Holmberg, D K - The Binders Game 03 - Playing the Stone by Holmberg D K

Author:Holmberg, D K [Holmberg, D K]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ASH Publishing
Published: 2016-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

“Why have you come to me again, Galen?” Orly asked.

I had debated coming to him, hating to involve him any more than needed. Any time that I pulled Orly into what I did, the tighter he pulled me back. Perhaps that was his intent. If it were up to him, I would work solely for him, but thankfully the money that Carth had provided meant that I was in no rush to take another job.

The problem was that I was still in the midst of the last job Orly had hired me to complete. I still didn’t intend to complete it, but then I think Orly knew that.

“A friend of mine was abducted last night,” I said.

Orly sat back in his chair, puffing on a long pipe. The bitter smoke filled my nose, drifting around the tavern and creating a haze around him. He had lit the pipe the moment I entered, I suspect thinking to counter my Sight. And it did, to an extent, but there were other ways my Sight benefited me.

Two men stood behind him, the same as the last time. I didn’t doubt that both would be quick with their sword, or that Orly might have others in the tavern I hadn’t identified.

“And you think this matters to me?”

It didn’t, not in the way that it mattered to me. I hadn’t bothered trying to find Carth again, knowing that if she didn’t want to be found, she would not be. Once she left me on her ship, she had decided that she would not be available to me.

Somehow, I had to learn about the Hjan on my own. In Eban, I had plenty of contacts, but they were for information about the kinds of people I could find in the city, not about men able to counter one of the most capable people I had ever met.

But Orly had his own sources of information, and what I had experienced would have value to him, if only I could find a way to use it.

“I think it matters that others were killed to make sure it happened.” The stink of the tavern told me that there had been more than what I’d seen, much as the dried blood on the lutist indicated the same.

“Strange things happen on Landing Festival,” Orly commented.

“That’s all you have to say?” I asked. “Do you no longer control what happens throughout this part of the city?”

I decided to play to his ego, and his sense of power. With Orly, that was a safe bet.

Orly breathed out a trail of smoke and tipped his head toward someone I couldn’t see clearly. I think he did it mostly to bother me, but he couldn’t really know how little I could see from where I sat. “Tell me, Galen, have you decided that you’re going to finish the job I asked of you?”

The question caught me off guard. “I thought I made it clear what my answer to that question was,” I said.

Orly inhaled, the air clearing slightly.

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