Free The Queen's Blade Prequel I - Conash: Dead Son by T C Southwell Page A

consuming him. His stone came to
hand, and he brought it down on the surprised urinater's head with
a satisfying crunch. The man’s purse yielded only a few silvers,
and Conash had to find a new box in another gutter to sleep under.
The coins fed him for a tenday, then it was back to the alehouse to
fight for scraps with the dogs. Apparently the alehouse's cook did
not like wild boys eating his scraps, however, for he stopped
throwing them out for the dogs.
    Conash's hunger
gnawed at him, goading him to feed it. He needed money. His stone
filled his palm again, and he crept down a dark, refuse-choked
alley in search of another urinating drunkard. They deserved to
die, since one had pissed on him. No one had the right to piss on
him. A man entered the alley, and Conash the killer followed him,
waiting for him to urinate. He almost escaped, but Conash emerged
from the shadows like a hunting cat, the rock raised.
    The man spun
around, and the rock swished through air. It cracked into Conash's
shin, and he doubled over to clasp his leg with a grunt. Something
hit him on the side of the head, and everything went black.
     
     
    Talon studied
the girl who lay in the gutter, dressed in ragged men's clothes.
She looked no more than fourteen, frail and innocent.
Shoulder-length black hair straggled over her cheek, and thick
lashes fanned her milky skin. He squatted, noting her sunken cheeks
and skinny neck, her slender hand lying in the filth. Starvation
must have driven her to try to knock him out in order to steal his
money. Dirt caked her cheeks and rimed her neck, and she stank.
    Talon glanced
around at his familiar and stroked Myren's head. The girl's
approach had been uncannily silent, and, if not for the wolf's
warning, she would have succeeded. Myren always followed a few
paces behind, and tended to stay in the shadows. Evidently the girl
had not noticed him. There was no sign of her familiar, but he
searched her clothes just in case a deadly viper or scorpion hid in
them.
    The retired
assassin bent and scooped her up, shocked by how little she
weighed. A fragile waif, probably abandoned by uncaring parents, or
left behind by a murdered whore mother. He headed for his
apprentice shack, deep in the slums, whence he had just come.
Halfway there, he slung the child over his shoulder to ease his
arms, for it was a fair distance.
    At the shack,
he placed the girl on the narrow cot and lighted two lamps,
bringing them to the table to cast light on his smelly prize. He
sat beside her and pulled off her ragged coat, surprised by the
breadth of her shoulders. The worst of the stench came away with
the coat, which he threw outside. Beneath it, she wore a coarse,
patched man's shirt with most of the buttons missing, and a long
chain was wound around her neck.
    A length of
braided hair was tied over the chain with a thong, and he took it
off. It stank of mud, and he almost threw it away, then decided
that it might be a keepsake. He would have to wash it, though. She
appeared to be prepubescent, and he revised his opinion of her age,
although she was large for a twelve-year-old. Even with his
lock-picking skills, he struggled with the rusted padlock that
secured the chain for half a time-glass. The skin beneath it was
callused, as if she had worn it for many years.
    Talon patted
her cheek, wondering if he had hit her too hard. She drew in a
sharp breath and opened her eyes. For an instant they met his, and
a jolt shot through him at the frigid fury in their pale grey
depths. She sat up and swung a fist at his head. Talon ducked in
the nick of time and grabbed her wrists, forcing her back on the
bed. She struggled, giving a surprisingly deep-throated growl, but
lacked the strength to fight him off.
    “It's okay, I'm
not going to hurt you,” he said.
    She snarled and
tried to bite his arm, but he kept it out of her reach.
    “Stop fighting
me, girl, I'm trying to help you.”
    The child
froze, looking startled, and he released her, then