The Lady's Man Read Free Page B

courage, something we discovered from the first.”
     
    “He could have crept up and killed the bandits who ambushed us as they feasted and got drunk on our rations while chaining us for sale as slaves. Or he could have shot them with his arrows from concealment. Though those were surely the safest options he did neither. Those are not the ways of an honourable paladin. Instead he approached them openly, weapons sheathed, and demanded their departure and our release. Naturally they just laughed, never understanding that he was simply letting them either retreat or come to him, not even wondering that a wild heart should talk to them.
     
    Then when they attacked as he knew they would, he let his sword speak for him. A dozen he killed or crippled in mere seconds, and the rest he sent running with his crossbow bolts in their shoulders. His skill with the blade is beyond anyone's I have ever seen, and he moves so fast it was as though the others were standing still against him. His skill with the crossbows can match the best longbow work of our finest archers. Those brigands will not return any time soon, and if and when they do they will not attack innocents again. Or at least not successfully without strong arms to wield their weapons.”
     
    “Are not knights supposed to be civil?”
     
    Not that he knew anything much about them, but for a knight the human had been most rude.
     
    “You were not so civil to him either child, and he was as he said, in a hurry. There is a burden laid upon him. A weight of darkness and suffering that holds him down and chills our souls as he nears. Death rides at his shoulder, and even he doesn't seem to know or care what the price will be for dealing that death.”
     
    “He seeks another, and when they meet, blood will be the only conversation that they will have. And while he hurries, fearing that his quarry may make it all the way to the great demon's prison, even if he does make it there he will not be safe. Despite his words Yorik will not stop at the gates to Haldesfort should they bar him. He will not permit his prey to go beyond his reach no matter where he is. His chance of victory may be minuscule and he knows it, but the weight of rage and pain at his back will push him forwards regardless.”
     
    “But to enter Haldesfort is to lose one’s soul to the Dark One.”
     
    Yet it didn't seem to stop some Avenall knew. The darkest of dark wizards when they found their time in the lands was at an end sometimes fled there, seeking a life in exile with other evil creatures in the other realm instead of certain death and eternity in the underworld. Although, how they thought that even as evil and powerful as they were, that they could live with a true demon and his kin, was beyond him.
     
    “I think Yorik no longer cares about such things. He cares about very little at all other than vengeance. Nor I suspect, would he be easily controlled by the evil. His own demons ride him too hard to let another take their place. Then as well I'm certain he is also a paladin, one whose training gives him resistance to evil and magic. Some of the spells he uttered as we set camp each night had that spiritual feel about them, and he spent long hours meditating during the evenings instead of sleeping. Concentrating his spiritual energies. He would make a powerful foe for anyone.”
     
    “It is ironic and sad. Though he is not a true wild heart, in some ways he has become one, on one of their blood rides no less. That much is beyond question. Yet in other ways he still holds true to his vows. He must rescue the innocent and bring them to safety, as he has done. He must act honourably, even in the midst of a fight against the most hated of enemies. It must be the most terrible of conflicts for him.”
     
    “I only wonder who he has lost, that could cause him such pain. His parents? Family? Wife? Children? He did not say and we did not ask. The pain is fresh, the wound too powerful for him to