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But it wasn’t his fault that Gray-Jeweled bitch had tricked him It wasn’t his fault that the side scheed with another Black Widow had ruined a good aarded his mother as the family whore, an acconed to visit them It wasn’t his fault that the damn man who had sired him couldn’t keep his mouth shut, couldn’t accept that all ofTerreille was slowly changing, not just the lousy little Province he lived in

It wasn ‘t his fault

Stab stab stab

"Lord Krelis"

And now he had to deal with that aristo bastard Maryk who must resent every breath he took because Maryk now had to yield to hi hi hard, Krelis stepped away from the strawslithered in the depths of Maryk’s eyes as he regarded the figure tied to the whipping posts

"He was a difficult slave," Maryk said carefully, lifting his voice at the end to make it almost a question

Puzzled Krelis looked at the straw man

He saw the blood Smelled the bowel And couldn’t reure for a living man

"I’ll take care of it," Maryk said quietly "Get cleaned up"

Krelis dropped the knife and walked away, stu a little, and feelingin Maryk’s eyes was pity

Chapter Seventeen

"Well?" Jared asked when Blaed met him where the main road forked with a stony track

Blaed patted the sweating ive her a chance to stretch her back

"I didn’t see any sign of riders passing down that track," Blaed said cautiously, "but it’s stony ground" Then he took a deep breath and huffed it out "Hell’s fire, Jared, I’uard I can handle a knife, and I kno to fight with Craft, but I could have looked at so obvious and not known it The track does seeh to accoh there’s a stretch that looks like it was cut out of the rock Noroom there"

"So once we’re in that stretch, we’re co forward"

Blaed nodded

Jared rubbed his thue nest of viper rats a the boulders I didn’t see theriht avoid having one of theet bit"

Blaed waited "Well?"

Jared looked back up the road he’d spent the past hour scouting, probing "I found signs of a large group of riders having coo Maybe two But I didn’t find theround"

"And a Black Widow can spin a web that would defeat that probe"

An uncomfortable silence settled between theon late last night During the talking and planning, a lot of things had been revealed

Lia had told Thera and Blaed the reasons the "Gray Lady" had gone to Raej one last tiness she had felt and about the warning note that had sent the cross-country

But she didn’t tell thee on a second Coach

Then Thera had told the three of theon

Jared still wasn’t sure if he’d have felt easier if he’d known about Thera’s precaution earlier, but that kind of skill in a witch not fully trained had served as a sharp reminder of why Black Widoith their ability to ensnare or deceive a person’sweb A fairly siered by a psychic probe, the web returned aThe probe would touch the web and deliver a si there

While they were still at the inn Lia had brought theled webs into the wood of the wagon--one on each side She couldn’t--or wouldn’t--say why she’d done it But Jared suspected she’d been covering her own tracks, just in case her sire had somehow been able to trace her to the slave auction It didn’t really inally created those webs to hide, the result was the sa their journey had so one of those brass buttons and found "nothing there"?

And had he really seen evidence of an abandoned cao, or could thosenearby in the land’s led web?

Jared broke the silence first "The road loops, then heads north"

Blaed nodded slowly, looking at the track that forked with the road "The track’s a shortcut then If marauders blocked both ends, we’d be trapped on it" He closed his eyes "Jared, the Winds cross that track right near the stretch of boulders"

Jared swore fiercely While it was custo places--and it was certainly safer since there wasn’t the risk of dropping froround--the Blood could catch the Winds or drop fro the way Which

If they abandoned the wagon and horses, he could put a Red shield around all of them and they could ride the Winds the rest of the way to Ranon’s Wood Even shielded, riding that dark a Web would be an unco them--and a desperate one for Cathryn, Tomas, and Garth, who couldn’t rideany of the Winds without the protection of a Coach<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>