Read Ravens Shadow 02 - Tower Lord for Free Online Page B

one wreathed in flame. “They were Deniers.”
    She shrugged and returned to her breakfast.
    “The bodies,” Al Sorna said.
    “Weighted and dumped in the river.”
    “Very efficient of you.”
    She looked up at the hardness in his tone, seeing something in his gaze that gave new fire to her anger. Disappointment. “I am not here because I choose to be, Darkblade,” she told him. “I am here for the sword of the Trueblade so that I might earn the love of the Father by bringing down your unholy Realm. I am not your friend, your sister or your pupil. And I do not care one whit for your approval.”
    Janril Norin coughed, breaking the thick silence that reigned in the aftermath of her words. “Best be looking for the guard captain, my lord. If this is to be done today.”
    “That won’t be necessary, Janril.” Al Sorna tossed the ring back to Reva. “Keep it, you earned it.”

C HAPTER T WO
Frentis

    T he shaven-headed man coughed blood onto the sand and died with a faint whimper. Frentis dropped his sword next to the body and waited, still and silent but for the harsh rasp of his breathing. This one had been harder than usual, four enemies instead of the usual two or three. Slaves scurried from the dark alcoves in the pit wall to clean up the mess, dragging the bodies away and retrieving his sword. They kept their distance from Frentis. Sometimes the killing rage the overseer instilled in him took a while to fade.
    “Remarkable,” said a voice from above. There were three spectators today, the overseer joined by the master and a woman Frentis hadn’t seen before. “Hard to believe he’s actually improved, Vastir,” the master went on. “My compliments.”
    “My only thought is to serve you, Council-man,” the overseer said with just the right amount of fawning servility. He was a diligent fellow and never overplayed his part.
    “Well?” the master said to the woman at his side. “Does he meet with our Ally’s approval?”
    “I don’t speak for the Ally,” the woman said. Her tone, Frentis noted, was free of anything that might be described as servility, or even respect. “Whether he meets with
my
approval, however.”
    Bound as he was Frentis could not outwardly express surprise, or any other emotion not permitted him by the overseer, but he did twitch in astonishment as the woman leapt into the pit, landing from the ten-foot drop with practised ease. She was dressed in the formal robes of a Volarian highborn, dark hair was tied back from a face of feline beauty with eyes that gleamed bright with interest as she examined Frentis’s naked form from head to toe. “Prettier than I expected,” she murmured. She looked up at the overseer, raising her voice. “Why is his face unscarred?”
    “He never gets any scars, Honoured Lady,” Vastir called back. “A few have come close over the years, but he was already highly skilled when he came to us.”
    “Highly skilled were you, pretty one?” the woman asked Frentis, then grimaced in annoyance when he didn’t respond. “Let him speak,” she called to the overseer.
    Vastir glanced over the edge of the pit at Frentis, and he felt the slight loosening of the will that bound him. “Well?” the woman demanded.
    “I am a brother of the Sixth Order,” he said.
    She raised an eyebrow at the lack of an honorific.
    “My profound apologies, Honoured Lady,” Vastir gushed. “However many punishments we administer he refuses to use correct language, and we were cautioned that the only death he should face would be in the pits.”
    The woman waved a hand in dismissal. “Swords!” she commanded.
    There was a moment’s confusion above, a whispered discussion between master and overseer from which Frentis discerned the words, “just do it, Vastir!” Another brief delay then two short swords were tossed into the pit, landing in the sand between Frentis and the woman.
    “Well then,” she said in a brisk tone, shrugging off her robes to stand as naked