Sword of Betrayal by Robert Evert

Author:Robert Evert [Evert, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781950502059
Amazon: B07X331RF5
Goodreads: 48052173
Publisher: Willow River Press
Published: 2019-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Forty-One

Edris stood in his father’s stables, trying to determine which horse to select. He didn’t take the decision lightly. Horses were like people; each had their strengths and weaknesses. Big Red, for example, was a reliable beast. Large and strong, and not quick to startle. That was important. In a fight, he needed to know his steed wouldn’t spook and gallop away. But Big Red didn’t have the speed of, say, Breeze—or the endurance of White Foot. The wrong horse might mean the difference between winning the quest and having to walk home empty-handed.

“Which one?” he asked himself.

“Which one—what?” an aggravated voice asked.

A boy’s head appeared above a stall wall, straw in his shaggy black hair.

“Brago!” Edris said, astounded. “What are you doing here?”

Brago stretched and stepped leisurely out of the stall. “If you recall, you told me to come here and ask for a job.”

“My father agreed to hire you? That’s terrific! He’s changed, but I didn’t think he’d changed that much.”

“It is my assumption he doesn’t know.” Brago knocked off bits of straw clinging to his patched and faded clothes. “Herschel hired me. He lets me stay in the stables and gives me a few coins here and there for various tasks somebody of my ilk can do satisfactorily.”

“He’s skimming.”

“Beg your pardon?”

“My father gives him a fixed amount to hire workers,” Edris explained. “He’s paying you less than what he’d normally pay somebody and pocketing the remainder.”

“And you’re surprised? That’s how the world works. You can’t trust anybody.”

“Can’t trust anybody…” Edris repeated, an idea taking root in his mind. He studied the stablehand.

Brago was short and slight and couldn’t fight a lick. But he was crafty and intelligent and had been living on the streets ever since his mother died several years before. He was also a skilled thief. Such skills could come in handy.

Brago stepped warily away. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“How’d you like another job?”

“That’s mighty kind of you, Ed,” Brago said, perhaps sarcastically. “What kind of animal excrement would you like me to shovel? I am well-versed in a wide variety of shit.”

“I’m not talking about manual labor. You see, I’m competing in the Kings’ Quest and I need a squire.”

“A squire?” Brago replied, offended. His dark eyes narrowed defiantly. “I will not be a servant.”

“You won’t be!”

Brago didn’t appear too convinced.

“Look,” Edris said. “You’re good with horses. And I can trust you.”

The phrase I can trust you seemed to hit some sort of mark. Brago bowed slightly.

“Thank you, Ed. You’ve always been kind to me. But what is it, precisely, you trust me to do?”

“There are going to be adventurers who will do anything to stop me from winning the quest. I need you to protect my back.”

Brago snorted bitterly. “Regrettably, I’m not exactly the fighting type. And I doubt you need protecting. What your size won’t do, your father’s well-deserved social status will.”

Edris ignored the dig at the noble class. “I don’t need a fighter…I need somebody who can keep his eyes and ears open, and maybe collect information or spy on the other adventurers.

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