Magic and Loss_The Internet as Art by Virginia Heffernan

Magic and Loss_The Internet as Art by Virginia Heffernan

Author:Virginia Heffernan [Heffernan, Virginia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00P434HC0
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2016-06-07T00:00:00+00:00


Chapter Twelve

“WILL IT WORK?” Sir Brian glanced from the brightly-costumed youth to Rhys. “Even if he gets inside Glynllew, there is no assurance they won’t kill him.”

Biagio made a familiar gesture. “Pah! I will entertain them so well they will reward me with good wine and loose women.”

“Partake sparingly of the first, and leave the last alone,” Rhys said curtly. “Failure will be fatal for more than just you.”

“An unnecessary reminder, grim knight,” Biagio muttered. He deftly tossed a dagger into the air, followed swiftly by two more, juggling them agilely before catching them one by one by jeweled hilts. Then with a flourish, he made them disappear in the blink of an eye. He smiled at the astounded Brian. “‘Tis magic.”

“‘Tis foolery. Look in his sleeves,” Sir Robert suggested, but Brian refused.

“Nay, ‘tis best not to get too close to evil,” said the Irish knight with a dark frown.

Rhys ignored him. He turned to Elspeth, who perched on the cart tail and watched with an expression he could not interpret. “Will he succeed, goodwife?”

“He is adept at trickery, so has more chance than most,” she replied, her English bearing traces of a Salfordshire accent. “But he is also adept at empty boasts.”

Eying Biagio, Rhys wondered if he should reconsider. While word had come earlier that the soldiers he had hired weeks ago had finally reached Wales, their numbers were still unequal to the garrison inhabiting Glynllew. Trickery would earn them time to reconnoiter and concoct an effective assault plan. It would also lessen the danger to Sasha.

“Can he find the maid?” Rhys asked abruptly.

“Aye, if she is willing to be found, he will do so.”

Rhys studied the older woman. Doubt lay in her words, but he could not place the cause. Gray-streaked brown hair tucked beneath her cap; blue eyes met his gaze calmly, forthright and unafraid. “You think she went willingly?” he asked.

“Do you?”

“I vow, I do not know what to think. She confounds me,” he admitted.

Elspeth shook her head. “Nay, my lord, it is doubtful Sasha went willingly to the men who hold her, but she may not be willing to endanger Biagio by letting him find her. It is not the first time the two of them worked at odds to escape consequences of their exploits.”

“Elspeth frets too much,” Biagio interrupted. “Age addles her mind.”

“Not as greatly as youth addles your judgment,” she retorted. “There is not time enough to recount your foolish schemes that near ended in disaster.”

Sir Robert intervened. “Recount your plan, young master, so that we may be prepared for possible difficulties.”

Shrugging, the youth flung a sulky glance at Elspeth. “‘Tis simple enough. I present my talents to the constable for the castle’s entertainment. Once I am inside, I determine the strength of the force and search for Sasha.”

“Did you not forget an important part of the plan?” Sir Robert asked mildly.

“Oh, aye. I am to poison the wine.” He smiled at Brian’s exasperated curse. “Not a fatal potion, alas, but one to render ineffective all those who drink.



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.
Popular ebooks
The Kubernetes Operator Framework Book by Michael Dame(7728)
Web Development with Julia and Genie by Ivo Balbaert & Adrian Salceanu(6181)
State Management with React Query by Daniel Afonso(3455)
Eleventy by Example by Robinson Bryan;(3384)
Architecting Vue.js 3 Enterprise-Ready Web Applications by Solomon Eseme(3094)
Building Python Web APIs with FastAPI by Abdulazeez Abdulazeez Adeshina(2992)
Digital Marketing with Drupal by José Fernandes(2826)
Becoming an Enterprise Django Developer by Michael Dinder(1243)
Building Python Web APIs with FastAPI: A fast-paced guide to building high-performance, robust web APIs with very little boilerplate code by Abdulazeez Abdulazeez Adeshina(1182)
Operator Training Simulator Handbook by Joseph Philip(1151)
State Management with React Query by Afonso Daniel;(1093)
Practical WebAssembly: Explore the fundamentals of WebAssembly programming using Rust by Sendil Kumar Nellaiyapen(1079)
Google Workspace User Guide: A Practical Guide to Using Google Workspace Apps Efficiently While Integrating Them With Your Data by Balaji Iyer(1066)
Hands-on Cloud Analytics with Microsoft Azure Stack: Transform Your Data to Derive Powerful Insights Using Microsoft Azure by Prashila Naik(1047)
Building SPAs with Django and HTML Over the Wire: Learn to build real-time single page applications with Python by Andros Fenollosa(1000)
Building Data Science Applications with FastAPI by François Voron(977)
Modern Frontend Development with Node.js by Florian Rappl(929)
High Performance with Laravel Octane by R. Butti(917)
Kubernetes Design Patterns and Extensions by Onur Yilmaz(908)
JavaScript from Frontend to Backend by Unknown(819)