Read No Quarter for Free Online

that the bards and healers both watch him closely."
    Liene snorted, remembering. Neither bard had been able to suggest how they were supposed to watch a man reduced to kigh and sharing a body with another.
    As the young woman drew nearer, it became more and more difficult to be aware of anything but the two kigh she carried.
    A good thing I came myself , the captain mused. A younger bard might lose the larger picture in the smaller. Might find a pair of kigh completely overwhelming .
    Bardic Captain for twenty-nine of her sixty-eight years, Liene considered herself long past the possibility of being overwhelmed by anything. She held out her fist as the ex-assassin stopped an arm's length away. "Liene. Bardic Captain."
    *Touch the bottom of your fist to the top of hers and tell her your name.*
    *She knows my name,* Vree protested, shifting her weight forward onto the balls of her feet.
    *It's the way they introduce themselves in Shkoder. Just do it.*
    He was definitely nervous. Under the circumstances, Vree decided to do as he suggested and ignore the tone he suggested it in. "Vireyda Magaly. But I am always Vree."
    "Vree." Liene nodded. She'd noted the signs of a silent conversation and, abruptly, decided to acknowledge the situation. Ignoring it wouldn't make it go away. More's the pity . "And your companion?"
    Vree started and glanced around. No one in the surrounding crowd of buyers, sellers, sailors, and city folk seemed to paying them any attention. "Uh, Gyhard i'Stevana."
    *Maybe I didn't want them to know.*
    *You think Karlene or Gabris hasn't already told her? She's their captain.*
    *It isn't a military organization, Vree.*
    *Then why are they using military rank?*
    *She's like the captain of a ship.*
    *Then she's still the person in charge and they'd still have told her.*
    "Is Gyhard not able to speak for himself?"
    "No." When Liene's eyebrows rose, Vree found herself elaborating. "Not without I give him control of my body."
    The captain half smiled. "Unless. Not unless you give him control of your body.
    Which, as I understand it, is probably not a good idea."
    As she didn't seem to expect a response, Vree waited.
    "Is that all you brought with you?" Liene used her cane to point at Vree's pack.
    "Yes."
    "Good." She half-turned and, still using the cane, pointed to a cluster of stone buildings just visible above the slate roofs of the city. "That's the Citadel, there on the top of that hill. That's where we'll be walking to." The last phrase emerged like a challenge and when the expected protest wasn't voiced, the Bardic Captain shook her head in disgust at her own defensiveness. "Most of the bards and some of the healers seem to think I can't walk across a room anymore, let alone halfway across the city," she snorted as Vree fell into step beside her. "My joints stiffen up in the damp, especially my hips and knees, but I've walked across this whole country in my time and I won't be coddled."
    *Am I supposed to say something?* Vree asked, a little confused.

    *I don't think so.*
    "Kovar thought he should be the one to come to the harbor to meet you." Her cane hit the damp cobblestones of Upper Dock Street with unnecessary force and a young man pulling a wheeled dolly loaded with bales of raw cotton moved hastily out of her way. "I had to remind him that I remain Bardic Captain until Third Quarter Festival and he can just live with it."
    *What is it about you and old ladies?* Gyhard wondered as they followed the captain around the edge of the Dock Market, the roar of buying and selling making audible conversation impossible. *All of a sudden, you seem to be attracting them.
    First in Pitesti and now here.*
    *Maybe it's something Bannon left behind. He was always the one getting pinched and patted.*
    *Probably enjoyed it, too.* He watched through Vree's eyes as Liene exchanged noisy greetings with half a dozen people, questioned the price of a pound of jasmine tea, and arranged for it to be delivered to the Bardic Hall