"Mickey Zucker Reichert - Darkness Comes Together" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reichert Mickey Zucker)

ain't never hurt nobody I seen. Feeds them. Gives them a safe place to sleep. Trains them. Sends us out
ready for an apprenticeship or job. I ain't complain-ing."

"Anyone else complaining?" The now familiar rough voice came from nearby.

Josafah craned up farther to see Nightfall sitting on the edge of the pallet.

"Not to me." By the voice, the child was a boy of nine or ten years. His face alone did not reveal gender,
and the scraggly red hair hanging to his shoulders gave no further clue. "Can't see as why they would.
Everyone's free to leave if they don't like it here. Weren't for the lord, most of us'd be dead by now."

"Which room is his?" Nightfall leaned closer.

The boy's tone turned flat. "You going to hurt him?"
"No," Nightfall said with eminent sincerity.

Josafah grinned. No, little boy. Won't hurt him at all. Just kill him.

The boy seemed no more convinced than Josafah. "How does I know you ain't going to?"

Josafah snaked into the room to answer. "How's this? Where is the master? Tell me the truth, or he kills
you. Slowly." He squinted into his most frightening sneer. "Painfully."

The boy incited Josafah's talent like a coiled spring. Nightfall remained as impossible to fathom as before,
though his lips twisted into a frown. Accustomed to working alone, he clearly did not appreciate
Josafah's interference. Nevertheless, he took his cue, grasping the boy around the abdomen, pinning his
arms, and clamping a hand over his mouth to stifle any screams.

Josafah smelled the boy's fear, an exhilarating stench that reminded him why he had chosen his
profession. His first kill had made him feel omnipotent, wholly in control for the first time in his life. "You
tell me where to find Lord Karthorian's room. He stays with you while I check. If you lied, he kills you
both. Truth, and you both live."

The boy rolled large brown eyes to Nightfall, then swallowed hard. He nodded once to indicate
compliance.

Nightfall cautiously released the boy's mouth.

A quiver entered the young voice. "Three doors down." He pointed leftward. "On the right." Tears welled
in his eyes. "Please don't hurt him. Or me."

Josafah smiled, then inclined his head toward Nightfall. "Kill him."

A moment later, the boy lay limp in Nightfall's arms, without a mark on him.

Despite the need for quiet swiftness, Josafah had to know. He shook his head in awe. "You have to
teach me that trick."

"Don't get too excited." Nightfall lowered the boy to the pallet then joined the other assassin. "He's out,
not dead. Let's go."