Asunder: A Gathering of Chaos by Cameron Hopkin (children's ebooks free online .txt) 📕

amenable to a forced relocation, especially since joining you would mean a severe reduction in his quality of life and a sharp increase in danger. He would fight you, and he cannot be fought. Forgiveness, but the risk is too great and the likelihood of success too low.”

“Must I appeal to your sense of honor, then? I have given you my money, and you say you will not return it. I thought the people of the sky above such low-handedness.” Renna thought she could hear a note of desperation in Gamarron’s voice.

“Good sir, you know less than nothing about the honor of my people. As to your funds, I am perfectly willing to flesh out and implement your previous plan to infiltrate the Naga stronghold and take their Chaos Shard, which, if my sources are correct, holds a degree of the same power at a smaller risk. This other idea is beyond foolish – and your sudden change of mind makes me uncomfortable. I thought you to be a man of steady disposition. I believe this conversation has reached its end.”

The fellow was going to call his guards, and Gamarron would either be thrown out or have to fight. Renna had to make a decision. If I help him now, he’ll be further indebted to me. The path of the counselor is to be so indispensable that the powerful one turns to her without a second thought – then she is the one with the power. If Gamarron needed the chaos wielder, then she had to make that happen, but this deal was about to fall apart. Thinking quickly, she touched the bare boards of the ceiling beneath her. They parted at her touch, and more light flooded into the crawlspace. Squinting, she launched herself at the nearest crossbeam and let her momentum swing her body down into the room.

“Hold,” she cried as she hit the floor. She landed between the window and the thief, who was seated at an ornate desk with his back to her. Gamarron was on his feet on the far side of the desk, facing her. She was gratified to see a look of confusion on his face as she regained her feet. Her knees ached fiercely from the shock of the fall, but she refused to let it show.

She opened her mouth to speak before she even knew what she was going to say – and then there was a flurry of motion on both sides of the desk too fast for her to follow, a breathy pfft, and a strangled grunt, all overrunning each other as she gathered her thoughts.

The first thing she saw clearly was the pale, sallow-skinned Sky City man facing her, leaning back on his desk, a small shard-spitter in his hand. His long, drooping moustaches and narrow chin beard shook as his face went slack with shock. The source of that shock stood directly to Renna’s left: Gamarron, stock still, looking for all the world like a statue that had been carved in that spot at the beginning of time. She had no idea how he had arrived there. She hadn’t seen him move. Glancing down, she saw a wickedly barbed crystal sliver clenched in his fist. It was no more than five centimeters from her bare stomach.

“Good evening, Mistress,” he said calmly. “Your visit is unexpected.”

Master Kojan did not need to reload his spore-powered weapon – another crystal point emerged from its wooden barrel automatically. She itched to know how the mechanism worked, but the sky folk kept their secrets to themselves. This time the mustachioed man aimed the jagged point of the shard-thrower at Gamarron’s face.

“I am hesitant to kill a client,” the thief said through clenched teeth. He was quite short – the top of his head barely reached Renna’s shoulder. “Explain yourself quickly, or I will live with the regret.”

“Be calm, Kojan,” breathed Gamarron, handing the crystal quarrel back to the little man. He accepted it warily without losing his bead on the taller man’s face. “This is Mistress Renna, a Hand of Gaia. Her order and rank escape me at the moment; forgive me. She is known to me and has been of great assistance. As to her arrival –”

Renna knew her cue when she heard it. Time to earn my keep, she thought, sending out a silent prayer to Gaia for a quick wit and smooth tongue. “I am Lord Gamarron’s advisor. It is my job to make sure that he gets what he needs and his plans succeed.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the king of the savages turn his head to regard her with a carefully neutral gaze. She was gratified to see that he was wise enough not to contradict her lies immediately. “Forgive me for remaining hidden and for startling you. I assure you that all damage will be erased as if it never occurred.” She gestured to the hole in the ceiling. “I can work my will on the wood with little effort.”

The mustachioed thief gave the hole a baleful glance which then shifted down to her. “I am a private man, and I do not tolerate intrusions. Were it not for the exceptional skill of your master, you would be dead already, and rightfully so.”

“I will not deny it, Master Thief,” she said smoothly. “Were our need not so urgent, I never would have dared. But I could not allow my lord Gamarron to leave without your aid. I had to speak.”

The little man flipped his hand at her irritably, and she felt her temper flare. Easy, easy. Now is not the time to bring him to heel. “What a pointless endeavor. You heard me tell him no – why would I say any different to his lackey?”

“I believe that taking the chaos wielder is less of a hopeless task than you say, good master,” she purred. “It might be beyond others, but not the great thief Kojan. Even in our great halls