Cold Hearted Son of a Witch (Dragoneers Saga) Read Free

ranger had lost a melon-sized chunk of his arse to a goblin’s maw. Apparently the wound itched all the time, for he scratched at it constantly.
    Over the weeks that had passed since the battle over Mainsted, he’d lost a lot of weight. He looked to have aged a handful of years in that span, too. His growl told Jenka that he was wrong.
    “You’ll be leaving on the morrow, boy. You can hurry the bastards from Midwal to Three Forks where they’ll be safe for a few days. If you don’t dink around you might make it back in time to see yer fellow Dragoneers off, but after that you’ll be escorting us all the way to Kingsmen’s Keep.”
    “You said us .” Jenka felt a spark of hope. Traveling with Herald was seldom dull. “You’re going too?”
    “If I can shake that witch I am,” he had to whisper the last few words because ‘that witch’ and the other two Dragoneers were quickly approaching.
    Rikky’s chair made a rhythmic creaking as he rolled himself across the tiled floor. The sound filled the sudden silence.
    Even before she was in the light thrown by the ensconced torches on the blocked stone walls, Jenka could see Zah’s lavender eyes. Her stark white hair hung in neat, wetly combed strands, the ends splaying over the shoulders of her emblazoned armor vest. The silver triangle tattooed on her forehead glowed amber with the reflection of the torch flames. The thin lines across the bridge of her nose and the square and circle designs on her cheeks were barely visible.
    Jenka was so taken with her exotic beauty that he just stood there and looked at her until Mysterian whacked him on the shin with her cane. “I see you’ve not been pondering my reasoning,” the old gray-haired witch cackled sarcastically. Then to Herald, she said, “I’d bet the makings of my most sought-after curse that King Blanchard tries to get me to undo him and Linux this night.” She cackled again. “Sooner or later I’ll do it, but it won’t be today.”
    Just then a side door opened and Linux, in King Blanchard’s bulky body, stepped into the lair. “It needs to be soon, witch,” Linux said in the king’s voice. “The way his Highness abuses my core, it won’t be fit to inhabit before long.”
    “You should have thought about that before you soul-stepped him, then,” she retorted.
    Linux stopped and took a deep, calming breath before nodding a greeting to the others.
    Jenka shivered, thinking what it must be like to be trapped in another man’s body. It was even stranger being around King Blanchard. He was still the boisterous, often drunk, monarch of the realm. But more than just being trapped in the druid’s body, it was clear he hated having to act the part of the druid in public. No one but the Dragoneers, and a handful of others, knew about the switch.
    As if he’d been reading Jenka’s thoughts, King Blanchard came bursting in through the main entry. “I don’t care what you do with the man, dear. Just get it done.” He was talking to Queen Alvazina as a husband speaks to his wife, but it was Linux’s body having the conversation.
    Jenka had to shake his head.
    “Watch it,” the queen scowled at her husband. He scowled back at her, then motioned for Herald to take a seat at the long, oak table board. The queen paused in front of her son’s impotent form and sniffled a few times. But then, with a huff, she gathered herself and joined the table.
    Jenka grinned knowingly when Zah eased past him. She smiled a smile that only he could see and he was lifted by it. Rikky looked up and rolled his eyes. King Blanchard spoke to Linux and Mysterian for a moment. A short, snapping argument of hissed whispers ensued, after which both men skulked to the table with their heads hung low. Herald chuckled. Jenka could have told them that Mysterian wasn’t going to listen. She and the Outland wizard, Vax Noffa, were the only two people alive that could undo their predicament. She wasn’t ready to do so yet, and it was