Read Online Mystic: A Book of Underrealm by Garrett Robinson - Free Book Online

thinking we travel together.”  
    “They would be right to think so. But I said already the merchant did not see me. Would your family work in league with them and tell them to look for me as well?”
    Annis thought hard. “I do not know for certain, but it seems unlikely. The Mystics are too nosy for my family’s liking.”
    “Then I doubt the Mystic knows to look for me, or for you. In any case, she took little notice.” Loren shuddered despite her cloak and the day’s ample heat.
    Xain said, “At last, it seems you learn wisdom in dealing with their kind. We would do well to move on. I have no wish to work against the agents of your family and the Mystics at once. A clever foe is hard enough to outwit. Two may be impossible.”
    After checking once more to ensure the merchant train had passed, he led them out of the alley and back to the main street. They turned left and rode their horses slowly across the bridge.
    The crossing allowed Loren to forget her momentary fright at the Mystic’s threat, and she marveled to see the high spans that left the river so far below. When she first left the Birchwood and chased Xain south towards Cabrus, she had crossed a simple stone bridge that yawned across the Melnar. She remembered marveling at its size and construction, but this bridge was many times greater. It made Loren imagine what wondrous sights there were to see out in the world, and when she might see them. A sudden wanderlust gripped her feet, and she felt a strange urge to spur her mount to a gallop, to lead it south out of Redbrook and west along the King’s road until she passed through all the nine lands, seeing all the strange sights and their people.
    Then the moment passed, and Loren remembered Gem and Annis beside her, Xain riding ahead with his shoulders hunched over his saddle horn. Wild thoughts and unmet goals were all well for daydreams, but now she must keep her wits or risk everything.
    Xain led them down a row of low, flat riverboats on the other side. Loren saw how the river had been rimmed with great stone walls, with wooden stairs and platforms built along them so that smaller boats could be fastened for embarkment.  
    Xain rode swift and sure to a small slip of a vessel at one of the docks. The thing did not look as though it could carry more than five people, crew and all. Loren wondered how the four of them would sail upon it with the crew. Xain dismounted and bade them tie their horses to a nearby post. Then he took them down the steps to the platform with the resting vessel and without permission stepped on board.
    No sooner did his boot strike the deck than Loren heard a stirring below. Moments later, a man burst out from nowhere to greet them. He stood far shorter than Loren, scarcely a head taller than Annis, but his ample girth made him seem taller. Two days of beard clung to his chin. His heavy eyebrows seemed all the more severe as they drew together in a momentary scowl.  
    The captain cast eyes upon Xain, and then wide brown lips cracked in a smile to show them all his bent yellow teeth. “Sky above, what is that head doing in this piss pot of a town?” he barked. “Xain, what in the nine lands has brought you here? I cannot imagine anything good, or you would have found a prettier face to rest your eyes upon.”
    And Xain, dour Xain, solemn Xain who had rarely shown Loren anything more than a glare, a frown, an exasperated roll of his eyes, laughed loud and hard. He strode forwards to meet the captain, throwing his arms around the shorter man and hoisting his heels off the ground in greeting.
    “Brimlad, I would have feared I might not find you here, had you ever shown a spark of talent that might take you anywhere else.”
    The captain laughed and slammed his hands against Xain’s back. Then he turned him around and held him at arm’s length, looking up into his face.  
    “Redbrook is good enough for this old man. But you? I thought you were holed up in some noble’s