Read Online The Shattered City by Tansy Rayner Roberts - Free Book Online Page B

around, try picking on someone smaller.’
    â€˜Oh, I don’t know,’ said Barthol with a wicked grin. I saw them before the lads did — figures melting out of the shadows, a whole gang waiting to pounce. ‘You seem small to me.’
    I could do nothing — if the servant was less than a centi, then I was less than the dust on their shoes. I wasn’t even sure why I cared, except I had followed a pretty fellow down a dark street only to watch him be beaten to death.
    I’ve always had excellent timing.
    The fight was brutal and ugly — six against two, fists and nails and blood. I could barely stand to look at the sight of it. I should have run away, should have clambered my way back up to the safety of the world I knew. I remember how it ended, though. There was a feeling that washed over the streets, of cold and despair. I shivered in my thin rags, and every one of those bloodstained boys hesitated and drew back.
    He stepped into sight. A stately, wide-shouldered man wearing silks and velvets, every inch of his costume decorated with pearl buttons. His head was shaved, and shiny like a snake. Power resonated from him; not only the power that makes rich men cruel, but something deeper. He travelled with an entourage, and a dismissive flip of his hand made it clear that he intended them to obey even his silent orders.
    They moved into action, three of them, drawing swords from their backs and advancing upon the spitting pile of boys.
    I was awed. There was nothing but dim lamplight down here, and yet I swear I saw daylight gleaming from their blades. They moved in formation, so secure in their own power and competence. I had handled a knife half my short life, but I had never owned such a thing as those swords.
    In that moment, I forgot the shiny boy. I knew nothing but envy. I wanted to be like them, those coves and demmes with the shiny blades.
    But I ran away. Of course I ran. I had never been brave, my first eleven years. I spent my whole life in hiding. I did not forget those soldiers, though, in their leathers, silver sigils stamped into collars and straps. They wore their hair cropped close to their heads, even the woman. They were so strong and fine.
    Three days later, the boy found me. I had stolen several apples and sat pressed against a stinking wall behind an old theatre in the Lucian, determined to eat them one after the other before someone caught me. My jaw was sore and dripping with juices when a hand lashed out and slapped me, sending me sprawling to the ground.
    When in doubt, cringe and whine. Let them hurt you as hard as they can, and hope they will stop before it gets too bad.
    â€˜You saw things you should not have seen, brat,’ he said. And saints help me — when he spoke, he sounded like a cat purring in your lap. (It makes me laugh now to think how young Ashiol was then — never mind my tender years; he was such a baby!)
    I glared at him from my place on the ground. I had dropped an apple, bruised it, and that made fury well up inside me, despite my fear. ‘Can’t help that, can I?’
    â€˜Thank you, courteso, I will take it from here,’ said a clipped voice.
    The boy Ashiol bristled at that. ‘You’re not my frigging Lord and master, Nathanial.’
    The other man was older, with a steady jaw and clipped-short hair. He wore leathers with silver — one of those soldiers I had admired so much! ‘And you’re not mine,’ he said calmly. ‘I needed you to find her, but your part in this is done.’
    Ashiol had a right sulk on him. ‘Maybe my mistress would like to see her first …’
    â€˜Hands off, boyo,’ said the soldier. ‘The Power and Majesty takes precedence over your precious Lord. Any idiot can see she isn’t Court. But she noticed us, and that means she might very well be something else.’
    Panic welled up in me. They knew I wasn’t a lad. How could they know? I’d