Alanna: The First Adventure Read Free

than her brother. With all his heart Coram Smythesson wished now, as he had in the past, that Alanna were the boy.
    He was about to get his wish, in a left-handed way. The sun was glinting from directly overhead—time for the noon meal. Coram grunted orders to the cloaked child, and they both dismounted in a clearing beside the road. Pulling bread and cheese from a saddlebag, he broke off a share and handed it over. He also took the wineskin down from his saddle horn.
    â€œWe’ll make the wayhouse by dark, if not before,” he rumbled. “Till then, we make do with this.”
    Alanna removed her heavy cloak. “This is fine with me.”
    Coram choked, spraying a mouthful of liquid all over the road. Alanna had to clap him on the back before he caught his breath again.
    â€œBrandy?” he whispered, looking at the wineskin. He returned to his immediate problem. “By the BlackGod!” he roared, turning spotty purple. “We’re goin’ back this instant, and I’m tannin’ yer hide for ye when we get home! Where’s that devils’-spawn brother of yours?”
    â€œCoram, calm down,” she said. “Have a drink.”
    â€œI don’t want a drink,” he snarled. “I want t’ beat the two of ye till yer skins won’t hold water!” He took a deep gulp from the wineskin.
    â€œThom’s on his way to the City of the Gods with Maude,” Alanna explained. “She thinks we’re doing the right thing.”
    Coram swore under his breath. “That witch would agree with you two sorcerers. And what does yer father say?”
    â€œWhy should he ever know?” Alanna asked. “Coram, you know Thom doesn’t want to be a knight. I do.”
    â€œI don’t care if the two of ye want t’ be dancing bears!” Coram told her, taking another swallow from the skin. “Ye’re a girl.”
    â€œWho’s to know?” She bent forward, her small face intent. “From now on I’m Alan of Trebond, the younger twin. I’ll be a knight—Thom’ll be a sorcerer. It’ll happen. Maude saw it for us in the fire.”
    Coram made the Sign against evil with his righthand. Magic made him nervous. Maude made him nervous. He drank again to settle his nerves. “Lass, it’s a noble thought, a warrior’s thought, but it’ll never work. If ye’re not caught when ye bathe, ye’ll be turning into a woman—”
    â€œI can hide all that—with your help. If I can’t, I’ll disappear.”
    â€œYer father will have my hide!”
    She made a face. “Father doesn’t care about anything but his scrolls.” She drew a breath. “Coram, I’m being nice. Thom wouldn’t be this nice. D’you want to see things that aren’t there for the next ten years? I can work that, you know. Remember when Cook was going to tell Father who ate the cherry tarts? Or the time Godmother tried to get Father to marry her?”
    Coram turned pale. The afternoon the tarts were discovered missing, Cook started to see large, hungry lions following him around the kitchens. Lord Alan never heard about the missing tarts. When the twins’ godmother came to Trebond to snare Lord Alan as her next husband, she had fled after only three days, claiming the castle was haunted.
    â€œYe wouldn’t,” Coram whispered. He had always suspected that the twins had been behind Cook’s hallucinations and Lady Catherine’s ghosts, but he hadkept those thoughts to himself. Cook gave himself airs, and Lady Catherine was cruel to her servants.
    Seeing she had struck a nerve, Alanna changed tactics. “Thom can’t shoot for beans, and I can. Thom wouldn’t be a credit to you. I will, I think. You said yourself a grown man can’t skin a rabbit faster’n me.” She fed her last piece of bread to Chubby and looked at Coram with huge, pleading eyes.