Archiwum
- Index
- Roberts Nora Miłość na deser 01 Miłość na deser
- Giovanni Guareschi [Don Camillo 01] The Little World of Don Camillo (pdf)
- Anthony, Piers Tarot 01 God of Tarot
- Christine Young [Highland 01] Highland Honor (pdf)
- 398. Gerard Cindy Dzikie serca 01 Ni srebro ni złoto
- Carter Ally Dziewczyny z Akademii Gallagera 01 Powiedziałabym ci, że cię kocham ale
- Ciara Lake [Xihirian Shifters 01] Xihirah [Siren Classic] (pdf)
- Janrae Frank Journey of Sacred King 01 My Sister's Keeper
- Sandemo Margit Saga o Królestwie Światła 01 Wielkie Wrota
- Waverly Shannon Antalogia Noworoczna 01 Wesołych Świąt, Aniołku
- zanotowane.pl
- doc.pisz.pl
- pdf.pisz.pl
- epicusfuror.xlx.pl
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keep her well away from the pounding falls. She took several deep breaths, forcing all the air she could in and out of
her lungs, and then dove.
Cold water searched through her clothes, dispelling the warmth of her body. At least it wasn't the numbing cold
of the high rivers that could kill a swimmer before she realized she was in danger.
She swam for the bottom and stroked along, having learned as a child that if you didn't stay close to the
bottom, the buoyancy of your lungs would drag you up. Her hands deflected several rocks, but she missed one that
scraped her cheek. Then the current took her.
It was far more powerful than she'd thought it would be, dragging her over the rough riverbed like a runaway
horse, rolling and twisting her. She slammed sideways into a rock, bruising her ribs, forcing the air from her straining
lungs. Was she out of their sight? She tried to orient herself, but she couldn't be sure, and she had to breathe now!
Bracing her feet against a stone, she poked her head into the air, gasping as quietly as she could, clinging to the
rock. She dashed the water from her eyes and looked around. She'd come farther than she thought. The rock was
between her and the cliff top, but there was the bend and the soldiers were coming around it!
Ducking under the surface, Makenna felt her way carefully around the rock, surfacing cautiously this time, just
her eyes above the river until she was sure neither the soldiers on the cliff top nor the ones on the riverbed could see
her. She risked a glimpse upriver. They'd almost reached the rope, and the men at the top were standing, calling down
to them. She couldn't make out the words over the roar of the falls, but they weren't pointing down the stream to
where she was.
The wet, moss-slick rocks and the hidden cave would keep them busy for a time. Makenna silently wished them
a merry hunt and dove again, not surfacing until the current had carried her around the curve and out of sight.
In the end, she let the current take her all the way to the place where the river broadened and the ravine walls
fell away. Swimming on the surface, she could avoid the rocks. Once she was accustomed to the chill, it was
comfortable to let the water carry her, though she took care to stay out of the deep, fast current.
She staggered, dripping, out of the shallows and found the small glade where she'd told the Flichters to meet
her. A warming spell took care of the worst of the cold, but her wet clothes promptly chilled her again. She took the
risk of sitting in the afternoon sunlight to dry off while she waited. And thought.
There was no way the men on top of that cliff could have been part of the group that originally pursued her.
They'd been waiting for her, perhaps even before the chase began.
A chill that had nothing to do with wet clothes made her shiver, and she wrapped her arms around her knees.
They had known, in advance, that she would be there and had planned to pin her in the ravine. A good plan,
too now that she had time to be frightened, she was terrified at how nearly it had worked. If the men on the cliff top
had been a little more cautious, she'd have been trapped in the cave. If the men who were chasing her had been just a
little faster they'd have seen her dive in, and they could have caught her easily in the river. But they'd probably seen no
reason to hurry, since she was running right into their trap. No wonder it had been so easy to outrun them they were
driving her, not chasing her. She shivered again.
Had someone from the settlement found the ropes and guessed about that part of her plan? It seemed the only
possible answer, though she'd concealed the ropes as well as she could. And there was no reason for the settlers to go
near the ravine. They got water from the stream, and their stock was pastured on the other side of the camp. Perhaps
some children out exploring? Once the ropes had been reported, she thought Master Lazur was capable of figuring out
how they might be used. But still . . .
The chill of dread was growing. Even before the time the Flichters were to have met her came and passed,
before she saw the bruises on Cogswhallop's face when he finally emerged from the bushes, Makenna knew in her
bones that something had gone wrong.
CHAPTER 14
The Knight
TOBIN DEVELOPED A NAGGING COUGH, and his fever came and went.
"Aye, they'll do that," Natter informed him.
"But when will it go away completely?"
"When it does. You'll be lucky if it doesn't get worse before it gets better."
Tobin sighed. At least she was speaking to him.
"Don't pull that long face on me, human. You're lucky to be alive. I'm nursing you only because the mistress
wants it."
He started to laugh, which made him cough, and she slammed the door behind her.
His ankle was all right as long as he kept it propped up on pillows with a cold compress, but if he lowered it, it
started to throb. Putting any weight on it was excruciating.
"I'd rather have the chain back," he grumbled to Erebus when the goblin came to visit him.
"Well, likely the mistress will heal it for you when . . . ah . . ."
"When she gets back? When will that be?" Erebus was shaking his head. "She already told me she planned to
attack the settlement. She even told me how that she's going to draw off the soldiers and let the goblins in to wreak
havoc."
"We all fight with the weapons at hand, Sir Tobin. Even you."
"I know, but that lunatic girl is going to get all kinds of people killed if she's not stopped. Goblins, too!"
"Ah, but the goblins being killed was the reason she started or, at least, one of them."
"So when will she be back?"
"Since you know so much already . . . I'm guessing two days there, a day to finalize plans, the day of the attack,
a day after to heal up and rest, and two days back. Throw in a day for things to go wrong, and you've got just over a
week. Mind, I'm just guessing."
"A week? I'm going to be stuck in bed for a week? Couldn't someone else heal me?"
Erebus snorted. "You were a much better prisoner than a patient!"
Now he was both. Tobin fought down the irritation that seemed to come over him so easily these days. "I'm
sorry."
Erebus reached out and pressed a small palm against his face. "Aye, that's all right. Being sick makes us all
cross. But you'll have to wait for the mistress to get healed, for no one else can do it."
"If I promised not to escape "
"I didn't say won't, lad. I said can't. The mistress is the only human here. Therefore she's the only one who can
heal."
"But I thought healing was one of the simplest spells. Can't all goblins work magic?"
"Ah, you don't understand. And no reason why you should, since it hasn't been explained. But as I understand
it, human magic is an unformed talent to manipulate almost any aspect of nature. Some have none of this talent, some
have much, and some in between. And it must be trained in order to be useful. Have I got that right?"
Tobin thought of Jeriah's theory that the choosers selected children to be trained as priests for the degree of
their magical talent instead of their holiness. "Possibly. Yes."
"I'm going to want some information in trade for this, mind, but goblin magic is different. We're all born with a
gift, but it's to manipulate only one aspect of nature, and it's as much instinctive as trained."
"You work magic by instinct?" asked Tobin skeptically, remembering Master Lazur's rows of spell books.
"Aye, exactly. Why not? Though it's not entirely clear whether all gifts are magical. Take the Stoners. They can
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