An Assassin's Blade: The Complete Trilogy by DePaoli Justin

Author:DePaoli, Justin [DePaoli, Justin]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Conduit Books
Published: 2016-11-29T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

“To clarify,” I said, hand going numb from holding my sword so tight, “they’re not alive?”

“Only vessels,” Rovid said. He blew a puff of air through his nostrils, like a scholar upon making a new discovery. “I’ve never seen them like this. Fresh, I mean. We could trade these for a wagon and mule and a horse. As long as we can get to a village within a couple days. Else they’ll rot, outside the preserves.”

“Any villages left around here that you fuckers haven’t culled?” I asked.

“Plenty. There’s one north of here, a day and a half away. But we can’t carry them that far. They’re heavy.”

Lysa scooped her finger through the goo. She made a face. “It’s cold. And it smells like… something not very nice. Hmm, what about a wheelbarrow?”

“You must protect them from the elements,” Rovid said. “Or they’ll rot.”

I sheathed my blade. “We don’t have the luxury of choosing. Wheelbarrow sounds like a dandy idea. We’ll have to make one from spare wood lying around. Get some sleep. We’ll get to it in the morning.”

I turned to leave, but Rovid put himself between me and the doorway. “They’ll know we’re not one of them. If we show up with rotted corpses, nothing to trade, no goodwill… they’ll attack us. And kill us.”

“Lovely sounding,” I said. “Find me a goddamn wagon with a pristine canvas, then. Otherwise, we’re building a wheelbarrow and hoping for no rain.

I tried to leave again, and this time a thin finger stabbed me in the chest. “You don’t get to make all the decisions.”

“Oh, I bloody well do.”

“On whose authority?”

I pushed my face closer, the tip of my nose wrinkling his. “My own.”

I heard his teeth grinding. “I know Amortis better than you. You’re fucking blind here without me.”

“All well and good, but I know how to survive better than you. I know how to avoid messy predicaments better than you.” I looked deep into those inky eyes of his, making my point understood. “And if you fancy yourself a democracy, take note the vote is two-to-one in favor of the wheelbarrow. They teach you how to count in reaper school?”

He huffed himself up real big. “You might have spared my life, but you don’t own me.”

The knuckles around the hilt of his sword were white. “It’s time to return that,” I said, glancing at the blade.

Silence thickened in the air like a rising loaf of bread. In fact, you could have cut it like a loaf of bread. Perhaps that was why the edge of my own blade sheared its leather casing, glimpsing freedom.

“Stop it!” Lysa cried, shoving herself between Rovid and me. “You’re acting like imbeciles because you’re tired. We can decide in the morning if we will use a wagon or wheelbarrow. Just stop arguing.”

I snapped my fingers. “The sword.”

“Astul,” Lysa said, her head falling to the side, as if I was being wholly unreasonable.

I snapped my fingers again, unwilling to budge on this issue.

Rovid dropped the blade. “Take your fucking sword,” he said, walking out of the room.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.