Read Online Songreaver by Andrew Hunter - Free Book Online

Necromancers had dispersed into the city to try to find
out what had happened to their houses and belongings, or just to
enjoy the celebration of their victory.
    Serepheni and Max had gone straightaway to
the temple, while Cenick and Garrett proceeded to Uncle's house.
Marla took her leave of them shortly after entering the city,
explaining that she still had a bit of a mess to clean up at the
pet shop. Much of Garrett's joviality departed with the vampire
girl, and it died altogether at the site of the large "Public
Auction" sign nailed to the door of Uncle's manor house.
    Cenick mumbled something uncharacteristically
crude as he dismounted and walked to the front door with a
stiffness in his stride. He ripped the vellum poster down and
tossed it into the gutter. He tried the door, finding it
locked.
    "I don't have the key," Garrett said, his
breath frosting the cold air.
    Cenick seemed not to hear him. The big man
looked up, scanning the stone facade of Uncle's house and the high,
narrow windows, almost fourteen feet above the street level. He
unbuckled his knife belt and draped it over the short wrought iron
fence that bordered Uncle's withered front garden. He hung his
skull medallion beside the belt and pulled off his tattered purple
robe. He wore patched trousers and a stained undershirt with his
arms bare. Black runic tattoos traced the rippling curves of his
muscles as he sprang up to grab the lintel of Uncle's front door.
With a painful grunt, he hauled himself up to the narrow ledge
between the lintel and the stone arch above the door.
    He grinned down at Garrett. "Good thing I've
lost some weight," he panted, "I haven't done this since I was your
age."
    "Be careful," Garrett said.
    Cenick crouched as best he was able in the
small cove beneath the arch, then swung out, one hand holding onto
the arch, the other reaching up for the iron bars of an upstairs
window. His thick fingers wrapped around a black bar and he let go
of the arch to hang with his boot toes scrabbling against the
rough-hewn stones of the wall as he brought his other hand up.
    A moment later, he had both hands on the bars
of the window. The muscles of his arms corded and flexed as he
pulled himself up to the narrow windowsill. He straightened his
back and stood up, facing the barred window, his boots shaking as
he supported his weight on the tips of his toes. Holding on with
his left hand, Cenick reached back, slipping his right hand beneath
the waistband at the back of his trousers. He drew out a small
knife with a short, slender blade and brought it around between his
body and the window.
    Garrett climbed down from Ghausse's back and
walked to the front door, hoping to get a better view.
    Cenick gave a little laugh of triumph, and
the stained glass window swung open on its hinges. He clutched the
knife between his teeth and reached one hand inside to hold himself
steady as he worked the iron bars loose from their sockets with his
free hand.
    "You're really strong!" Garrett
gasped.
    " Na 'eally ," Cenick said through his
clenched teeth. He dropped the loose bars inside the room with a
dull clunk and then pulled the knife from his mouth. "I
spent a month dissolving the mortar with acid when I was twelve.
This used to be my room."
    Garrett laughed. "Did Uncle ever catch
you?"
    "Once," Cenick said, "I was terrified at what
he might do to me, but he just gave me the key to the front door
and told me to swallow it just before I was killed by the Watch to
prevent any burglars finding it on my mangled corpse... Took all
the fun out of sneaking out."
    Garrett grinned.
    Cenick squeezed through the narrow window and
Garrett saw no more of him until he wrenched open the front door
from within and invited Garrett inside.
    "Welcome home," he said, a trace of sadness
in his voice.
    "Thanks," Garrett said, his stomach sinking
at the sight of the place. Dirty boot prints lay beneath a pale
layer of dust on the floor. The rugs were gone, as were all the
cabinets and