Free The Tower of Fear by Glen Cook

wondered if the Witch wasgetting any sleep tonight. Probably. She thought she was like the citadelitself: above the dirt and turmoil of Qushmarrah.
    She might end up learning the hard way.
    He crested the hill, putting the harbor side behind him. Ahead lay the Hahr, the most prosperous quarter of the Old City. Behind lay the Shu, the poorestand most densely populated quarter, where sons had stacked homes beside andatop those of their fathers till half the quarter was like some enormous madmud daubers' nest where anyone who lived off the thoroughfares first had toclimb up to the sunlight and cross the rooftops in order to reach a street.
    The labyrinth underlay it all, sometimes open all the way to the sky, moreoften built over and now with old doorways sealed lest doom slip up by thatroute. The maze was so deadly that even the most desperate homeless seldomstole in for shelter. That territory belonged to the boldest of the bad boys.
    Azel had met people in there who made him nervous. Weird people. Crazy people.
    People you had to deal with harshly to get your message across. And some whojust could not learn.
    Azel had grown up in the Shu. At seven he had been orphaned and left homeless.
    He did not remember much about his parents except that his mother had criedall the time and his father had yelled almost as much and had beaten them alla lot. He had a notion that it might have been he who had set the fire thatconsumed them-except that he had an equally fuzzy recollection of his brothergiving the old man fifteen or twenty good ones to the head with a hammerbefore the fire.
    He hadn't seen his brother since.
    There was nothing he wanted to remember from those days, no little heirloom hecarried around and treasured.
    At fourteen he had gone to sea and had gotten to know most of the ports aroundthe rim of the sea. He had survived them all and most of them had survived him. At twenty-one he had returned to Qushmarrah.
    It had not been long before he had fallen in with the remnants of the Gorlochcult. Its grim philosophy appealed to him, though he took from it only whatsuited him and discarded the rest. He was not weak. He had no higher god thanhimself.
    Soon he caught the eye of the High Priest, Nakar. The sorcerer gave him oddjobs. He handled them swiftly, efficiently, no matter how difficult or cruel.
    In a moment of humor Nakar had begun calling him Azel after the demon whocarried Gorloch's messages to the living world. Azel the Destroyer.
    Never did he commit himself to the god or to the man. Not entirely. Azel couldnot give himself wholly to anyone but Azel.
    He had missed Dak-es-Souetta. He hadn't been trapped in any of the towers atHarak Pass. He hadn't participated in the rout on the Plain of Chordan nor hadhe been there for the hopeless defense of Qushmarrah after the pride of heryouth and manhood had been slaughtered or scattered, chaff driven by the hotbreath of Death.
    His absence did not shame him. It would not have shamed him had he done nothing for the city that had done nothing for him. He knew nothing aboutshame. But he had in fact been doing something. He had been in Agadar, westalong the coast, where the Herodian armies had landed. His few carefullystruck blows against Herodian commanders had-unfortunately, as it haddeveloped-delayed the invading armies the month necessary for Fa'tad al-Aklato gather his tribal warriors and race to Dak-es-Souetta.
    Thus do the Fates conspire.
    Azel paused across the street from the house that was his destination. Almostthe instant his feet stopped moving the door opened over there. Azel easedback into deeper shadow.
    Could it be?
    Of course not. The Fates neither loved him so well nor hated Sagdet so much.
    He sank down onto his heels, tucked his hands in, turned his face down, andwatched under his brows. The man passed within ten feet without seeing him.
    It was the one called Edgit. Perhaps the old man would want to know that hehad been here.
    Azel moved almost before Edgit