Read Online Sworn in Steel by Douglas Hulick - Free Book Online

least banked. “You’re right,” she said. “Fair has nothing to do
with it. But that’s my point. You’re a Gray Prince now, Drothe—you don’t get to take stupid risks. Drawing three swordsmen away in a street fight is our
job—we’re the ones who’re supposed to face the steel while you fade. It’s not just about you being smart enough to stay ahead of the rest of the Kin; it’s about you
staying alive. About letting the rest of us handle the street-level shit so you can focus on the bigger picture.”
    I shook my head. “That’s not how I work and you know it.”
    “Maybe not, but it’s how you need to start operating. Otherwise it won’t matter whether it comes from another Prince or some cut-rate Eriff who gets lucky in an
alley—you’ll still end up dead because you couldn’t let go of the street. And I’ll be damned if I lose any more people just so you can keep playing the Nose instead of the
Prince.”
    “Give me some cred—wait,” I said, picking up on what she’d just said—or rather, what she hadn’t said. I looked past her, scanning the street.
“Where’s Scratch? Is he dust-mans?”
    Fowler barked out something that, on any other day, might have passed for a laugh. Now it just sounded like pain. “There’s no getting anything by you, is there?”
    “How’d he—?”
    “Does it matter? He was doing his fucking job, which is more than I can say for you.” She turned her head as if to spit, then seemed to think better of it and instead pulled off her
cap. She ran a hand through spiked, greasy hair. “People are dying for you, Drothe. And they’re going to keep dying. My people, your people—Kin you don’t even know. And you
can’t stop it. All you can do is be worth it.” She put the cap back on and turned away. “Try to be worth it, will you? At least for me.”
    I stood there, watching her go, until the morning crowds swallowed her up.
    I forced tired legs to lift heavy feet and began to make my way back toward Blackpot Street. Of a sudden, sleep didn’t sound so tempting anymore, if only because of the work I knew that
would be waiting for me on the other side.
    Be worth it.
Angels help me
.

Chapter Five
    I woke to the sound of a late summer storm, the rain hitting like shovelfuls of gravel in the paved courtyard outside my window. For a moment, the
remnants of a dream flitted at the edge of my consciousness—memories of roses and rivers, of blood and carpeted hallways—before the reality of the night came in and crowded them
aside.
    I shifted in my bed and listened to the noise.
    I wasn’t used to a courtyard yet, let alone one big enough to allow rain to fall down into it. The closest I’d ever come was a street running along the other side of my shutters, and
most of them had been so narrow that rain didn’t drop so much as seep into the gap between buildings. Before that, in my youth, it had been the rain coming down through the trees, which was a
different thing entirely.
    I sat up in darkness that wasn’t darkness and looked over toward the window in question. Rain without, none within, thanks to the covered walkway that ran around three sides of the
courtyard. I’d left the shutters open on purpose, to test myself. To see if I could sleep with them open. I had, but only, I suspected, out of exhaustion.
    When was the last time I’d left a window open when I slept? When was the last time I’d had the trust, or the courage, to even try? I couldn’t remember, and that alone told me
too much.
    I reached over and took an
ahrami
seed from the bowl beside my bed and placed it in my mouth. Rest wasn’t an option anymore—not now. Not with the rain and the window and the
nerves.
    I stood up. It wasn’t easy.
    Everything felt sore, from the bottoms of my feet to the bruise on my forehead, and double for what lay in between. I stretched this way, twisted that, and filled the air with more curses and
grunts than were likely necessary. Then I