The Dragon Lords: Fool's Gold, page 47
Not anymore, anyway.
I guess I’m just tired. Tired of seeing swords instead of hands, tired of looking for chairs against the wall whenever I go into a room, tired of knowing lists instead of people, tired of talking to my sword.
And I’m going to stop. And even if I can’t, I have to try.
So I’m going to. Try, that is.
Just as soon as I get my money.
I suppose there’s irony in trading blood for gold. Or hypocrisy.
I don’t care and I sincerely doubt my employer does, either. Or maybe he does—holy men are odd that way—but he’ll pay, anyway. Blood is gold and I’ve spilled a lot of the former for a considerable sum of the latter.
Ordinarily, you wouldn’t think a priest of Talanas, the Healer, would appreciate that much blood. But Miron Evenhands, Lord Emissary and Member in Good Standing of the House of the Vanquishing Trinity, is no ordinary priest. As the former title implies, he’s a man with access to a lot of wealth. And as the latter title is just cryptic enough to suggest, he’s got a fair number of demons, cultists, and occult oddities to be eradicated.
And eradicate I have, with gusto.
And he has yet to pay. “Temporary barriers to the financial flow,” he tells me. “Patience, adventurer, patience,” he says. And patient I was. Patient enough to follow him across the sea for months until we came here.
Cier’Djaal, the City of Silk. This is the great charnel house where poor men eat dead rich men and become wealthy themselves. This is the city where fortunes are born, alive and screaming. This is the city that controls the silk, the city that controls the coin, the city that controls the world.
This is civilization.
This is what I want now.
My companions, too.
Or so I’d like to think.
It’s not as though anyone chooses to be an adventurer, killing people for little coin and even less respect. We all took up the title, and each other’s company, with the intent of leaving it behind someday. Cier’Djaal is as good as any a place to do so, I figure.
Though their opinions on our arrival have been… varied.
That Gariath should be against our entrance into any place where he might be required to wear a shirt, let alone a place crawling with humans, is no surprise.
Far more surprising are Denaos’s objections—the man who breathes liquor and uses whores for pillows, I would have thought, would feel right at home among the thieves and scum of civilized society.
Asper and Dreadaeleon, happy to be anywhere that has a temple or a wizard tower, were generally in favor of it. Asper for the opportunity to be among civilized holy men, Dreadaeleon for the opportunity to be away from uncivilized laymen, both for the opportunity to be in a place with toilets.
When I told Kataria, she just sort of stared.
Like she always does.
Which made my decision as to what to do next fairly easy. This will be the last of our time spent together. Once I’ve got my money, once I can leave my sword behind, I intend to leave them with it.
Their opinions on this have been quiet.
Possibly because I haven’t told them yet.
Probably because I won’t until I’m far enough away that I can’t hear my sword laughing at me anymore.
We hope you enjoyed this book.
Wondering what to read next?
Discover other books you might enjoy by signing up for Orbit’s newsletter.
You’ll get the scoop on the latest releases, deals, excerpts, and breaking news delivered straight to your inbox each month.
Sign Up
Or visit us at www.orbitbooks.net/booklink
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Jonathan Wood
Excerpt from Dragon Lords: False Idols copyright © 2016 by Jonathan Wood
Excerpt from The City Stained Red copyright © 2014 by Sam Sykes
Cover design by Kirk Benshoff
Cover illustration by Karl Simon
Cover copyright © 2016 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Orbit
Hachette Book Group
1290 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10104
orbitbooks.net
First ebook edition: July 2016
Orbit is an imprint of Hachette Book Group.
The Orbit name and logo are trademarks of Little, Brown Book Group Limited.
The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to www.hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376-6591.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Map copyright © Tim Paul
ISBN 978-0-316-30825-0
E3-20180704-JV-PC
Jon Hollins, The Dragon Lords: Fool's Gold
