Read Online The Phoenix Unchained by James Mallory - Free Book Online Page B

it’s always best to be prepared for any problem that money can solve. You don’t need to spend it, you know. But if you have to . . . it’s there.”
    “Thank you, sir,” Tiercel said, tucking the second coin-pouch beside the first. “I’ll try not to get into trouble.” Any more trouble than I’m already in .
    He turned away from his parents. Henmon opened the door and handed him his traveling bag. He slung it over his shoulder and walked quickly down the steps.

    WHEN he reached the mules—there were two riding mules, and one to hold their gear—Harrier took the bag with Tiercel’s clothing and added it to the collection of packs already there. “I don’t see why we have to leave in the middle of the night,” Tiercel grumbled.
    “Middle of the night? First Dawn Bells rang four chimes ago,” Harrier answered in mock-outrage.
    “And decent people don’t get up for another bell and a half.”
    “Well, then, I guess neither of us is particularly decent,” Harrier answered with a grin. “Well,” he said, shrugging. “Come on.”
    They walked off, leading the mules.

    THE Delfier Gates that had once permitted—or denied—access to Armethalieh still endured after over two millennia, but of course the walls that they’d once hung from were long since gone. They now stood, a single shining slab of time-worn bronze, in the center of Council Square, with a plaque beneath them that said they’d once marked the boundary of Armethalieh. On the left of the Square, Tiercel could see the Law Courts and the Magistrate’s Palace—new buildings, only a few centuries old—and in the distance, off to the right, he could just glimpse the towers of the University.
    Just as he passed the Gates, Tiercel felt a sudden strange sensation. As if he were about to be sick, or as if the sun had suddenly gotten much too bright. He staggered, abruptly dizzy, and stared around himself suspiciously.
    “Tyr?”
    “I’m all right.” Had something just happened? He looked back at the band of paler stone in the cobbles. All he’d done was step over the old boundary of the City Walls. That couldn’t mean anything, could it? But suddenly, looking back down the long avenue that led through the heart of the City, Tiercel had the sudden horrible feeling that this was the last time he was ever going to see any of these things. That he was leaving Armethalieh, not just for a moonturn, but forever.
    “Are you sure you’re all right?” Harrier asked suspiciously.
    “I haven’t been getting much sleep lately.” He walked on, and after a few more steps he started to feel a little better. Not completely better, though.

    EVEN at this hour there was a lot of traffic on the streets of the District—mostly farm carts and delivery vehicles, since the eastern way out of the city led to the Delfier Highway—but the mules were steady and placid, and took no interest in any of the traffic around them. By the time Second Dawn Bells was ringing through the air, they’d reached a small garden park in the New City, and thought it was probably time to try riding for a change.
    Though neither of them was an expert rider, Harrier had spent enough time around the dock-mules used for loading and unloading cargo to be well aware of their habits, and Tiercel had gotten the same riding lessons that all the other boys of his age and social class had gotten. And their rented mounts were both steady and gentle. If they weren’t exactly the fiery steeds that legendary adventurers setting off on a quest ought to have, then they were at least unlikely to dump their novice riders into the nearest ditch.
    A bell of riding brought them to the edge of the City. For the last several chimes they’d seen fewer and fewer houses at all, and those they had seen were surrounded by large gardens, for no one inArmethalieh had ever ceased to venerate the moment when the world had suddenly turned bright and green again. If they remembered nothing else of their