Brent Weeks - Shadows Edge (Night Angel Trilogy, Book 2)

Praise for The Way of Shadows

What a terrific story! I was mesmerized from start to finish. Unforgettable characters, a plot that kept me guessing, nonstop action and the kind of in-depth storytelling that makes me admire a writers work.

Terry Brooks

BOOKS BY BRENT WEEKS

T HE N IGHT A NGEL T RILOGY

The Way of Shadows

Shadows Edge

Beyond the Shadows

For Kristi, for never doubting
not even when I did.

For Kevin, because its a big brothers job to make a little brother tough. What you taught me, Ive needed. (But I never have been right since that dirt clod incident.)

W eve got a contract for you, Momma K said. As always, she sat like a queen, her back straight, sumptuous dress perfect, hair immaculately coifed if gray at the roots. This morning she had dark circles under her eyes. Kylar guessed that none of the Sakags surviving leaders had slept much since the Khalidoran invasion.

Good morning to you, too, Kylar said, settling into the wing-backed chair in the study. Momma K didnt turn to face him, looking instead out her window. Last nights rain had quenched most of the fires in the city, but many still smoked, bathing the city in a crimson dawn. The waters of the PlithRiver that divided rich eastern Cenaria from the Warrens looked as red as blood. Kylar wasnt sure that was all because of the smoke-obscured sun, either. In the week since the coup, the Khalidoran invaders had massacred thousands.

Momma K said, Theres a wrinkle. The deader knows its coming.

Hows he know? The Sakag wasnt usually so sloppy.

We told him.

Kylar rubbed his temples. The Sakag would only tell someone so that if the attempt failed, the Sakag wouldnt be committed. That meant the deader could only be one man: Cenarias conqueror, Khalidors Godking, Garoth Ursuul.

I just came to get my money, Kylar said. All of Durzosmy safe houses burned down. I only need enough to bribe the gate guards. Hed been giving her a cut of his wages to invest since he was a child. She should have plenty for a few bribes.

Momma K flipped silently through sheets of rice paper on her desk and handed one to Kylar. At first, he was stunned by the numbers. He was involved in the illegal importation of riot weed and half a dozen other addictive plants, owned a race horse, had a stake in a brewery and several other businesses, part of a loan sharks portfolio, and owned partial cargos of items like silks and gems that were legitimate except for the fact the Sakag paid 20 percent in bribes rather than 50 percent in tariffs. The sheer amount of information on the page was mind- boggling. He didnt know what half of it meant.

I own a house? Kylar asked.

Owned, Momma K said. This column denotes merchandise lost in the fires or looting. There were checks next to all but a silk expedition and one for riot weed. Almost everything he had owned was lost. Neither expedition will return for months, if at all. If the Godking keeps seizing civilian vessels, they wont come back at all. Of course, if he were dead

He could see where this was going. This says my share is still worth ten to fifteen thousand. Ill sell it to you for a thousand. Thats all I need.

She ignored him. They need a third wetboy to make sure it works. Fifty thousand gunders for one kill, Kylar. With that much, you can take Elene and Uly anywhere. Youll have done the world a good turn, and youll never have to work again. Its just one last job.

He wavered only for a moment. Theres always one last job. Im finished.

This is because of Elene, isnt it? Momma K asked.

Momma K, do you think a man can change?

She looked at him with a profound sadness. No. And hell end up hating anyone who asks him to.

Kylar got up and walked out the door. In the hallway, he ran into Jarl. Jarl was grinning like he used to when they were growing up on the streets and he was up to no good. Jarl was wearing what must be the new fashion, a long tunic with exaggerated shoulders paired with slim trousers tucked into high boots. It looked vaguely Khalidoran. His hair was worked into elaborate microbraids capped with gold beads that set off his black skin.

Ive got the perfect job for you, Jarl said, his voice lowered, but unrepentant about eavesdropping.

No killing? Kylar asked.

Not exactly.

Your Holiness, the cowards stand ready to redeem themselves, Vrdmeister Neph Dada announced, his voice carrying over the crowd. He was an old man, veiny, liver-spotted, stooped, stinking of death held at bay with magic, his breath rattling from the exertion of climbing up the platform in CenariaCastles great yard. Twelve knotted cords hung over the shoulders of his black robes for the twelve shuras hed mastered. Neph knelt with difficulty and offered a handful of straw to the Godking.

Godking Garoth Ursuul stood on the platform inspecting his troops. Front and center were nearly two hundred Graavar highlanders, tall, barrel-chested, blue-eyed savages who wore their black hair short and their mustaches long. On either side stood the other elite highland tribes that had captured the castle. Beyond them waited the rest of the regular army that had marched into Cenaria since the liberation.

Mists rose from the PlithRiver on either side of the castle and slid under the rusty teeth of the iron portcullises to chill the crowd. The Graavar had been broken into fifteen groups of thirteen each, and they alone had no weapons, armor, or tunics. They stood in their trousers, pale faces fixed, but sweating instead of shivering in the cool autumn morning.

There was never commotion when the Godking inspected his troops, but today the silence ached despite the thousands gathered to watch. Garoth had gathered every soldier possible and allowed the Cenarian servants and nobles and smallfolk to watch as well. Meisters in their black-and-red half-cloaks stood shoulder to shoulder with robed Vrdmeisters, soldiers, crofters, coopers, nobles, field hands, maids, sailors, and Cenarian spies.

The Godking wore a broad white cloak edged with ermine thrown back to make his broad shoulders look huge. Beneath that was a sleeveless white tunic over wide white trousers. All the white made his pallid Khalidoran skin look ghostly, and drew sharp attention to the vir playing across his skin. Black tendrils of power rose to the surface of his arms. Great knots rose and fell, knots edged with thorns that moved not just back and forth but up and down in waves, pressing out from his skin. Claws raked his skin from beneath. Nor were his vir confined to his arms. They rose to frame his face. They rose to his bald scalp and pierced the skin, forming a thorny, quivering black crown. Blood trickled down the sides of his face.