Blademage Adept (The Blademage Saga Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

slice of personality that showed through the assassin’s toughened guise.
    “I’ll help,” she hissed. “But you’ll make it worth my while. Both of you.”
    Captain Yusa stopped and glanced around before speaking. “Travel to the Glimmering Isle is something that is simply not done. I…” He looked over Kevon and Alanna for a minute, then laughed. “I’ll see what Reko has to say about it. Then I’ll probably do it anyway.”
----
    “Yer certain of this Yusa? And this ‘Reko’ ye’ve never met?” Kylgren-Wode scowled as the longboat approached the pier. He blew the fresh shavings off of the alder grip he’d been whittling at, and tucked it in a pocket with its twin.
    “Who can be certain of anyone?” Kevon asked. “It may have been different for you in the Hold, but we have all felt the sting of betrayal. We’ll feel it again. The important thing is to be prepared for it.”
    “The games ye play are with yer lives, we gamble instead with honor.” The ambassador agreed. “Deception in the Hold would only feel like a knife in yer back, it wouldn’t really be one.”
    Alanna’s glare hardened, her face flushing half a shade in an uncharacteristic show of outward emotion.
    Kevon and Kylgren caught tossed lines from crewmen and helped secure the boat on the pier.
    Captain Yusa waved the two aside and climbed up from the boat himself. “No offense,” he offered, brushing himself off and standing tall before the group. “I studied the Arts for a season, to no real effect. I still like to stay clear of metal. Sometimes I feel a connection to the sea. I’d hate to lose that.”
    “No arguments here,” Kevon smiled. “Have you made your decision?”
    “Master Reko is not completely convinced, but I am captain of my own destiny.” Yusa laughed. “I’ve spent too long fishing and following the coastlines. The men are ready for adventure, as am I. We’ll reprovision, and sail with the morning tide in two days.”
     

Chapter 8
     
    Bertus knocked on the door well after the farmerfolk had left for the morning, a break in the routine of the previous few days. After riding from before dawn until after dark nearly every day the last week, the horses and the tempers of their riders were sorely in need of a break.
    “Ready!” Alma smiled, opening the door and shouldering her share of the provisions. Martin grunted and hefted his saddlebags before following her out into the hallway.
    “Breakfast is already on the table,” Bertus announced, taking Alma’s satchel and one of Martin’s saddlebags.
    “I hope it’s strips of smoked venison and lukewarm water!” Alma’s eyes glinted mischievously as she slid past Bertus down the hallway toward the little inn’s common room. Martin chuckled and followed her out to the table near the fireplace.
    “No,” Bertus whispered as they disappeared around the corner. “That’s lunch.”
    “Now that there seems to be no hurry,” Alma began as Bertus set down the bags and took his seat at the table, “Perhaps you can tell us more about why we have been hurrying.”
    Bertus waited until the innkeeper left the pitcher of milk and dish of butter and returned to the kitchen before beginning to speak.
    “What would you like to hear about first? Our battle with the Orclord? The ambush by fanatic Magi in the palace in Navlia? Or the showdown with Holten that burned down part of Eastport?”
    “Begin with our connection,” Martin suggested. “Tell us about Master Holten.”
    “Holten sent Kevon across the realm with a message that would have ended in his death. With a trinket that suggests your ‘Master’ had been involved in other serious crimes against the Myrnar. After years of hiding behind a curtain of iron and steel, Kevon finally faced his past not more than three days before I arrived in your valley.” Bertus cut a piece of ham and speared it with a fork already laden with scrambled egg.
    “But Holten lives?” Martin asked as Bertus