The Demon Horsemen Read Free

now.’
    ‘So is she if we don’t stop the bleeding.’
    ‘Careful. This one’s a killer.’
    ‘If she tries anything, pull the trigger.’
    A grinning face appeared above her, a young man with a red cap and a stubbled chin. Hands pulled at her legs and arms and she yelped as pain shot through her shoulder. She wanted to fight, but her energy had melted into the earth. She closed her eyes.

C HAPTER T WO
    ‘ M eg! Meg, come quickly! It’s Whisper!’
    Meg pushed back her high-backed chair and headed for the stone corridor connecting the reading room to the library. She found Chase and Wahim crouched over a small black form stretched out on the marble floor. Blood pooled around the little animal’s body. Meg gasped and pushed past Chase to kneel beside Whisper.
    ‘She’s been shot,’ Wahim said.
    ‘Where’s Swift?’ Meg asked.
    ‘She hasn’t come back,’ said Chase apprehensively. ‘Do you think…?’
    ‘Whisper wouldn’t leave her out there alone,’ said Meg. She turned to Wahim. ‘Find Erin and bring him here. Quickly!’
    Wahim ran from the chamber, calling Erin.
    ‘What do we do?’ Chase asked.
    Meg ignored the question, her attention focussed on the bush rat’s shallow breathing. She carefully searched the black fur and found two holes, one behind the neck, another in her stomach. ‘You poor little—’ she began and choked, tears welling as she fought back a sob. For almost fifty years, Whisper had been her constant companion, her saviour in dangerous moments, hersanity. Whisper had watched over her when she was shot by Kerwyn marauders and left to die at the edge of the stream in Summerbrook.
    ‘Can you heal her?’ Chase asked.
    Erin entered. ‘What’s happened?’ he asked, and squatted beside Meg. ‘Oh, in Jaru’s name,’ he muttered and pressed his right hand against the rat’s soft fur.
    ‘I can heal her,’ Meg said.
    Erin pushed her hand aside. ‘No, I will. Besides, with the amber inside her, she’s already beginning to self-heal. Where’s Swift?’
    ‘We have to find her,’ said Chase.
    ‘I’ll go,’ Meg declared, rising.
    ‘I’m coming,’ Wahim said.
    ‘And me,’ Chase added.
    Meg fixed them with a cool glare. ‘You will both stay here where it’s safe. You’re no match for soldiers with peacemakers. Do whatever Erin asks to help him heal Whisper. I’ll bring Swift back.’
    ‘Alone?’ asked Chase.
    ‘Alone,’ she said.
    She looked down at Erin who was gently stroking Whisper’s fur and crooning. ‘Are you sure she’ll be all right?’
    He nodded. ‘You know I can do whatever it takes. The amber in me is the same as the amber in you. And this is my sister, after all. She will live.’ He smiled as reassurance, but Meg saw the fear behind his mask.
    She turned to the chamber entry, touched her chest where the sliver of amber was embedded and focussed until a blue haze of light formed in the doorway. ‘I’ll bring Swift back,’ she reiterated to Chase and Wahim, then walked into the portal.
    Chase nodded to Wahim and both men lunged for the doorway, but the portal vanished before they reached it, leaving them in the empty corridor.
    Meg assessed the changes in the Khvech Daas ruin, saw the path cut through the foliage and headed for it. She had to locate Swift quickly. With Whisper so badly injured, it was almost certain that Swift was in equally serious trouble. Or dead . She flinched at the dreadful thought that she may have lost another member of her family, and before she had even been able to claim her as her granddaughter.
    She scanned the city ruins for signs of other people and was surprised to find nothing obvious—no dragon egg fabric, no smoke, no movement to indicate the presence of Kerwyn soldiers. She touched the amber embedded in her chest. A long time ago, before she had rejected the responsibility that came with bearing the sliver of amber passed down the generations, A Ahmud Ki had told her that her power was limited only by her