The Blade's Shadow by Lisa Blackwood

Author:Lisa Blackwood [Blackwood, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: New
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2019-04-28T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Zinura was grinning as she left the practice area. After Tirigan had partnered up with Crown Princess Asharru, Hunzuu had come over to her and said he’d continue her training.

Goddess, it was strange to think she now had her freedom and served a queen and a Blade.

Earlier, though she’d already been tired from the bout with Tirigan, she hadn’t hesitated to accept Hunzuu’s offer for more training. There was a goodness and competence to the guardsman that Zinura found compelling. That was certainly a first. Zinura hadn’t ever had reason to trust a male before, let alone admire one for his character.

Though Hunzuu was a full-blooded gryphon, so perhaps that’s why she felt safe with him. He wasn’t likely to corner her in some back hall or empty chamber. In the past, most of her masters were humans or hybrids.

But whatever the reason, she found she liked the gryphon male.

That was a first and almost enough to make Zinura toss caution to the wind and openly court Hunzuu to see if she caught his gryphon’s interest. Almost, but not entirely.

Zinura had only just gained her freedom; she wasn’t ready to tie herself to some male, not even one she liked. For now, she was content to continue with the shared training sessions with her mentor and see what developed.

Distracted by her thoughts, she didn’t realize she’d turned down a wrong corridor until she was partway down its dimly lit length. Sighing, she glanced up and down the tunnel, trying to determine which one she was in. Ahead torches still burned, but only every third one was lit, which meant this was one area where the work crews were still cleaning out rooms.

She’d just started back the way she’d come when she heard the scuff of a boot heel against the stone floor. Before she even glanced over her shoulder, a hand clamped over her mouth. A heartbeat later, cold metal pressed against her neck.

“Don’t struggle if you wish to live,” whispered a male voice that was as cold and unforgiving as the knife pressed to her neck.

Zinura tensed instinctively but forced herself to relax again, her mind working feverishly to come up with ways to escape, but no matter what plan she thought up, nothing she’d learned so far would allow her to break free of her captor without getting her throat slit first.

After a moment, she concluded the only chance of escape would come later, once the man had removed the blade from against her throat.

With no other option open to her, she forced her body to relax and allowed her captor to drag her backward into a shadowy side corridor. As the light dwindled in the distance, she rethought her choice, but before she could do more than half formulate a plan, a sharp blow to her temple stole the last of the fading light as her body went limp.

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