The Raike Box Set by Jackson Lear

Author:Jackson Lear [Lear, Jackson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jackson Lear
Published: 2020-03-30T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Five

Zara and I made our way back towards Lavarta’s place, my head buzzing with Beriss’ arrest and Zara’s betrayal. “How do you know the assassin?”

Silence hung in the air for a hundred yards.

“Answer now or Alysia will be asking you the same thing in just a few minutes.”

Zara spied me carefully. “You’re going to tell her anyway.”

“Then now is a fine time to practice your story. Work out some of the kinks and problem areas. As long as you can convince yourself that what you say is the truth then you can convince anyone.”

“That’s not true.”

“I know. People say all the time that they didn’t have a choice when, in fact, they had plenty of easy choices that they didn’t like. I’m assuming you had similar easy choices to deal with.”

She kept her hand on her belt. I kept mine on my blade. “You’ve been given a second chance at life, haven’t you?”

“Something like that.”

“And you have regrets?”

“Some.”

“Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night thinking of the sword that is hanging over your head, not knowing exactly when it will drop or who will release it?”

“I sleep pretty well, actually. How do you the know Krassis?”

Zara released her grip on her belt. “I think I know why Artavian was killed.”

I remained silent. There was little chance that she misheard my question and I was quietly confident that she was trying to lead the conversation along another path, but I was also trying to find out why this mess was happening in the first place.

“How many heads does a snake have?”

I stared back at her, my patience wearing thin.

“In this case it’s two. Gustali and Caton. General Kasera and his father. Lieutenant Gustali and Sergeant Muro. Commander Lavarta and Artavian.”

“You think your boss is a snake?”

“No, but Caton does. If you were to hit a rival company, who would you want to take out first? The boss and his right hand man, right?”

“I suppose.”

“Caton handles the governor’s indiscretions. He pays people off, he bumps them off, he does whatever he can to keep his boss happy. That’s what every right hand man does, yes?”

I nodded.

“So if he has to kill Commander Lavarta he would also have to kill Artavian, because Artavian would certainly know everything that the commander knew about Lieutenant Gustali, maybe even more so because Artavian grew up in Torne.”

“Uh-huh. How do you know Krassis?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Then I’ll bring it up with Alysia and Lavarta.”

She remained silent, her hand shaking ever so slightly towards her belt.

“Whatever Krassis has on you must be good. Willing to jeopardize Lavarta’s life like this … I daresay your life would be forfeit if everyone knew what you were guilty of.”

“You can daresay as much as you like. The people you know in this city have stuck their necks out to help you. Me included. I’ll tell you when I’m good and ready, otherwise the next time you see Alysia it will be on your way to the gallows back in Erast with the city watch there to witness your death.

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.