A Man Rides Through Read Online Free PDF

don't know." Babbling. "Somehow. To get rid of Geraden. Geraden is the only one who doesn't trust him." Terrified. "Eremis and Gilbur are working together. And Vagel. He lied to the Congery." Trying to distract him. "Eremis brought Nyle to the meeting of the Congery. He said Nyle would prove Geraden is a traitor, but that was a lie. They set this up together. They planned it." Trying to create the illusion that she made sense. "It's a fake. They staged it. They must have."
     
    Deaf to the illogic of her own defense, she insisted, "Nyle is still alive."
     
    Watching her, the Castellan wanted to crow for joy. "No, woman." His jaws throbbed with the effort of not sinking his teeth into her. "Tell me how. How did he escape? How did you help him escape?"
     
    Finally she caught hold of herself, closed her mouth on her panic. Shadows flickered in and out of her eyes; she looked as desirable as an immolation.
     
    "He's no Imager," Lebbick went on. "And there isn't any way he could have left those rooms except by Imagery. So you did it. You translated him somewhere.
     
    "Where is he, woman? I want him."
     
    She stared at him. Her dismay seemed to become a kind of calm; she was less frantic simply because she was so afraid. "You've gone crazy," she whispered. "You've snapped. It's been too much for you."
     
    "I won't hurt him." The Castellan's face felt like it was being split apart by the stress of restraint. "It isn't really his fault. I know that. You seduced him into it. Until you arrived, he was just another son of the Domne—too clumsy for his own good, but a decent boy. Everybody liked him, even though he couldn't do anything right. You changed that. You involved him in treachery. When I get my hands on him, I won't even punish him. I just want him to tell me the truth."
     
    Suddenly, like dry brush on a smoldering blaze, Lebbick yelled at her, "When IS he?"
     
    She flinched, cowered. Just for a second, he believed that she was going to answer. But then something inside her stiffened. She raised her head and faced him squarely.
     
    "Go to hell."
     
    At that, he laughed. He couldn't help himself: he laughed as if his heart were breaking. "You little whore," he chortled, "don't try to defy me. You aren't strong enough."
     
    At once, he began to speak more precisely, more formally, tapping words into her fear like coffin nails. "I'm going to start by taking off your clothes. I might do it gently, just for fun. Women are especially vulnerable when they don't have any clothes on.
     
    "Then I'll begin to hurt you." He took a step toward her, but didn't release his arms from his chest. "Just a little at first. One breast or the other. Or perhaps a few barbs across your belly. A rough piece of wood between your legs. Just to get your attention." He wished she could see what he saw: his wife being stretched out in the dirt by those Alends, her limbs spread-eagled and staked so that she couldn't move, the delicate things the garrison commander had done to her with small knives. "Then I'll begin to hurt you in earnest.
     
    "You'll beg me to stop. You'll tell me everything I desire, and you'll beg me to stop. But it will be too late. Your chance will be lost. Once I begin to hurt you, I will never stop. I will never stop."
     
    She was so vividly appalled—the fright on her face was so stark—that the sight of it cost him his grip on himself. His arms burst out of his control; his hands caught her shoulders. Snatching her to him, he covered her mouth with his and kissed her as hard as a blow, aching to consume her with his passion before it tore him to pieces. Then he hugged her, hugged her so urgently that the muscles in his shoulders stood out like iron.
     
    'Tell me the truth." His voice shook, feverish with distress. "Don't make me hurt you."
     
    She had her arms between them, her hands against his chest. But she didn't struggle: she surrendered to his embrace as if the resistance had been squeezed out of her. If he