Rebel's Cage (Book 4) Read Free Page A

that would burn quickly, warming air frozen from months of winter. Only when he was sure the boy was no longer in danger of freezing to death did he turn and eye the horse.
    It watched him warily, as though able to read his thoughts. He chose to ignore it, clearing more snow from the ground to give the animal somewhere to forage. Give it time to calm down, that was the thing. Give them both time.
    He gathered more wood, stoked up the fire, making sure he kept himself warm, since he’d lost his cloak. The pain in his side sank to a dull heavy throb. Two years and still the wound hadn’t healed. He doubted it ever would now, though the doctors insisted it was just a matter of time. But he didn’t have time. None of them did.
    The boy hadn’t moved, he just lay wrapped in Robert’s cloak, white face, blue lips, dark hair. Small and slight, a pale shadow about seven or eight years old. Out here alone. On a horse bearing a fine-quality saddle which …
    Robert fell to his knees beside the boy, tugging the cloth back from his face to reveal young features that were far too familiar for him to ignore.
    ‘Andrew?’ Robert whispered. ‘But what in the name of the gods are you doing …’ He stopped, looked up across the lake, putting together last night, and the night before, the directions, the raid, the chase, the route to escape. In the dark, it had been impossible to tell how far he’d gone, exactly where his horse had finally thrown him.
    ‘Serin’s blood! I have to get you home before …’ No, he didn’t think how this boy’s mother was the woman he’d once loved, the woman who’d betrayed him. He had learned long before that such thoughts were anathema. Instead, he kepteverything centred on warming the still body, on gaining the horse’s trust, on putting the fire out and getting Andrew up onto the saddle in front of him. Then, before it could start snowing again, he urged the horse to move and followed the trail back. He could only hope it would take them towards Maitland.
    Mist rose between the trees as the sun hit last night’s snow. Their passage was hidden by grey, lit by golden rays too weak to warm. But the movement did that, and the horse beneath them. Robert held onto Andrew, keeping as much of his body covered as possible, feeling, eventually, some twitches, and then shivers begin to rattle through the slight frame.
    How in Mineah’s name had he got so far out here alone? Why hadn’t anybody missed him yet? Had he been running from some trouble?
    Was his mother nearby?
    Such a question almost froze him on his journey, but Andrew began to cough and Robert kicked the horse into greater movement. Soon he no longer needed to follow the tracks, he recognised the landscape.
    He paused while still under cover and some small distance from the cottage to Seek for possible trouble, to find out if there was more than one person behind those walls.
    All was well, as quiet as it appeared. Carefully, Robert brought the horse to the edge of the trees, where a clearing opened out to face the house. To one side was a tiny stable, large enough perhaps for two horses and a bale of hay. Keeping hold of Andrew, Robert slid from his horse to the ground and made his way around the building to duck into the stable unseen from the house. There he laid Andrew down where he would be safe. The child was shivering violently. Soon his muscles would start to ache and the pain would be enough to wake him up. Robert would have to be gone before then.
    He had a moment, no longer, a moment in which to feel a thread of excitement run through him. He had an idea, no more, probably foolish, probably doomed to failure.
    He reached out, brushed the hair from Andrew’s pale forehead and pressed two fingers there. ‘Know me,’ hewhispered, exerting the power needed to enforce the command. ‘Always know my aura. I will not forget yours. Listen and learn.’
    He could hear movement from within the house. He had to go or he would be