Murder in Corvis by Richard Lee Byers

Author:Richard Lee Byers
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Skull Island eXpeditions
Published: 2014-09-24T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

Milo

The stack of crowns in front of Milo was growing, and he wished he could stop playing before the inevitable decline began. He’d never had a taste for gambling and didn’t see how anyone with a brain could enjoy subjecting himself to the whims of simple chance. He preferred the surprises that occurred in the laboratory—at least they revealed the secrets of natural law.

Two tables over, it looked like Gardek was losing. Judging from his grin, however, his run of bad luck hadn’t diminished his zest for the game. The trollkin’s enjoyment was difficult to understand given that he manifestly did have a brain.

In fact, Gardek was all right. So were Eilish and Colbie. For a moment, Milo smiled at the memory of what they’d done in the Backbreakers’ lair. It had been pure insanity, but they’d come through it alive. Unmasking and capturing Natak Warbiter should prove easy by comparison.

Or at least it should if Natak would only cooperate.

Milo and his partners had kept the ogrun under surveillance for three days, and Natak had perversely refused to take up a distinctive hook-shaped blade, disguise himself in a malodorous cloak and hood, and venture forth to find a victim. In fact, he hadn’t left the Braggart’s Smile for the past two days, eating and sleeping in what amounted to a Patient Weavers’ stronghold.

By Milo’s reckoning, however, that wrinkle in their plans shouldn’t prevent them from collecting the reward. With some scheming, it should be possible to sneak some poison into Natak’s food or drink. He’d die, Milo and his partners would inform Kurgan they’d dispatched the murderer, and that would be that.

Gardek, Eilish, and Colbie objected to this sensible approach. Though convinced of Natak’s guilt, they had some inexplicable qualms about moving against him until they had secured some hard proof. So the four hunters watched and waited.

Across the room, a man cursed and stood up from his game of black argus.

Closer to hand, a buxom woman in a low-cut, clinging gown blew on another gambler’s dice, which he then sent clattering down the table. “High tide!” he crowed.

Milo’s inspected his new hand, which included a mix of blades, wheels, and skulls without any pairs or even high cards. He mucked as soon as it was his turn to bet.

Finally, Natak headed for the exit.

The ogrun was even taller and burlier than Gardek, with a nub of a nose and a slab of jaw beneath a broad mouth. Unlike the trollkin, he had black hair and bushy, upswept eyebrows; a brownish tone to his skin; and prominent, pointed ears. Somehow these features made him seem a bit more human despite his size.

They didn’t, however, make him any less intimidating to members of any of the other races currently patronizing the Braggart’s Smile. His size, the great axe dangling in his fist, and his perpetual sneer ensured that everyone—even his own kind and other Patient Weavers—scurried to clear a path for him across the crowded room.

However eager Milo was to follow him out the door, he knew he mustn’t be obvious about it.

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