Queen of Swords by Christine Cazaly

Author:Christine Cazaly [Christine Cazaly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Book Vault Press
Published: 2023-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six

After the first, almost silent, rush across the Mage Tree Meadow, to the shadowed closeness of the forest, Joran slowed to allow Petronella to catch up. She snatched air into her lungs, regretting the lack of strength in limbs grown slack over the recent, mostly sedentary months. Joran glanced around, uttered a curse, and grabbed her arm.

“Now is not the time to collapse. Keep up, or I leave you.”

She returned his glare, shifting her bag higher over her shoulder. “I can keep up.”

Joran snorted, resuming his steady march. She clenched her teeth and lengthened her stride, glancing about her at the early morning forest.

A few lonely birds conversed in hushed voices above her head. The ever-present dampness dripped from the branches as they made their way through the trees, keeping to the brambled byways bordering the muddy path. Apart from those chirps and whistles and a faint sighing wind, it was almost preternaturally quiet. The dense forest stretched around them. A sea of fresh greens.

They were both watchful, listening for the sound of pursuit. Joran’s hand clamped around the hilt of his sword, ready to draw it at the first hint of danger. Petronella found her own hand closing around the butt of her dagger in sympathy, and she lifted her legs high to clear the tangle of brambles that tore at her boots and threatened to trip her on every other step. Her thigh muscles were soon cramping with the effort to keep her feet on the treacherous mud. Determined not to complain at the pace he set, she held her peace and squelched after him.

At the end of the trail, a tree blasted to a blackened stump, its trunk split long ago, blocked their way. Petronella glanced around as she caught her breath, looking for the route Mistress Eglion had told them. She could see nothing. The forest encircled them, a poisonous emerald peppered with fungi and moss that dangled from boulders and trees alike.

“There’s no path here. What did she mean?”

Joran stood for a moment, surveying the territory. He turned in a small circle, his blue eyes narrowed. They exchanged glances of alarm as the rumble of voices grew closer in the distance.

“She wouldn’t have put us in harm’s way. Would she?”

Joran shrugged off the leather pack he wore over his cloak and hid it under a bush. “Not deliberately, no.” He jerked his chin at her dagger. “Is that the only weapon you have?”

Petronella nodded, her lips thinning as she retrieved it from its leather sheath.

“And do you know how to use it?”

“Would it surprise you to know I do?” she asked, biting down on a more sarcastic remark.

He eyed her with frank disbelief.

“A useless, runaway queen? Yes, it would.”

Eyes narrowed; Petronella shot out her hand. The dagger whistled past Joran’s right ear and buried itself in the tree behind him.

“I trained at Mistress Eglion’s insistence, with one of our best knife fighters from the age of eight, until I left my home to become Arion’s queen.

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