Arrow on the String: Solomon Sorrows Book 1 by Dan Fish (no david read aloud TXT) 📕

Her voice was hard with command, her eyes said and that’s all you need to concern yourself with. Davrosh nodded and left. Jace held the door open, motioned for Sorrows to follow. As he approached, she put a hand on his chest, looked at his mouth, then found his eyes.

“One more thing,” she said. “You should know, it’s always been like this for me. Since the moment we first met.”

“Maybe the Archmage should assign someone else. Give you new orders.”

She pressed closer. “If it were only orders, I think it would be easier to resist. Don’t you?”

He nodded, said nothing, felt the pull of her body through the touch of her fingers. Knew she was right.

And knew he was in trouble.

Chapter 19

ORAY LOOKED LIKE he’d aged ten years since breakfast. Not a good look for an elf. Not a good sign for his meeting with the Archmage. Davrosh slumped, shoulders sagging, eyes dull. Defeated. Only Ga’Shel looked unaffected by whatever bad news had been shared. But his smug indifference was all elf. Expected. They were back in the room with the polished granite table and padded chairs. A decanter of wine was on the table, four goblets and a glass stopper resting beside it. An arm’s length of parchment lay next to Oray, covered in fine script. A list of names.

“They didn’t go for it,” Oray said.

“What do you mean, they didn’t go for it?” Sorrows asked. “Make them go for it.”

“We tried,” Davrosh said. “There are seventeen birthdays in the first week. We saw seventeen families today. One by one, they all but laughed us out of the room. Each family thinks it will be someone else.”

“They’re not wrong,” Sorrows said.

“Yeah, but they’re not right. It’s a gamble.”

“That’s one hell of a gamble,” Oray said.

Davrosh nodded. “It’s stupid. Our last family was the Gorshams. Ga’Shel suggested that I do Zvilna’s mask and then we stick around for the rest of the day to keep an eye on things.”

Sorrows looked at Ga’Shel. The elf shrugged. “I thought it was worth a shot. They took Remma up on the painting.”

“Right,” Davrosh said. “Then I suggested that Zvilna spend the night in the great room with us, her family, any close friends. I was told to piss off.”

Ga’Shel cleared his throat. “Not in those exact words.”

Sorrows reached for the parchment, pulled it across the table. He didn’t count, but it looked like there could be eighty-three names. Each had a date next to it. The list progressed from the closest birthday to the furthest away. Nisha Davrosh was near the middle. He tapped his finger on the name at the top of the list. Shealu Hallovel. Two weeks, five days away.

“What about number one?” he asked. “Are you doing her mask?”

“No,” Davrosh said.

Sorrows turned to Ga’Shel. “How about you? Are you applying magic or whatever it is you do?”

Ga’Shel shook his head. “Her family couldn’t afford either of us.”

“What about guards, Oray?” Sorrows asked.

“Two,” Oray said. “They’ll keep watch during the celebration, and when Shealu retires for the night, one stands guard outside her room, one is stationed within.”

“Make it three,” Sorrows said.

“I can’t. Two guards that day, six the next, four the day after. Eighty-three birthdays in one month. I don’t have the guards.”

“You’ve got one more now,” Sorrows said. “I’m in.”

Ga’Shel looked annoyed. Davrosh looked skeptical. Oray looked tired.

“Why help now?” Davrosh asked. “What changed?”

“I saw someone today who changed my mind,” Sorrows said.

“Who?”

Sorrows shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. All you need to know is I’ll help.”

“We don’t know who he’s going to target next,” Oray said. “He might wait, keep us guessing.”

“No way,” Sorrows said. “Not this guy. He’s smart. Smart enough to not leave clues. A guy like that is always looking ahead to the next target. Always thinking. Always planning. A month gets to be a long time. Makes him anxious. And he’s smart, he knows anxious makes him sloppy. So, he’ll choose an early target.”

“You’re grasping, Sorrows,” Oray said. “We don’t have motive. We don’t have means. And now you’re talking behavior like you know what the guy eats for breakfast.”

“If I’m wrong, seventeen daughters are alive at the end of the first week. If I’m right, and we don’t stop him, one of those seventeen will be dead. I might be grasping, but that’s what you do when you’re falling. You try like all hells to grab onto something.”

Oray stared at Sorrows, nodded slowly.

“Fine,” he said. “You can join the guards at Shealu’s Maiden Dance. Then what?”

“If she gets through the night, then I move on to number two on the list.”

“Numbers three and four are the same day. You can’t be three places at once.”

“Then you’ve got two weeks to find this guy or figure out how he’s choosing his targets. After that, it’s a game of chance.”

Davrosh leaned back, folded her arms across her chest. “It was a woman, wasn’t it?”

“What are you talking about?” Sorrows asked.

“The one who convinced you to stop being a split and get involved,” she said. “Maybe it was that goblin friend of yours. We know she’s in Hammerfell.”

I hope she still is, Sorrows thought. He said nothing.

“Maybe it was the Archmage’s guard,” she said “What’s her name again?”

Sorrows said nothing.

“Have those two met, I wonder?” Davrosh said. “I doubt it. But I’d like to be there when they do.”

“Your point?” Sorrows asked.

“It’s always a woman with you,” she said. “And I’m just wondering who she was this time.”

Sorrows leaned forward, jutted his chin at Davrosh.

“Maybe it was you, Davrosh,” he said. “You’re kind of growing on me.”

Oray sighed. Ga’Shel rolled his eyes. Davrosh gave a sharp laugh, grinned, and winked.

“Orchole.”

✽✽✽

DAVROSH WAS RIGHT. It had been a woman that convinced him. Two women, in fact. A mother and a daughter.

Sorrows lay in his bed. Alone. No sign of Mig. He stared at the ceiling and thought of Mishma’s body lying on a shelf in an unfinished corridor. Alone. The end of