Dragonmaster Read Free Page B

settled down, though, she was a quick and efficient worker and they harvested a goodly amount.
    “I thank you,” Gudruna said as he climbed back down from the last tree. The girl leaped out of the branches and landed beside them lightly and with surprising grace.
    Gudruna picked two bruised apples off the ground and held them out to her. As the child reached to take them and her fingers were about to touch Gudruna’s, the woman dropped the fruit. She took a step backward and waved her hand at the apples.
    “Take them,” she snapped. “And begone with you.”
    The girl snatched up the apples, gave an angry, sideways glance at Norl and then disappeared into the trees behind Gudruna’s hut.
    “Spawn of the devil, that child is, I’m certain of it,” Gudruna said as she led him to the door. “She should be run out.”
    “Why?” Norl asked.
    “There’s something not right about her. A whiff of evil itself.”
    “But you let her work for you,” Norl said.
    “Because I do not have to pay,” Gudruna answered defensively. “I’m a poor woman. I have to save where I may. Come in with you, then.”
    Norl paused for a moment and stared into the trees, but there was no sign of the strange child.
    Nor was there any sign of her when he took his farewell the next morning. Gudruna’s supper had been meagre and she had offered him nothing to break his fast this morning, but at least he had slept warm and dry. As he made his way out of the village, he thought once of the girl, then forgot about her. Every step was taking him nearer to Caulda. That consideration filled his mind to the exclusion of everything else.

CHAPTER THREE
    G udruna had given him a few apples—bruised ones, he noted—and he munched on those as he made his way along a path that rose through the trees. He did not stop until late that afternoon, when he came upon a clear, fast-running stream. He drank deeply, then dropped his pack beneath a tree near a clearing and went back into the woods to set about snaring a hare for his dinner. He had not forgotten how to accomplish that, but by the time he had succeeded, the sun was setting and the shadows were growing long.
    He made his way through thick underbrush back to where he had left his pack, his mind so full of the doom that almost certainly awaited him that he hardly noticed where he placed his feet. As he broke out of the woods and reached the stream, he heard a cry that startled him out of his thoughts. There, beside the stream, crouched the girl from the village, shouting at something or someone.
    At the same moment he heard a snort. A boar peeredout from the edge of the trees at the other side of the clearing. It was pawing the ground, challenging her. Even from this distance, Norl could see its blood-red eyes, inflamed with fury. As he watched, it lowered its head and raked at the ground with wickedly pointed long tusks. Then it snorted again, raised its head and charged.
    Norl did not stop to think, did not even realize he had moved, but suddenly he was in front of the girl, braced to meet the crazed animal. He staggered as a wave of rage surged toward him. It enveloped him, clouded his mind—he felt his head fill with the insane red frenzy. Then, without willing it, he felt his mind gather the fury, bind it and hurl it back.
    The boar stopped in its tracks as if it had been speared. For one long moment the animal stared at Norl and Norl stared back, keeping the wall of fury between him and it. Incredibly, the boar turned and melted back into the trees.
    Norl stood frozen for one long moment more, then his knees buckled and he sank to the ground.
    “How did you do that?”
    The girl was staring at him, wide-eyed and incredulous.
    Norl could not answer. His stomach churned and he knew if he spoke he would be sick. He motioned her away.
    She backed over to the tree where he had left his pack, not taking her eyes off him for a second.
    When he had himself under control, he dared to stand again. He