Read Online Dragonswood by Janet Lee Carey - Free Book Online Page A

weapon. “I saw you at the harvest feast.”
    Sunlight speared the clouds, the single beam fired his green tunic, his sword sparked, the brightness burned my eyes. A chill tore through me. The green man from my fire-sight. It was he.
    He sliced the air just as he had in my vision. My knees nearly buckled, but I held my place.
    “You are in my part of Dragonswood,” he said.
    “We’ll go,” Poppy cried. “We promise.”
    “This man was in Lady Adela’s custody.”
    “Don’t turn us in, sir,” Meg pleaded.
    “Quiet, Meg,” I warned. If he wasn’t thinking of the bounty money she’d offered for us, he’d recall it now.
    “You’re the ones the witch hunter is after,” he said, putting two and two together with Meg’s help.
    “We’re none of us witches,” she went on. “We aren’t. We’re innocent.”
    “Stay back!” I drew my knife. It was nothing to his sword, but I could not run and leave my friends here with Tom. So that was why I didn’t run when I saw this in the fire-sight .
    “Why draw your knife, lady?”
    “Put away your sword!”
    He didn’t move. “Harm any one of us and I’ll slit your throat,” I warned.
    “Lady leper,” he said. “I have no intention of harming you or your friends if you vacate my wood.”
    The lady leper was in jest. He’d seen Meg and Poppy dancing in the barn and knew we were not infected. “We’ll clear out. No one has to know you saw us here.”
    The woodward tipped his head, gesturing toward the distant boundary wall. “I’ll escort you out.”
    We were less than half an hour’s walk from Kingsway Road. I knew, for I’d gone back and forth from it to beg, but Tom was too ill to move his legs. Meg and Poppy grunted, dragging him between them. I would have offered to help, but I had to keep my knife handy in case the woodward turned on us. Our armed escort was growing more and more impatient with our slow progress. At last he stopped. “Your man looks half dead and the rest of you don’t look much better.” He frowned a moment. “You’ll be arrested in a snap once you’re exposed.” He ran his hand through his hair, paced. “I should not do this, God knows.”
    Tom moaned. His head rolled forward.
    “I’ll shelter you four until you’re strong enough to go,” the woodward said.
    I stayed my ground. I was desperate for help, but not stupid. Shelter us and he could lock us in, go off and find the witch hunter, and gather his reward. “Tell us first where you take us.”
    “The king’s hunting lodge is not far off, a few hills over.” He pointed. “I am called Garth. As woodward I guard the king’s lands, as huntsman I stay in the king’s lodge and tend the animals kept there year-round. Call me Garth Huntsman if you like, and come if you wish to stay under my roof until your man here has mended.”
    “Praise the angels,” exclaimed Poppy.
    The bloodhound inched up and sniffed my hand. The huntsman said, “Stop that, Horace.” Horace stepped away with his tail between his legs.
    I was still wary. This man had vanished from his corner when Lady Adela rode in. Still, he’d recognized Tom, so he must have slipped deeper into the shadows in the barn and stayed long enough to hear Lady Adela’s offer to pay good tender for us. “How do we know you won’t turn us in?”
    “You can’t be certain what I’ll do,” he agreed. “But your man will die without help.”
    “We’ll go with you,” said Meg hurriedly.
    I stayed put, my hand on my knife.
    “Tess!”
    “Quiet, Meg!”
    “Tess,” he said, hearing my name and calling me by it for the first time. “By my troth, I won’t turn you in,” he said. “I will not feed the witch hunter any more logs for her fire!”
    There was no trace of deceit in his face, his eyes fully fixed on me and his sword down now, his hand gripping the hilt, but gently.
    “Not even for the bounty, sir?”
    “Stubborn girl, my own grandmother was tried for witchcraft! She was made to walk the