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

hardly had a moment to be worried before Dred jabbed the butt of his pike into the middle of them. There was a thud and a sharp yelp.
    “Ha!” Dred reached into the middle of the bushes and flung the wraith out among them — lanky limbs and all. The giants swore and jumped backwards; several held their weapons protectively over their chests. But Kael was far more furious than scared.
    Jonathan the Fiddler looked up at him sheepishly. An angry red patch was swelling rapidly over his eye.
    “There’s your Scalybones,” Dred said triumphantly. “It’s naught but a spindly little forest man.”
    “Ah, not just a spindly forest fellow,” Jonathan sprang to his feet and drew his bow across his fiddle in a less-atrocious note, “a bard of the realm, at your service.” He bent rather clownishly, swinging his arm out beside him in the courtliest of gestures.
    Kael silently begged him not to overdo it.
    “A bard, eh?” Dingy said, rubbing his sore rump thoughtfully. “We could use one of them. Lord Gilderick’s hall needs music.”
    Dred made a frustrated sound and flicked one massive hand towards the road. “Then we’ll let His Lordship decide what to do with him — if he doesn’t mince us on sight, that is. Move out, blisters! We’ve got a long road and a short while before sunrise.”
    They forced Jonathan and Kael to the front of the line and set a fast pace for Gilderick’s castle. Though they had to move at nearly a half gallop to keep the pikes off their backs, the giants were far from sympathetic: they lowered their weapons and made it clear that they would stop for nothing.
    “We’ll carry you in by your ribs, if we have to,” one of them called, drawing a round of jeers from the others.
    It wasn’t long before the hard-packed road began to make Kael’s legs ache. He could feel his boots rubbing large, twin blisters into his biggest toes. But he hardly noticed his discomfort.
    He was still too angry with Jonathan.
    What in Kingdom’s name had he been thinking? It didn’t matter what sort of evil awaited them in Gilderick’s realm: giant warriors, witches, a vat of two-headed snakes — with enough time to think, Kael knew he could escape any cage they threw him in. But now that he had Jonathan tagging along, escape would be much more difficult.
    He waited until the giants’ chatter billowed up again before he shot the fiddler what he hoped was a dangerous look.
    Jonathan licked his lips. “Now, now — I know you’re upset —”
    “Blasted right, I am,” Kael snapped back. “You should’ve gone with the cart. I won’t be able to save you if they take you into the castle. You do understand that, don’t you?” he added, when Jonathan opened his mouth to retort. “This isn’t going to be like sacking the Duke — there’s no dancing in Gilderick’s realm. And there’s very likely no escaping, either.”
    Jonathan was quiet for such a long moment that Kael’s anger cooled and he began to regret what he’d said. The giants had been about to turn around for camp, after all. And Jonathan’s ruse had given the pirates the chance to escape. They might all be in irons, had he not led the giants away.
    Kael was just about to apologize when Jonathan spoke: “ You’re not stupid, Jonathan ,” he muttered, a small smile pulling at his lips, “ but you are a fool ! That’s what Garron always used to say to me. He said I was one of those blokes who could never get his boxes stacked in the right order — and that I shouldn’t be surprised when the whole lot came tumbling down on me. Maybe I should’ve gone with the cart,” he touched the skin around his swollen eye gingerly, “but I couldn’t leave you on your own. So come blisters or bruises or ole Gildepants, himself — you’re stuck with me, mate.”
    “You are a fool,” Kael said back. But he couldn’t keep his face serious for long under Jonathan’s silly grin. He broke into a smile — and punched Jonathan in the arm when