Chicks 'N Chained Males by Esther Friesner

Author:Esther Friesner [Friesner, Esther]
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science fiction, Fantasy, Epic, General, Fiction, Fantasy - General, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fiction - Fantasy, Fantasy fiction, Short stories, Fantasy fiction, American, Historical, Anthologies, Fantasy - Historical, Fantasy - Epic, Women, Fantasy - Anthologies, Fantastic fiction, American, Heroines
ISBN: 9780671578145
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2010-01-21T15:45:29+00:00

That’s Kerrik for you: In a word, reckless. Oh, his heart’s in the right place, even when he’s literally someone else, and I do love the man. But a little forethought added into his makeup really would be nice.

As soon ask for the wind to be a rock.

When we were alone, I exploded, “Are you out of your—we have a partnership—how could you—”

“Money, love. Remember it? That pretty, shiny stuff we’re almost out of?”

“Don’t get cute, Kerrik.” As his face instantly became a child’s wide-eyed face, I snapped, “I mean it!”

He dropped all silliness. “And I mean it. Jazi, I’m going there—and I’m going alone.”

“You can’t! Dammit, the danger—”

“Horses,” was all he said in reply, tapping me on the nose with a forefinger.

Right. Kundin was breeding horses. And I . . . I have an allergy that won’t let me go anywhere near the beasts without starting to sneeze madly.

“See, Jazi? Has to be me alone.”

I wasn’t buying that. Turning away, I pretended to be very busy shuffling papers. Kerrik’s arms closed about me from behind, but I went boneless and slipped out of his embrace.

“Hey, love,” he cajoled, “I’m not an amateur! I’ll be careful.”

And I was a garden snake.

I mean that literally. I was getting so angry at his cockiness that I needed to cool off a bit outside, sliding out the window into the garden below.

Wrong move. While I was out there, slithering through the grass and fuming, something large flapped away overhead.

Kerrik.

Come back to me, love, I thought, along with some less printable things. And then I added, Alive, and in your rightful shape, dammit.

I waited.

The day passed, and I waited some more.

Another day passed, and finally I sighed to hide my uneasiness, and went down to the market square to see if there was any news.

Oh, there was news, all right: Kundin had just bought himself a brand-new horse, a shining black stallion like none anyone had ever seen.

I bet.

He’d bought the beast from Ashaqat the Horse Trader, a stocky more-or-less honest little man. Ashaqat, when cornered by me, admitted that yes, he’d known it was no true horse he was selling, but that Kerrik had sworn him to secrecy. “Kundin didn’t argue,” he said. “Just paid my price right off. Didn’t like my rope halter, though: Threw his own onto the, uh, horse.”

Oh. No. “His own halter didn’t have iron in it, did it?”

Ashaqat blinked in confusion. “Yes. Think so.”

Damnation! Iron’s the one metal that plays havoc with shifters, blocking their powers. Kerrik was chained up in horse shape as long as that halter stayed on him—and Kundin, by that deliberate use of iron, showed that he knew perfectly well he’d just caught himself a shifter. And if he kept Kerrik trapped in that form—

Not for long, I told the sorcerer silently. Not my husband, curse you.

But how was I going to get Kerrik out of that mess? I couldn’t just shift my way onto the estate; Kundin had made it clear that he was sensitive to a shifter’s magic.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.