Raven's Shadow Read Free Page B

mage, and that being young and female makes me harmless.”
    â€œWe can’t afford to linger here,” he said briskly, though his heart picked up its beat. He’d gotten familiar with mages, but that didn’t make them any more comfortable to be around when they were angry. “Are you ready?”
    She spun from the window, her eyes glowing just a little with the magic she’d amassed watching her brother’s body burn.
    Doubtless, he thought, if he knew exactly what she was capable of he’d have been even more frightened of her.
    â€œThere are too many here,” he said. “Take what you need and come.”
    The glow faded from her eyes, leaving her looking empty and lost before she stiffened her spine, grabbed both bags resolutely, and nodded.
    He put a hand on her shoulder and followed her out the door and down the stairs. The room had cleared remarkably—doubtless the men had been called to witness the writhing corpse.
    â€œBest be gone before they get back,” said the innkeeper sourly, doubtlessly worried about what would happen to his inn if the men returned after their newest fright to find the Traveler lass still here.
    â€œMake sure and burn the curtains, too,” said Tier in reply. There was nothing wrong with any of the furnishing in the room, but he thought it would serve the innkeeper right to have to spend some of Tier’s money to buy new material for curtains.
    The girl, bless her, had the sense to keep her head down and her mouth shut.
    Out of the inn, he steered her into the stable, where the stable boy had already brought out his horse and saddled it. The Traveler handcart was set out, too. The girl was light, so Skew could certainly carry the two of them as far as the next village, where Tier might obtain another mount—but the handcart proposed more of a problem.
    â€œWe’ll leave the cart,” he said to the boy, not the Traveler. “I’ve no wish to continue only as fast as this child could haul a cart like that.”
    The boy’s chin lifted. “M’father says you have to take it all. He doesn’t want Traveler curses to linger here.”
    â€œHe’s worried that they’ll fire the barn,” said the girl to no one in particular.
    â€œServe him right,” said Tier in an Eastern dialect a stable boy born and raised to this village would not know. The girl’s sudden intake of breath told him that she did.
    â€œGet me an axe,” Tier said frowning. They didn’t have time for this. “I’ll fire it before we go.”
    â€œIt can be pulled by a horse,” said the girl. “There are shafts stored underneath.”
    Tier snorted, but he looked obediently under the cart and saw that she was right. A clevis pin and toggle allowed the handpull to slide under the cart. On each corner of the cart sturdy shafts pulled out and pinned in place.
    Tier hurriedly discussed matters with the boy. The inn had no extra mounts to sell, nor harness.
    Tier shook his head. As he’d done a time or two before, though not with Skew, Tier jury-rigged a harness from his war saddle. The breast strap functioned well enough as a collar with such a light weight. He adjusted the stirrups to hold the cart shafts and used an old pair of driving reins the boy scavenged as traces.
    â€œYou’ve come down in the world once more, my friend,” said Tier as he led Skew out of the stable.
    The gelding snorted once at the contraption following him. A warhorse was not a cart horse, but, enured to battle, Skew settled into pulling the cart with calm good sense.
    While he’d been leading the horse, the girl had stopped at the stable entrance, her eyes fixed on the pyre.
    â€œYou’ll have time to mourn later,” he promised her. “Right now we need to move before they return to the inn. You’ll do well enough on Skew—just keep your feet off his ribs.”
    She scrambled up somehow,