Read Online Oathblood by Mercedes Lackey - Free Book Online Page A

They have promised to return soon and in force, since the bandits have not ceased raiding us, and I’m morally certain they’ll be willing to escort you.”
    â€œMy thanks for your concern, merchant,” she replied with a gentle and bored haughtiness, “but I fear my business cannot wait on their return. Besides, what is there about me that could possibly tempt a bandit?”
    Those whose ears were stretched to catch this conversation could easily sympathize with Grumio’s silent—but obvious—plea to the gods for patience, as they noted the lady’s jewels, fine garments, the weight of the cart holding her possessions, and the well-bred mares she and her maid rode.
    The lady turned away from him before he could continue; a clear gesture of dismissal, so he held his tongue. In stony silence he watched the train form up, with the lady and her maid in the center. Since they had no driver for the cart—though he’d offered to supply one—the lead-rein of the carthorse had been fastened to the rear packhorse’s harness. Surmounting the chests and boxes in the cart was a toothless old dog, apparently supposed to be guarding her possessions and plainly incapable of guarding anything anymore. The leader of the train’s six guards took his final instructions from his master, and the train lurched off down the trade road. As Grumio watched them disappear into the distance, he could be seen to shake his head in disapproval.
    Had anyone been watching very closely—though no one was—they might have noticed the lady’s fingers moving in a complicated pattern. Had there been any mages present—which wasn’t the case—said mage might have recognized the pattern as belonging to the Spell of True Sight. If illusion was involved, it would not be blinding Kethry.
    â€œOne among the guardsmen
Has a shifting, restless eye
And as they ride, he scans the hills
That rise against the sky.
He wears a sword and bracelet
Worth more than he can afford
And hidden in his baggage
Is a heavy, secret hoard.”
    One of the guards was contemplating the lady’s assets with a glee and greed that equaled his master’s dismay. His expression, carefully controlled, seemed to be remote and impassive—only his rapidly shifting gaze and the nervous flicker of his tongue over dry lips gave any clue to his thoughts. Behind those remote eyes, a treacherous mind was making a careful inventory of every jewel and visible possession and calculating their probable values.
    When the lady’s skirt lifted briefly to display a tantalizing glimpse of white leg, his control broke enough that he bit his lip. She was one prize he intended to reserve for himself; he’d never been this close to a highborn woman before, and he intended to find out if certain things he’d heard about bedding them were true. The others were going to have to be content with the ample charms of the serving maid, at least until he’d tired of the mistress. At least there wouldn’t be all that caterwauling and screeching there’d been with the merchant wenches. That maid looked as if she’d had a man twixt her legs plenty of times before, and enjoyed it, too. She’d probably thank him for livening up her life when he turned her over to the men!
    He had thought at first that this was going to be another trap, especially after he’d heard that old Grumio had tried to hire a pair of highly-touted mercenary women to rid him of the bandits. One look at the lady and her maid, however, had convinced him that not only was it absurd to think that they could be wary hire-swords in disguise, but that they probably didn’t even know which end of a blade to hold. The wench flirted and teased each of the men in turn. Her mind was obviously on something other than ambushes and weaponry—unless those ambushes were amorous, and the weaponry of flesh. The lady herself seemed to ride