observed, perhaps more harshly than intended.
    Bragi waved a hand admonishingly.
    "Hai! Self, am not..."
    "Like the old joke," said Bragi. "We know what you are. We're dickering price."
    Mocker stared at the three gold coins. He looked round the room. Heads pointed his way like those of hounds eager to be loosed.
    He didn't like it. Not one whit. But gold! So much gold. What he could do for his wife and son....
    He had aged, he had mellowed, he had grown concerned with security. Having to care for others can do that to a man.
    He raised his left hand, jerkily, started to speak. He looked round again. So many narrowed eyes. Some he didn't know. He had things to say to Bragi, but not here, not now, not before an audience.
    "Define task," he ordered. "Not that poor old fat mendicant, on brink of old age, near crippled, agrees to undertake same. Only purpose being to listen to same, same being reasonable request to allow before telling man to put same where moon don't glow."
    "Simple. Just visit Haroun. Find out what he's up to. Bring me the news."
    Mocker laughed his most sarcastic laugh. "Self, am famous dullard, admitted. Of brightness next to which cheapest tallow candle is like sun to dark of moon. Forget to come in from rain sometimes, maybeso. But am alive. See? Wound here, here, everywhere, from listening to friends in time past. But am favored of Gods. Was born under lucky star. Haven't passed yet. Also, am aware of ways men speak. Simple, says old friend? Then task is bloody perilous...."
    "Not so!" Ragnarson protested. "In fact, if I knew where Haroun was, I'd go myself. But you know him. He's here, he's there, and the rumors are always wrong. He might be at the other end of the world. I can't take the time."
    "Crippled. Excuse limps like sixty-year-old arthritic."
    Actually, it was unvarnished truth. And Mocker knew it. He rose. "Has been enjoyable matching wits with old half-wit friend. Father of self, longtime passing, said, 'Never fight unarmed man.' Must go. Peace." He did an amusing imitation of a priest giving a blessing.
    The inner door guard might have been deaf and blind. Or a path-blocking statue.
    "So! Now am prisoner. Woe! Heart of heart of fool, self, told same stay away from palaces, same being dens of iniquitous...."
    "Mocker, Mocker," said Bragi. "Come. Sit. I'm not as young as I used to be. I don't have the patience anymore. You think we could dispense with this bullshit and get down to cases?"
    Mocker came and sat, but his expression said he was being pushed, that he was about to get stubborn. No force in Heaven or Hell could nudge a stubborn Mocker.
    Ragnarson understood his reluctance. Nepanthe was abso-lutely dead set against allowing her husband to get involved in anything resembling an adventure. Hers was an extremely dependent personality. She couldn't endure separations.
    "Turran, could you convince Nepanthe?"
    "I'll do it," Valther said. He and Nepanthe had always been close. "She'll listen to me. But she won't like it."
    Mocker grew agitated. His domestic problems were being aired....
    Bragi began massaging his own face. He wasn't getting enough sleep. The demands of his several posts were getting to him. He considered resigning as publican consul. The position made limited demands, yet did consume time he could use being Marshall and virtual king-surrogate.
    "Why don't you list your objections-take them down,