Read Online Luckstones by Madeleine E. Robins - Free Book Online

in the time it took him to take a pace.
    “Stand!” the tallest man barked. Instantly, what foot
traffic there had been disappeared. If Col ha Vanderon expected the folk of the
Dedenor district to come to the rescue of an unknown gentleman, he was in for a
sad correction. “You got somethin’ we’m wantin’.”
    Ha Vanderon stumbled slightly and eyed a blade that flashed
up to stop any attempt at flight. They’re
quick, Nyana thought.
    “Why, gentlemen ,”
ha Vanderon drawled. “What can I have that you would want?”
    “A bit o’ sparkle,” the man to the right said. He was the
shortest of the three tall men, and his words came out with a shower of spittle
that caught the torchlight.
    “Shut it, Cheevie,” the first man said. He reached forward
to touch the tip of his blade to ha Vanderon’s top coat button. “Gimme the
sparkle and you’ll see the morra.” A long few moments passed. Was ha Vanderon
trying to decide what he might offer these men in place of the Archangel? More
interesting, to Nyana at least, was the question of how the men had known he
had the sapphire in the first place.
    The lead man pushed a little harder with the tip of his
sword. Ha Vanderon stepped backward and was prodded gently with the third man’s
swordpoint. His hand slid into his pocket.
    “Well, since you must,” he said.
    Reluctantly Nyana realized that, if she were to reclaim the
Archangel for Velliaune me Corse, this would be the moment. She drew sword and
dagger, stepped out of the shadow, and within a moment had the tip of her
dagger pressed against the nape of the third man’s neck.
    Matters became complex. The third man froze for a moment,
then turned to face Nyana. The leader and Cheevie, momentarily shocked by the
arrival of an unanticipated assistant to their quarry, raised their blades to
chase her away, permitting Col ha Vanderon to step to his left, out of range of
the two swords. Col caught sight of her. “You!”
    “I,” Nyana agreed. She tossed her dagger, hilt first, to ha Vanderon.
“A loan,” she said, and turned to deal with the third man. Despite the weighty
blade in his hand, the thief was no swordsman. He waved the blade back and
forth like a finger waggled at a naughty child; Nyana, in a move she had only
practiced and never accomplished in good earnest, beat the blade away with a
strong strike and hit true in the man’s center, feeling her point cut into his
chest, bounce along the side of a rib, then slide further. It was not a
pleasant sensation.
    The man cried in outrage, then was silent as blood bubbled
up in the corner of his mouth and he crumpled. Nyana fought the urge to vomit
and tugged her sword free—the muscle of the man’s chest clutched at her
blade—because the leader was coming at her now. Looking over, she saw Col ha Vanderon
engaged in blocking Cheevie’s cuts with her dagger; at least he was not dead
already.
    “Messing in business that’s none of yourn, girl.” The leader
did not seem concerned by the sight of his companion dying upon the street.
    “Whose business is it, then?” Nyana stood on guard, circling
warily. This man looked far more comfortable with a blade than his companions
had done.
    “More none of yourn.” He stopped and held his arm and blade
straight out, pointing at Nyana’s neck as if in warning. “You’d be wise to go home
to your Mammy.”
    “Haven’t one.” The man appeared nonplussed by her air of
unconcern. “If it’s not my business,
might it be Jass’s?”
    That startled him. The leader glanced from side to side as
if the tall red-headed woman might appear from nowhere. “How d’you—”
    ”Who else would have known that Col ha Vanderon had the
jewel?” she said. Nyana beat his blade away. “I thought she’d sold the thing to
him?”
    The man grinned. “When we take the sparkle home, Jass’ll
turn it in for reward.” He feinted broadly at her hip.
    “Clever.” Nyana parried again. “The problem is that I’m
charged to