A Royal Rebellion Read Online Free PDF

be impossible. Almost as impossible as saving him. Reynard was tasked by duty and …love, to protect Edward and Percy and their babe. He refused to fail. He would never let them down, and while his heart ached fiercely with the need to save Mason, he couldn’t abandon his charges to do so. Mason was trapped, by his word and his blood, and the only one who could help him was himself.
     
    ***
    Percy
     
    Percy stayed behind Edward, one hand clutched in his master’s jacket. They were in the market, Reynard a few steps away, arguing with a shady looking man about accommodations for the night. They had left the derelict micro-city behind, and were now days further east. Ten days in total since they had escaped the capital, and they were all feeling it. They were coming up on a portion of the country that was fully wild and untamed forests, sprinkled with small hamlets and tiny towns, and large, sprawling country estates much like Hartgrove. Here the estates were vineyards and orchards, all dormant in the winter months, surrounded by dense old wood forests.
    The town they were in was near an estate called Estiary, which Percy thought odd. Edward grew grim, mouth tight, and Reynard looked like he was ready to murder someone, but they needed to stop for supplies, and this town was the last one before a long stretch of wilderness. Percy could tell from the way both men were reacting to the name of the town that something was very wrong, and Percy stayed in Edward’s shadow, head down, doing his best to be unobtrusive and forgettable.
    “The inn is your best bet, my lord,” sniveled the odd man Reynard was speaking to, “the one next to the pub. The Discontent Noble is the pub’s name. Can’t miss it.”
    The odd man, thin and whip-like with a narrow countenance and gray overtones to everything from hair to skin, pointed down the length of the market. “The bar and pub are closed until noon, then open for lunch and evening business.”
    “Thank you,” Reynard said, dropping a golden half-piece coin in the man’s hand before nodding and walking back towards where he and Edward were waiting next to a wall. The odd man watched them as Reynard walked away, biting the coin before grinning and ducking out of sight in the crowd.
    “He was a bit …off,” Edward murmured to the captain once he was in earshot. “Will he cause us trouble?”
    “Probably, but we haven’t got much in the way of options.” Reynard jerked his head down the market, and Percy and Edward followed him, Percy between both men. Edward had his arm around his shoulders, and Reynard walked close enough to touch him, their arms occasionally brushing. He felt dwarfed and sheltered between them, and he was thankful he had yet to feel smothered. Reynard continued speaking, voice low, head tilted down to make it harder for them to be overheard. “If we had secure computer access or untraceable cells, this would be easier, but I asked around. This whole village is owned by the local nobleman, and there’s only one inn. No apartments for rent or lease, no vacant homes we can take over without being noticed. The estate controls the power, the internet, even the local cell tower, so I believe everything is monitored, nothing secure.”
    Reynard frowned, glaring back down the length of the market. “So unless you want to rough it in the forest, we have little choice but to stay at the inn.”
    Percy shivered, thinking back to how uncomfortable it had been a few nights back, sleeping at a rest stop off the highway between towns. He may fit comfortably in the rear of the SUV, but Edward and Reynard were too large to find any decent rest in the vehicle.
    “Should we risk staying at a public establishment?” Edward asked, tone curt, arm about Percy’s shoulder tightening. “What if someone sees us and reports us to the authorities?”
    “Just having you two walk around in public is too much of a risk, if you’re going to be asking that,” Reynard snapped,