Lover of Ghosts by Emily Veinglory

Author:Emily Veinglory
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2010-09-06T16:00:00+00:00

They were met about halfway back, in Xeras’s very approximate estimation, by a party of armed plainswomen led by Yulia herself. Kirri dropped the lead rope and ran up to Yulia. Drinia hissed and jumped clear before Yulia caught Kirri up in a brief hug. The honorable Freckles stopped as soon as the rein was dropped and waited patiently.

She wasn’t as obliging for me.

You weren’t being terribly polite to her either. Relationships tend to be reciprocal in nature. In fact even with nature.

This philosophizing was cut short by Yulia’s accusing gaze. She dropped the child to the ground and, holding her hand, approached Xeras. There were four other women with her. Two of them kept jogging down the path and the other two flanked their leader. Kirri seemed to have recovered rather quickly from her ordeal; she all but skipped by Yulia’s side.

“The baby dragon rode on my head,” she said. “He’s funny.”

“The dragon is a girl,” Xeras corrected mildly, glad to actually have some area where his knowledge outstripped that of a half-civilized child. Drinia planted herself on Xeras’s foot, although given how quickly she was growing she didn’t really fit anymore and kept sliding off.

“That funny man killed the man who tried to take me,” Kirri said, blithely taking him up as the subject of her prattling. “The funny man never told me his name.”

“How rude of me,” Xeras replied.

Quite.

“The funny man’s name is Xeras,” Yulia said tersely.

“That’s a funny name,” Kirri replied.

“That is why it suits me.”

Another look from Yulia suggested his contributions to the conversation were not appreciated. But the younger woman to her left put her hand up to cover a smile.

Yulia stooped somewhat to address Kirri. “How did Xeras kill the bad man who took you?”

“He used a knife.”

“But he doesn’t have a knife.”

“He took it from the bad man first.”

“Ah.” Yulia seemed rather skeptical.

How perceptive of her.

“Oh, don’t you start,” Xeras muttered.

“Don’t start what?” Yulia asked.

Xeras was rescued from making any reply by the return of the other two women, dragging between them the remains of Freckles’ latest victim.

Latest?

Xeras remembered to only think his reply this time. She seemed a little too adept to be a novice.

“He looks like he was beaten to death with a club, not stabbed,” Yulia observed.

“I guess I just don’t know my own strength.” Xeras chose not to look at the gruesome remains. “Of course the blood on Freckles’ hooves is entirely coincidental.”

That time even Yulia smiled, albeit only a faint flicker of that expression.

“Xeras stabbed him, and then Freckles bit him and jumped on him. She was real mad.”

“So she should be,” Yulia replied. “You go with Nalia and check on your goats. Your brother is looking after them for you.”

Xeras watched her go, blinking to keep his vision focused. Now that he was relatively safe again, the last nervous energy was draining out of his body.

“Why did he take a little girl?” he asked Yulia.

“When it comes to females, they are not very discriminating,” Yulia replied.

“Oh.” The notion of what might have happened to little Kirri literally made Xeras shiver.

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