Days Of Light And Shadow Read Free Page B

that was why no one else had asked the question either.
     
    “An abomination.” He said it calmly, as if it was a word that he spoke every day. As if it wasn’t a word from a thousand year old nightmare. A word she didn’t want to hear. But she didn’t want to hear it because she knew he was right. They all did. The creature could be nothing else. Demon blood and demon magic flowed through its veins. And it could only be one demon. The Reaver. A demon that was never a part of this world. And a demon that they had to pray could not be back.
     
    The captain didn’t look at her. That was good. He was an intimidating man, half human, half elf and all ranger, and possessed of what was known by the people as a thousand pace stare. Captain Maydan never looked at a person, he looked straight through them at something far beyond. And the scars on his face didn’t help. Three vertical streaks that cut from the top of his head to his chin, just missing his right eye. They made him seem less than friendly. The others had told her that they were from a cave bear, given to him when he was just a child, but if so she had to wonder why they were still so prominent now that he was a man. The healers should have been able to smooth them away. 
     
    But of course the low born, the people from lesser houses and those from no houses at all, didn’t have the silver for healers. And the captain was of mixed blood. He likely had no house at all to speak of. Though she hadn’t asked, it was likely that he had become a ranger because it was the only profession open to him. The same was true of many.
     
    Those who rode took the cloak usually for one of only three reasons. They had crimes to expunge and it was an accepted form of penance. They had issues of honour to repay, and the rangers were a means back to grace. Or they had no other choice. All other means of making a living could never be theirs. That was her reason for joining. It was this or becoming a cleaning woman like her mother.
     
    House Accora had fallen on hard times many years before, and all of its half dozen families were impoverished. Two disastrous years when the rain had not fallen as it should and the grass had not grown, had made raising horses across Elaris a difficult profession. Few of their normal clients, farmers mostly, had had the gold to pay for their horses. By the end of the second year the house had lost all of their half dozen studs and a thriving wheelwright concern as well.
     
    Riding with the rangers paid better than cleaning and brought some much needed silver back to the house. It was one of the few respectable occupations that was open to women. And it let her ride, and if she could no longer raise horses, at least she could still be around them.
     
    Of course there was a fourth reason for taking the cloak. A very rare fourth reason for wearing it. Some believed it was their calling. Maybe, the captain was one of those. Behind his scars and inside his mixed blood skin, he was a man of honour. Cold, stark and harsh honour, but honour none the less. They might not be the Royal Watch, dressed in chain and tasked with the noble duty of serving the high lord, but they had pride and that which they served, the Grove, was to be honoured as greatly as the Heartwood Throne. Even if High Lord Finell seemed to disagree.
     
    “So what do we do?” Grun spoke up, his deep powerful voice booming so loud in the silence of the glade. But then anyone who had troll blood in him as he surely did, was never quiet. Which still made it hard to understand how he could have become a ranger, a force where the skills of sneaking and running silently were highly prized. But he could do that. Despite his immense size, Grun could move very quickly and quietly when he wanted to. He could even remain unnoticed in plain sight. As long as he didn’t speak.
     
    “We take it to the elder.”
     
    “The witch! By the Mother!” Dura only whispered the words, but she was