Silverlight Read Free Page B

bruises.”
    “I know.”
    The marks on her body disturbed me greatly.
Pale scars crisscrossed the tops of her thighs and stomach. I traced the marks
with my fingers and whispered, “What happened to you, little one?”
    Amori dabbed at Kymber’s head. “Her skull’s not
broken, but this is a nasty wound. Damn near clear to the bone.” She pulled her
glasses to the end of her nose and leaned in for a closer look. Sighing, she
rolled her leather satchel open and prepared a needle for stitching.
    “That thief in the red shirt. He hit her as
hard as he could.” I soaped up the other cloth and dabbed gently at Kymber’s face.
Other than a long, thin scar on her jaw, it was unblemished, though her eyes
were hollow and ringed with bluish shadows. I could see blue veins pulsing beneath
her translucent skin.
    She was still so beautiful she stole my breath.
    Amori mended the wound by candlelight as I
washed Kymber’s neck, arms and hands, finally her chest, rinsing the cloth by
turns as I went all the way down to her toes. The water in the basin quickly
turned a dull gray.
    “Are you finished?” I asked Amori. “I’d like to
roll her over.”
    “Three more.” Amori bit her lip and stitched
the bloody flaps together with a deftness that came from practice. “Hold on.
I’ll help you.” She rose from the bed and put one hand on Kymber’s hip, the
other beneath her shoulder. Together, we rolled her onto her stomach.
    I barely registered Amori’s gasp. My own breath
caught as my vision hazed red.
    There was no doubt that Kymber had suffered at
someone’s hands. Scars laid down by a lash laced her back from shoulders to
buttocks. I burned white-hot inside. “Who did this to you?”
    “Someone beat her, Magnus,” Amori whispered,
her eyes wide in the flickering light of the candles. “Who would do such a
thing to this sweet girl?”
    “I don’t know,” I murmured, but the thought was
immediate:  An enemy, but whom? Under what circumstances? If she wasn’t
dead, why didn’t she try to find me?
    I had known Kymber well enough at one time to
answer at least one of those questions .
    Because she couldn’t.
    I didn’t understand. If someone had held her
against her will, she would’ve fought until she freed herself. I stared at the
scars across Kymber’s back and legs. Unless she’d tried and paid for it. The
beatings she’d taken – more than a few – had been severe.
    Amori helped me roll Kymber onto her back and
dress her in the tunic she’d brought. I tried not to notice how boneless Kymber
seemed, how her head lolled in my hand. “It’s simply not possible that someone
could have taken and kept her,” I said. “She was perfection itself with a
sword.”
    “Aye, she was, but she was also aware of her limitations.
She knew her gender made her a target.” The innkeeper’s wife gave me a sharp
look. “Kymber told me once she trained twice as hard as the rest of you to
negate what she viewed as her only disadvantage. ‘I refuse to be the weak link
among them,’ she said.”
    “I know.” Truth be told, I was stung by Amori’s
assertions. I didn’t know Kymber had felt that way. “She wasn’tthe weak
link, Amori. She was never the weak link, but neither would she take
unnecessary risks. I remember Marilian like it was yesterday. She was
levelheaded and calm the whole time.”
    “What happened at Marilian, Magnus?” Amori
inclined her head with the question. “Who was the last to see her alive?”
    The Battle of Marilian had become somewhat of a
black hole for me. I could dredge it up if I had to, but I was never sure if
the memories came to me in the order they’d happened.
    Perhaps the innkeeper’s wife was on to
something. I could still see Kymber’s face as I gave instruction that day. If I
could piece together the battle’s last moments, what happened after I left her
with my brother, I might be able to make sense of why I’d been told she was
dead when she wasn’t.
    “We were