Free Book 02 - Bitter Gold Hearts by Glen Cook Page A

between hangings into a hallway
for regular people with real blue blood in their veins.
“Nobody around. Hurry.” She dashed.
    I trotted along behind dutifully, appreciating the view.
I’ve never understood those cultures where they make the
women walk three paces behind the man. Or maybe I do. There are
more of them around arranged like Willa Dount than there are like
Amber.
    She swept me through a doorway into an empty room and rolled
right around with her arms reaching. I caught her by the waist.
“Tricked me, eh?”
    “No. He’ll be here in a minute. He has to get away.
Meantime, you know the old saying.”
    “I live with a dead Loghyr. I hear a lot of old sayings,
some of them so hoary the hills blush with embarrassment at his
flair for cliché. Which old saying did you have in
mind?”
    “The one about all work and no play makes Garrett a dull
boy.”
    I should have guessed.
    She was determined to wear me down. And she was getting the job
done.
    Whump!
The edge of the door got me as I was bending
forward, contemplating yielding to temptation.
    The story of my life.
    I let my momentum carry me several steps out of orbit around
Amber. She laughed.
    Karl came into the room spouting apologies and turning red. He
might have gone into a hand-wringing act if he had not had them
loaded.
    “I smell brew,” I said. “The elixir of the
gods.”
    “I recalled you were drinking beer in that place the other
day. I thought it would be only courteous to provide refreshments,
and so I . . . ”
    A chatterer.
    I was amazed. Not only had he managed to come up with an idea of
his own, he had managed to carry it out by himself, without so much
as a servant to lug the tray. Maybe he did have a little of his
grandfather in him after all. A thimbleful, or so.
    He presented me with a capacious mug. I went to work on it. He
nibbled the foam on a smaller one, just to show me what a
democratic fellow he was. “Why did you want to talk to me,
Mr. Garrett? I couldn’t make much sense out of what Amber
told me.”
    “I want to satisfy my professional curiosity. Your
kidnapping was the most unusual one I’ve ever encountered.
For my own benefit I want to study its ins and outs in case I ever
get into a similar situation. The success of the kidnappers might
encourage somebody to pull the same stunt again.”
    Karl looked very uncomfortable. He planted himself on a chair
and gripped his mug in both hands. He pressed it into his lap in
hopes of steadying it so I wouldn’t notice it was shaking. I
let him think he had me fooled.
    “But what can I tell you that would be of any use, Mr.
Garrett?”
    “Everything. From the beginning. Where and how they laid
hands on you. All the way through to the end. Where and how they
turned you loose. I’ll try not to interrupt unless you lose
me. All right?” I took a long swig. “Good
stuff.”
    Karl bobbed his head. He took a swig of his own. Amber sidled to
the tray and discovered that Karl had brought wine, too, though he
hadn’t bothered to offer her any.
    Junior said, “It started five or six nights ago. Right,
Amber?”
    “Don’t look at me. I still wouldn’t know about
it if I didn’t eavesdrop.”
    “Six nights ago, I guess. I spent the evening with a
friend.” He thought about it before telling me, “At a
place called Half the Moon.”
    “That’s a house of ill repute,” Amber said, in
case I didn’t know.
    “I’ve heard of it. Go on. They got you
there?”
    “As I was leaving. Going out the back way so nobody would
see me.”
    That didn’t sound like the behavior of the hell-raiser he
was supposed to be. “Why the sneak? I thought that
wasn’t your style.”
    “So Domina wouldn’t hear about it. I was supposed to
be out working.”
    That puzzled me. “The word is that she has everyone on a
tight leash while your mother is in the Cantard. Yet you two seem
to come and go when you want.”
    “Not when we want,” Amber said. “When we can.
Courter and Domina