Michelle West - Sun Sword 06 - The Sun Sword Read Online Free

business."
    "Will you take late dinner, then?"
    She nodded, twisting the heavy gold ring that bound her finger.
    Averalaan Aramarelas
had become her home. She had never expected it
to happen, even when she had been given the House name. The buildings and the
gates that girded the manse were so fine, so sparse, and so damn
clean
,
it had taken her years to get used to their forbidding appearance. They had a
character that the cramped tenements of the twenty-fifth holding could never
even aspire to; they spoke of money, of power, of the certainty of both.
    And the streets were wide enough that it had taken some time to become
accustomed to the feeling of exposure they gave her; no four-story shadows here,
no garbage, no beggars hiding their crippled limbs—or worse, their whole
ones—beneath tattered cloth and blankets. No drunks, no would-be bards singing
off-key and playing battered instruments, no merchants on the side roads,
avoiding the taxes that came with respectability.
    And no thieves, no obvious ones at least, dogging their every step. Most of
the thieves of her acquaintance couldn't afford the tolls across the bridges
that led to the Isle.
    She stopped, examining the bridge from the wrong side. Or rather, from the
right one.
    "ATerafin?" Gregori said sharply.
    Started again. "Sorry," she murmured. "Sometimes it's hard to remember where
I am."
    His dark brow rose, but he did not speak. Which was just as well. Since Devon
had introduced them, she had called upon his services for every meeting of
import in the House, and those were without number: Elonne invited her for
dinner—early dinner—at least twice a week; she lunched with Rymark on Selday;
she took drinks—carefully—with Haerrad; she visited Marrick at whatever time she
could.
    The last was a bit of a danger. He was charming in a way that appealed to
Finch, and she struggled to remember that he was a threat every time she crossed
his threshold. Had to struggle; he was so friendly, his speech so common, that
she could almost treat him as an equal.
    And he wasn't; he was far and above her. He had been born to Tremblant, a
noble House that was just shy of The Ten in wealth, and although he had
disavowed his kin—as all members of Terafin must who chose to take her name—he
met with them frequently. The only glance he might have given her, had he met
her in any other circumstance, would have been one of justifiably cold
suspicion.
    She shook her head to clear it.
    "Come on," she said quietly.
    The guards along the bridge were Kings' men. They bore the rod and the swords
across a gray background, and they numbered four. Although their shifts were
long, they somehow managed to avoid the look of boredom she was certain made up
the whole of their day. She did not pay them their toll; she lifted the signet
ring and they nodded her through, pausing a moment to note the number of her
party. Terafin would receive a bill for it sometime, and someone else would have
the trouble of accounting for it.
    The bridge itself was wide, and like the Isle, clean and empty. She paused a
moment, steadying herself upon stone rails. The wind blew sea salt across her
lips, her cheeks, her hair; she felt its sting and smiled. The sun was high; the
day itself was bright. She took a deep, deep breath, held it, and then shook
herself.
    Gregori ATerafin said nothing; Carver pretended to snore. She really
really
had to do something about him, one of these days.
    But not this one; she kicked him as she passed by and he laughed. The guards
on the other side of the bridge bowed as she lifted her ring again. One of them
smiled broadly; she recognized his face because he'd held his post for years.
She'd never asked his name, although she knew the name of his wife and his four
children. She would have asked after them on another day, and his smile dimmed
slightly as she closed her lips on the words.
    But the look that he offered was one of concern,