Warrior (2010) by Archer Zoe

Author:Archer, Zoe [Zoe, Archer,]
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2011-01-14T19:19:57+00:00

Sunrise was not for some time, but Thalia was already awake. Despite the long hours in the saddle and her physical exhaustion from the trying day, her sleep had been shallow, her dreams troubling. She kept seeing the face of the man she had killed, kept watching him ride up the hill over and over, and each time she raised her rifle and the shot fired sounded louder than disaster. But in her dreams, the man would fall off his horse and roll down, down the hill, until he lay sprawled at her feet, and his face would no longer be his face, but her father’s. Blood, bright and accusing, covered her hands.

Many times, over the course of the night, she would wake, gasping and sick. Then she would turn her head toward where she knew Captain Huntley was sleeping, and, somehow, he was always awake when she was, because she would hear his voice say to her softly, “Easy, lass. The dreams will stop, in time.”

It didn’t seem that way. It didn’t seem that she could ever fall asleep again, but she would, after hearing the captain. She didn’t know why she found his presence nearby comforting, and it disturbed her that she did. Even so, she did drift off again, back to the nightmare. Would it always be this way? He didn’t think so. She wanted, at least, to believe that much.

Thalia now lay still as she fully wakened, looking up at the dark sky, marshalling her strength and her cunning. She and Batu would have to be extremely quiet, more quiet than silence itself, if they were to evade the captain. She supposed they could knock him unconscious with the butt of Batu’s heavy muzzleloader, but after everything that Captain Huntley had done for them, it would be unforgivable for her to physically hurt him. He’d helped save her from the Heirs’ violence, and she could not repay him with more of the same. But she did need to be free of him, for the sake of the Blades and everything they protected. She had no choice in the matter.

She would have to move soon. Thalia watched as one star, and then another, began to wink out with the approach of morning. They had camped for the night, wrapped in blankets that had been packed on the horses. Had she been traveling for any other reason, she would have stopped at a nomad’s ail for the evening and saved herself and Batu the discomfort of sleeping on the hard, bare earth. She understood that she could receive hospitality at any ger, whether she knew the family or not. It was the Mongol way never to refuse food or lodging to anyone. But she hadn’t the time to stop, pay the usual respects, socialize over a meal, and perhaps perform a few chores to repay her hosts. So she had gone out of her way to avoid any gers, making sure that she and her party could not be seen by anyone at the encampments.

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.