Read Online Tides of Faith: Travail of The Dark Mage Book Two by Brian S. Pratt - Free Book Online

Three casks of ale rested upon wall-mounted
brackets, one was even now being replaced with a fresh one. By the
end of the night, if it was a good night, each bracket would see
five or more separate replacements. James had once thought of
broaching the idea of t-shirts, foam fingers, and bobble-heads with
Scar and Potbelly, but considered that might be pushing things a
mite.
    Father Tullin led them through the
bottleneck and had just reached the last pair of hallways leading
to The Pits, when Scar appeared coming their way. Deep in
conversation with a short man wearing a brace of throwing knives,
he passed by without so much as a nod. Once Scar and his companion
had been swallowed by the crowd, James turned to Jiron.
    “Shorty works here, too?” Shorty,
one-time Pit fighter, knife thrower extraordinaire, and companion
during James’ quest to rescue Miko from slavery, was a face James
knew well.
    “Yes. He and Stig both work here, as
well as Fifer.”
    “Fifer?” That was a surprise. Fifer
had lost a leg during the campaign to recover the Star. “Thought he
was out at The Ranch with Roland?”
    Jiron shook his head.
“Potbelly called him in to help train the Swodders .”
    Swodders , of course, being the
combination of the words “sword” and “fodder.” Shorty coined that
word during a binge. He had been trying to say “They ain’t nothing
but sword fodder,” but his excessive state of inebriation caused a
severe slurring of the words and it came out “They ain’t nuth bu’
swodders.” When those with him finally figured out what he was
trying to say, they began using the word to irritate him, and it
stuck. Now it was an integral part of Pit lexicon.
    At the end of the hallway, before a
door embossed with a pair of crossed swords, stood two
pit-fighters-turned-guards. Though James had never been within the
Pits before, he knew that this door was the only access the general
public had to the thirteenth pit, and that access was by invitation
only. Of course, once invited, you could frequent it whenever you
wished, as well as bringing along friends.
    Father Tullin was well known to
everyone connected with the Pits, and when the guards realized his
destination was the door, they opened it for him.
    “Father,” they said in
unison.
    The priest gave them a friendly smile
and nod. “Thank you.” He caught them eyeing his two companions.
“Have a couple friends here who might be interested in what lies
beyond the dragon’s eye.”
    “Of course,” the guard on the right
said.
    “I hear the match tonight will be a
good one,” the other commented.
    “We’ll see.” Gesturing for his two
masked comrades to follow, he passed through the door and into a
well-lit, narrow passage.
    Once the door closed behind
them, James asked, “What’s this about what
lies beyond the dragon’s eye?”
    “It’s a code Scar implemented after an
assassination took place below. The assassin forced one of the
Pit’s regulars to bring him past the guards and then proceeded to
kill a rather influential trader. Seems the man’s competitor wanted
to secure a bid and had him taken out.”
    Jiron nodded. “Caused quite a stir,
almost shut this place down.”
    “So now,” continued Father Tullin, “if
you bring anyone that they don’t know, or is masked, you give them
the password. If you don’t, expect to experience a delay in
reaching the Pit.”
    James laughed. “I could
imagine.”
    The narrow passage opened onto a room
wherein waited another four guards. Father Tullin nodded to them as
he crossed to the head of a circular flight of steps leading down.
The guards were engaged in a game of dice and hardly gave them more
than a cursory glance before returning to their game.
    From out of the stairwell came the
sound of many conversations, laughter, and curses. At the bottom,
they exited into a Pit area twice as large as any of those above.
It was filled to capacity with a plethora of masks, hoods, and
helms. To James’