Read Online Slight and Shadow (Fate's Forsaken: Book Two) by Shae Ford - Free Book Online

along his cheekbone and stopped just short of his left eye. The depth of the scar warped his mouth, giving him the look of a man who had something rather unpleasant growing under his nose.
    “You tried to kill us,” Dred said, when Kael didn’t reply. His eyes roved down to Kael’s wallet of knives. “Did you kill Grout? Answer me, rat!”
    Kael flinched as Dred kicked a large clump of dust into his face.
    “Of course he killed him!” the giant with the chest wound piped in. He leaned forward and spat in the dirt near Kael’s head. “He’s a little monster.”
    “Someone ought to check in those trees over there,” Dred mused. His eyes lighted on Dingy — who quickly shook his head.
    “My rump’s too sore, General.”
    “That’s not my problem, now is it?”
    “But there could be more of them! What if I wind up like Grout?” Dingy pleaded. When that didn’t work, he changed tactics. “We don’t have time to walk all the way back there. We’ve got precious few hours before dawn, after all. And if we show up late, His Lordship’ll flay our hides.”
    He glanced at the others for support, and they quickly nodded. Grout’s fate came second to a flogging.
    “He’s going to flay us anyways,” Dred snapped at them. “We’re going to turn up one man short —”
    “Not if we bring him ,” Dingy said, thrusting a finger at Kael. “His Lordship always needs fresh beasts. And with the Duke’s shipment running late —”
    “Shut it.” Dred fingered the scar at his lip, thinking. And Kael held his breath.
    He could see the road from the gap between Dred’s legs, and the cart hadn’t quite made it over the horizon. A cloud of dust still hovered very clearly where the wheels had rolled by. If the giants turned back towards camp, they would see it.
    Please don’t turn , Kael thought furiously, trying to force his will through the iron plates of Dred’s helmet. Forget about Grout — head for the castle.
    After a long moment of thought, Dred took his hand away. He seemed about to speak when a strange noise cut over the top of him. It came from further up the road, away from the cart’s path.
    And Kael recognized the familiar, ear-grating sound immediately.

Chapter Five
    A Fool’s Help
     
     
     
     
     
     
    “What in all clods was that?” Dingy hissed. He spun around, and Kael saw that he did, indeed, have a knife stuck in his right buttocks. He yelped when Dred reached forward and yanked it free.
    “I’m not sure,” Dred muttered, inspecting the bloody knife. He stiffened when a second note trembled through the air, more annoying and ghastly than the last. His knuckles whitened around his pike as he took a few halting steps forward. “Let’s move out — quietly, now. And don’t forget the rat.”
    One of the giants jerked Kael to his feet. “What’s this?” His hand closed around the wallet of throwing knives and Kael heard the leather snap as he ripped it free. “No more pokey thorns for you,” he said, waving the wallet in Kael’s face. “Now get trotting.”
    Kael did have to trot to keep up with the giants’ long strides. They moved quickly down the road — and every time a note danced through the air, they seemed to move faster. It wasn’t long before the moon slipped beneath the clouds and hid the land beyond in darkness.
    When the giants stopped to light more torches, Kael noticed that they held their pikes much tighter than before — and their heads never stopped swiveling.
    “It’s Scalybones,” one of the giants hissed, when a particularly screechy noise came out of the scrubs to their left. “Oh, he’s getting closer!”
    “He’s going to make shirts out of our scalps.” Dingy had removed his helmet and was running a hand worriedly through his stark white hair. “Mum used to say — ow!”
    Dred smacked him smartly across the head. “Scalybones is a myth — nothing more. And I’ll prove it.”
    Without warning, he stomped over to the scrub bushes. Kael