Shadow Chaser Read Free Page B

indignant voice asked right in my ear. “Here I am fluttering about like a lark in front of a cockerel to get your attention, and you might as well be deaf!”
    “And did you say anything interesting, chatterbox?” I asked.
    “Chatterbox!” the jester snorted. “I wasn’t simply talking talking, I was extolling the beauties of this glorious city.”
    “I don’t see much beauty around here at the moment,” I muttered, looking round the street.
    It was just an ordinary street. Little old two-story houses with battered, peeling walls, although I had to give the locals some credit—not all the buildings looked totally decrepit. But I definitely couldn’t see much beauty. If I hadn’t known I was in Ranneng, I would have thought this was the Outer City of Avendoom.
    “Wait a bit, we’ll get to the park in a moment; the trees there are just like those in the Zagrabian forest!”
    “Have you been here before, then, Kli-Kli?” asked Lamplighter, who had ridden up to us on his roan horse Stubborn.
    Loudmouth’s horse was trudging after Stubborn, flicking her ears in protest at being dragged in such a perfunctory manner.
    “Yes, I was here once,” Kli-Kli mused, smacking his lips. “I was on a mission for the king.”
    Hallas almost choked in surprise. Forgetting all about his sick tooth, he stared at Kli-Kli and said: “Don’t go telling me fairy tales, goblin. I’ll never believe the king could trust you with important business.”
    “Baa!” said Kli-Kli, sticking his tongue out at the gnome.
    “Never mind, tell us your silly story anyway, it’ll ease the boredom. Are we never going to get to this inn?” Marmot said.
    “Why, there’s no distance left at all. We just go through the park into the Upper City, where the university is, and the school of magic and all the rest of it. A fine district it is. We’ve haven’t got far to go now.”
    The goblin was simply playing the clown and waiting to be asked again.
    “Come on, get on with it,” said Lamplighter.
    “Just let me think where to start,” Kli-Kli agreed graciously, and put on an important air, as if he really was thinking.
    “Harold, hold Invincible for me while I take my jacket off,” said Marmot.
    “All right,” I agreed, and Marmot tossed his ling across, onto my shoulder.
    Marmot’s shaggy tame rat Invincible took a sniff, grunted, wheezed, and settled down on my shoulder. It was incredible, but apart from Marmot I was the only one in the entire party that the ling didn’t bite; he even allowed me to stroke him when he was in a generous mood.
    I couldn’t fathom just why the long-haired rodent from the Deserted Lands took such a great liking to me. But when I saw the way the rat howled and tried to bite Kli-Kli’s finger every time he reached his hand out to it, I chuckled merrily, which greatly annoyed the goblin.
    “You promised us a story, Kli-Kli,” I reminded him.
    “Ah, so I did! Right, then: A year ago the Oburs and the Wild Boars decided to conclude an alliance and give the Nightingales a bloody night of it. There was a fine old brawl all set to break out in Ranneng, and that was not in Stalkon’s interests. They would have started with the Nightingales and finished with His Majesty. And so I was sent.”
    “And our truly fearless little friend defeated them all!” Deler chortled.
    “You dwarves don’t have even a spark of imagination,” Kli-Kli snorted. “I was sent here to make the Wild Boars fall out with the Oburs and vice versa, to make sure that those noble gangsters never thought about concluding an alliance again.… And that’s just what I did!” There was a distinct note of pride in the goblin’s voice.
    “And how did you pull that off?” I chuckled, handing the ling back to Marmot.
    “I used the same plan as you did in that business with the Horse of Shadows. Set everyone against everyone else.”
    “Set everyone against everyone else? What’s he talking about, Harold?” asked Lamplighter,