Dragon Age: Hard in Hightown by Varric Tethras

Author:Varric Tethras [Tethras, Varric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Fiction, 2018
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

The docks stank of piss and rotting fish, almost as foul as the men and women who worked there. Dock hands scurried back and forth between the ships and the cavernous warehouses that ringed the quays, only pausing when they were sure they were out of sight of the harbormaster.

Donnen sheathed his sword and gave chase, but lost his footing at the alley exit and almost landed face-first on the flagstones. Credit 12

A dozen ships sat at anchor, their masts adorned with the flags of Antiva, Orlais, Rivain, a handful of rival Marcher states, the Merchants’ Guild…and one blinded skull.

The Dragon’s Jewels was a big boat. The largest in the harbor. Belladonna liked big boats and was more than brazen enough to fly her Felicissima Armada flag openly in the harbor. Even without the raider flag, Donnen would have known it was her ship. A carved figurehead of a woman painted in vivid colors and making a remarkably lewd gesture drew the eye past all the more sedate merchant vessels. The pointy bits towered majestically over the water. That roundish wooden part seemed like it could crush armadas beneath its…shit, I don’t know, wood. It was the greatest boat in the history of boats.

But even from the dock, Donnen knew something was wrong.

Not a soul was visible from the harbor. No one on watch, no one swabbing the deck, no one pretending to mind the rigging while shouting insults at the workmen below. In the overcast gloom, with the first fingers of fog rolling in off the Waking Sea, the Dragon’s Jewels was a ghost ship.

Donnen ran up the gangplank to find a dead sailor on the deck and a bloody trail of footprints leading down into the hold. Donnen drew his sword and followed. His eyes still hadn’t adjusted to the darkness of the lower decks when he tripped over a second dead sailor, stabbed in the gut and left where he’d fallen. The body was still warm. The ship creaked with every swell of the waves, but there was no sound of footsteps or voices within. Donnen took a deep breath and crept deeper into the hold.

Waves lapped against the hull. The ship swayed gently on the water. Donnen edged through the dark, cramped hold, feeling his way along the ropes that secured the cargo. The wooden crates smelled of warm straw and freshly spilled blood, with a hint of Rivaini spices. It was silent, except for the waves and the sound of his own breathing.

He barely deflected the blade in time.

Steel rang against steel. Donnen parried a second blow, still half-blind in the dimness and pinned by the cargo. His sword banged into the deck beam above his head. He pulled it loose too late, and a third swing got past his guard and left a wicked slash in his forearm.

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.