Read Far Called Trilogy 01 - In Dark Service for Free Online Page A

Carnehan. That’s kind of you, but I’ll pass. If you walk through Northhaven, maybe you can show my father. He’s a great one for watching the sky at night.’
    Sariel ran a hand through the hedge of wiry white hair above his wrinkled forehead. ‘The stars undoubtedly whisper to him, too. He must be trying to hear the heavenly orbs better.’
    Carter led the tramp through the most indirect route he could think of to avoid the other librarians. The Ledger of Salt and Roof was really intended for wandering monks, maybe merchants who had fallen on hard times and were reaching the end of their supplies as they passed the guild’s hold. It wasn’t meant for any lazy rascal who fancied a free supper at the guild’s expense, but here was Carter, using his ‘discretion’ in a way guaranteed to rile the Master Codex when he asked how Carter had dealt with the tramp. I guess I just like making mischief. Carter avoided the hold’s refectory, seating the tramp at a reading table in the corner of the nearest map room, leaving him there while he slipped into the kitchens – liberating a jug of water, flat bread, cold ham, cheese and a bowl of rice along with a glass vessel filled with soy sauce. It wasn’t the hearty stew the hobo had hinted at, but the librarians preferred rations as plain and bland as their lives. Balancing the food on a wooden tray, Carter carried it back to the map room.
    As Carter slipped through the doorway, he found Sariel leaning over one of the map tables, swaying from side to side and banging his temple with his left hand. ‘It’s so big, so large, so much of it. I remember the size now, how could I ever have forgotten? I’m no better than a fobbing, evil-eyed horn-beast.’
    Carter felt a twinge of nerves. Just how unbalanced was his unpredictable guest? Carter hadn’t swept him for matches or a flintbox, either, before allowing him inside the hold. Carter’s apprenticeship might be miserable, but he didn’t want to end his tenure with the first fire in the library’s recorded history. ‘I’ve got your meal here, old fellow. Sit down.’
    ‘I apologise. I suffer headaches sometimes. So many stories cluttered inside my mind, plotting and planning with each other. Which nation does your castle lie in, Lord Carnehan?’
    ‘Come south over the mountains, have you? Through Rodal? This country is Weyland, old fellow. We’re part of the Lanca, just like Rodal. You understand? Part of the Lancean League? You will be walking for a couple of decades before you’re free of the league. Every country south of here and a few more out to the east, all part of the Lanca, all as quiet and peaceful as a church social in the meadows with the picnic blankets laid out.’
    ‘No, I don’t think I recall mountains. Sea, there was a significant surfeit of sea. Waves as big as mountains crashing down on top of us… of those there were plenty.’
    ‘Worked passage on a vessel, did you? Shipped in from the west? Know how to rig a schooner as well as spin a yarn?’
    ‘A schooner? Twenty-five sails hung across seven proud masts,’ said Sariel, tugging his silver beard as if he could wring information out of the hair. ‘No, of course not, don’t be ridiculous. I crossed the ocean on a pod of whales, borne by the noblest of those great mammals of the sea, the Prince of Baleens. He was grieving for the loss of his favourite cow, what we would call his wife. He sang only songs of sorrow for the entire journey. So many tears shed, my lord, sometimes it was hard to know where the tears ended and the ocean began. I’m not embarrassed to say I wept for his loss.’
    Whatever sense of sadness Sariel felt, it didn’t seem to make much difference to the old beggar’s ability to work his way through the pile of food Carter had delivered. His gnarled old fingers tore into the bread, using the knife Carter had fetched to hack at the cheese and ham. Then he emptied half the soy sauce over the cold rice, letting it