Dragonblade Trilogy - 02 - Island of Glass Read Free

Wrexham banners waving in the wind.
But something else caught their attention: a lone figure moving off of the road
and into the trees. It was at some distance, a black little spot with legs.
Kenneth focused in on it, as did Lucius and Everett. As they drew closer, it
appeared to be a figure on a small palfrey or donkey. The little beast’s legs
were moving furiously, making haste for the shelter of the forest.
    Lucius frowned. “Go see what that
is,” he told Kenneth.
    Kenneth spurred his unruly animal
into a gallop. He knew it would be no time before he overtook the figure on the
palfrey. He entered the border of trees nearly the same time as the figure did.
    “Halt,” he ordered.
    The figure kept going. Kenneth
rode up beside it and gave a shove to the shoulder, sending it tumbling to the
wet ground. He heard a high-pitched cry, indicating to him that the figure was
a woman. As he brought his horse around, the lady came to her feet and took off
through the bramble at a dead run.
    Kenneth spurred his charger after
her. His prevailing emotion was irritation; the woman was small, dodging
through some bushes that he couldn’t get through on his big horse. A savage
game of cat and mouse was afoot as the two of them plowed deeper into the
forest.
    He followed her, closer at some
times, further away at others.  She was fast and she was clever. The more she
ran, the angrier he became. At one point, he fell in directly behind her and
she ducked into a cluster of close-knit trees. He should have known better; he
was too close and going too fast when she led him through some heavy branches.
Unable to respond fast enough, a big branch caught him and knocked him off his
charger.
    Rising from a supine position in
full armor was no easy task, but Kenneth managed to do so quite ably. Aggravated,
he suspected the woman was somewhere out the trees, well ahead of him and well
rid of him. He couldn’t remember the last time someone, especially a woman, had
bested him. In fact, there had never been a time to his recollection. His anger
grew, but more at himself. As he considered which direction to take, something
heavy struck him on the back of the head.
    The blow pitched him forward onto
his knees. Dazed but not senseless, he rolled onto his back, away from the
follow up strike he knew was coming. It also brought him face to face with his
attacker and, for a moment, he could not believe his eyes. The woman he had
chased all over Creation had a large piece of wood in her hand, swinging it at
him with the intent to kill him.
    But she made a mistake that would
cost her. She was too close as she came in for another hit. Kenneth lashed out
with a massive leg and took her feet out from under her, reaching out to disarm
her as she fell. He tossed the wood far off into the trees, pinning the woman
to the ground in the same motion. She was small and no match for his strength.
    “Get off me!” she fought and
grunted. “Let me go!”
    Kenneth’s vision was still
muddled from the blow, but it wasn’t so muddled that he couldn’t see what lay
beneath him. A woman with the most astoundingly beautiful face he had ever seen
lay there, her sea-colored eyes blazing and her rich brown hair spread over the
ground like angel’s wings. Before he could utter a word, she thrust her head
forward and smashed him in the nose with the top of her head. It was a brutal
move. Blood spurted but he didn’t let go; he let it drip down onto her soft
white neck.
    “Oh!” she shrieked. ”You are
bleeding on me!”
    “That is your misfortune.”
    She stopped squirming and glared
at him. “If you do not release me, I swear I shall do more than bloody your
nose. I shall wring your neck!”
    He had no idea why that statement
made him want to smile. It was a struggle not to react. He leapt off of her
with the agility of a cat and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her up with him
in the same motion. “I would sincerely like to see you try,” he said.
     The woman