Synnergy, Chaos Time Book 3 Read Free Page A

inside and it took her a moment for her
eyes to adjust. Dust motes floated lazily by from holes high in the
walls. She knew the town was only beginning to grow, and could only
assume those holes would someday hold windowpanes.
    There was only one customer sitting at a back table,
and he didn’t turn or lift his head when they entered. His
shoulders were slumped. A soft snuffling sound came from his
direction.
    A bartender stood behind the long wooden bar, leaning
on it while he counted nuggets.
    She was transfixed by him. Danger. That’s what he
looked like. There was a patch over one eye; the side of his head
facing them looked as if it had been dipped in wax. His skin was
taut with burns and marred pale white in some spots, brown in
others. Half his ear was missing. Whatever had caused those
injuries had almost killed him. She tried to scent him for traces
of power, for anything that might brand him as different, but she
wasn’t even sure that was possible.
    Every instinct inside her screamed that he was
definitely off , different from the typical down and out
vagabonds she’d so far encountered. She wasn’t really sure why she
felt that way, only that she did. But where he was hideous to gaze
upon, his smell was almost intoxicating. Like a pine forest after a
hard rain.
    It didn’t really make sense, because so far each
person she’d encountered had smelled rank and unwashed, maybe for
months on end. But instinct wouldn’t be good enough for Hunter, and
saying that he smelled good sounded silly even in her head. She’d
just have to make sure to keep an eye out on this guy.
    If he was the Lord, he’d eventually do or say
something to give it away. The mere thought made her breathing
quicken. She licked her lips and wasn’t sure what she might have
done if he hadn’t looked up. A dull brown eye pinned her in place.
He looked drunk. Or maybe sick. Steeling her nerves, she walked up
as he continued to stare at her in silence.
    “I’m...” she cleared her throat, feeling a tickle,
“I’m looking for Long Nose.” She held her back straight, proud that
her voice hadn’t faltered. Much.
    “The Lady ain’t up,” he muttered, and she swallowed
the instantaneous gag reflex the second the fetid stench of his
unwashed teeth and alcohol laced breathe slammed against her
nostrils.
    “The Lady’s right here,” said a slow, sensuous drawl
lilting with the gentle twang of an Irish brogue.
    Sable looked up, spotting the tinniest and yet most
perfectly fashioned woman she’d ever seen standing at the top of
the stairs. Milly was wearing a thing of creamy lace and ribbons,
covered by a flimsy robe that fell to her ankles. As sheer as the
material was, it revealed as much as it covered.
    Long Nose couldn’t be more than five feet tall, if
that. But her shoulders were held back, and her neck so erect, it
made her appear much larger. Shining black hair curled long and
heavy down her back. Her clear brown eyes filled with a shrewd
light as they took in the two girls below.
    Her pink lips puckered, and then with a regal sigh
she proceeded to walk down the steps. “La, I see we’ve new girls,
One Eye. Do be nice to the little darlings and serve them a bowl of
stew.” Then she turned to them, and fluffing a curl over her
shoulder, cocked her head as she reached the bottom of the
staircase.
    She smiled at them, and it seemed genuine, reaching
up to her eyes. Try as she might, Sable could not see the reason
for calling the woman Long Nose. Her nose was pert and upturned,
sitting square in the center of a pixie face. “Do, please sit.” She
gestured with a lily-white hand that looked as if it had never seen
a day’s hard labor.
    They walked over to the nearest table and for the
first time Sable noted how clean this place was. Weren’t bars,
especially these types of bars, supposed to be sticky with stains
and the floors tacky with nasty stuff?
    This was the opposite. For as much dust as the wagons
had kicked up outside