Read Online The Sword by Jean Johnson - Free Book Online Page A

face, then quickly refolding her arms again as several of them eyed the bare flesh of her abdomen, which had been exposed by the action. “I take it you’re going to use some kind of magic to drive them out of the castle, and if I stay exactly where I am, they won’t be able to get at me while you’re getting them out?”
    â€œNo, we’re going to drive them to the center of the castle and kill them there,” Saber corrected. He started to give the order to spread out to begin the spell-wrought driving, then eyed her. “And every other insect, spider, rodent, snake, and bug inside the actual palace, though we should leave the necessary beasts in the gardens alone.”
    His gruff addition made her arch a brow. “Thank you, Saber. That’s very considerate of you.”
    It was growing darker and getting harder to tell if that was a slight flush on his cheeks, or if it was just a trick of the fading light. “We’re behind in our spring cleaning,” he growled, obviously not wanting her to think he was being kind. He turned his attention back to his brothers. “Spread out, each man to his tower. We’ll link first to set a repeller spell on the outer wall to keep anything from the outside getting in, then work our way toward the center. Drive everything into the great hall, and do not forget to assert yourself everywhere. Just in case. Open doors and so forth. Koranen, you can flame them when we get there.”
    â€œWhy can’t Morg do it?” the auburn-haired brother asked, puzzled.
    â€œBecause I’m tired, and he knows it,” Morganen returned. “I have enough strength left to drive a bunch of bugs out of our home, but not enough to dispose of them today.”
    â€œAnd if I burn down the Hall, and with it, the whole castle?” his auburn-haired twin shot back.
    â€œThen I’ll take it out of your hide,” Saber retorted. “Okay, everyone, spread out. And be wary when you open each door.”
    â€œWait!” Kelly watched as they all returned their attention to her. “Do you guys have a flashlight or something I could hold?”
    â€œA what?” the biggest and most muscular one asked.
    â€œA source of light?” she rephrased. “It’s getting darker out here, if you hadn’t noticed.”
    â€œI’ll get her one,” the auburn-haired one stated, and jogged toward the nearest wing. The others dispersed, scattering across the courtyard. Traveling, she noted, outside the massive, overgrown mansion of a building they had been inside of just a short while before. Within moments, Kelly was uncomfortably alone. There was a half-lit moon overhead, but it wouldn’t be enough to banish her uneasiness at being left alone in a strange place with strange things scuttling about.
    The auburn-haired one came back a couple minutes later, as she peered through the dark at the ground around her for more of those spider-not-spider things with the impossible-to-pronounce name.
    â€œHere.” He snapped his fingers and thrust an opaque white sphere at her, just a little smaller than the size of a volleyball. It looked like the ones she had seen in that workroom she had first arrived in, but it was dark, not bright, just a plain, opaque white globe that didn’t have any buttons or switches, or anything to show how she was supposed to turn it on.
    â€œHey! How does it work?” she asked quickly as he snapped his fingers a second time and turned to go. “And what was the snapping for?”
    â€œI lowered and reset the wards. And you just tap it. Softly for a little light, harder for more, and twice hard and quick to shut it off—don’t worry, it won’t break, unless you throw it off the highest tower in the castle…though I doubt it would break even then; I’m very good at making them,” the redhead added with a hint of pride and a grin as he walked backward, away from