Saga of Menyoral: The Service Read Free Page B

dropped it on the desk, and it crashed and rang with the coins inside it. “Five hundred sovereigns.” Krakus crunched into one of his candy sticks and chewed noisily.
    “Oh, it’s a kingly price you offer me, Father Lech, but no. Some fool might bring himself to attempt it, but it will not be this fool.”
    “And if I doubled your compensation?”
    Krakus crunched again.
    “I believe you’re missing my point, Father.” Barshefsky backed toward the door. “To attempt Vandis Vail north of the Back would be madness. To attempt it so near Dreamport would be to beg for painful death. Even ten thousand sovereigns couldn’t induce me to try.”
    “In some other place, then,” Lech said, with a desperate edge on his voice.
    “It’s best not to consider it. To murder Sir Vail for money—that’s more than my life is worth. No, I’m afraid I can’t help you, Father.”
    Krakus fought the urge to laugh as Lech gnashed his teeth. “I am not accustomed to being answered ‘no.’ Why,” he bit out, “not?”
    Krakus bit so hard into his candy he cracked a tooth.
    “There is a world you don’t know,” Barshefsky said, “and most people never touch, even as much as you just have, but it is all around you. On your streets, in your temples, even in your precious Fort here, it exists just beneath your notice, and in that world, Vandis Vail is screened by an aegis none would seek to break, lest they find themselves in—if I may be permitted—deep shit.” He bowed slightly. “Good day.”
    Barshefsky let himself out. Lech should have been boiling, but instead he wore a triumphant smirk.
    “I knew it,” he breathed. “I knew it. Demons…”
    “He meant criminals, you idiot,” Krakus said, unable to pass up the chance to correct Lech.
    “Hush.” Lech pulled his writing things closer and began to scratch away at top speed.
    Krakus took his legs from the desk. As he rose, he gave the side of it a good, solid kick, so ink would slosh out of Lech’s well. It splattered on his snow-white sleeve and he shot Krakus a burning glare.
    “Oops.” Krakus put his hands in his pockets and smiled again. “See you later, Lechie.”
    Lech didn’t quite growl out loud, but it was a close thing. Krakus strutted outside, heading for Section One. Thanks, he thought. I think I will go play with my freaks. He whistled the whole walk there.

The Valley
    Knightsvalley, in Dreamport lands
    After Dixon Forest, Dingus did what Dingus did best: he put a lid on it. He felt as if he’d put a cover on a boiling cauldron and sat on top. It burned him from the bottom up, and it was probably only a matter of time before it boiled over, but that was all he knew how to do.
    It was harder than before. How little sleep he got these days—that probably didn’t help. He didn’t get a full night more than once a week, usually less. Sometimes he hardly even closed his eyes before a nightmare dragged him into its hungry maw, and he’d relive, in agonizing detail, the hanging. Every single time, it felt as real as the first—and as terrifying. Even on the nights he slept better, he’d have nightmares that didn’t seem like nightmares until he woke up, dreams that shook him to the core.
    At least Vandis had been right: there was the work. If nothing else, it was an excellent distraction. He’d thrown himself at it the same way a drowning man goes for a log, and clutched it as tight, all the way north, so that now he could’ve recited the principal exports of Tarvylania in his sleep if he hadn’t been so busy screaming.
    They’d made it to Knightsvalley about three weeks ago. Vandis had to be here to smooth things along with all the vendors and greet the Knights who arrived early. There were a lot of them this year, what with everybody wanting to know if their friends had gotten out of Muscoda—so Vandis had said.
    If Dingus had to be stuck with lots of people and without much to do, at least it was in a beautiful place: a high-up valley