Bloodsongs Read Online Free PDF

the floor. His sword glittered in the faint light, free of its sheath. “So you prove with your own foul mouth that you love him more than the flesh of your loins! Sterile bitch! You couldn’t give me a true brother!”
    â€œYou would have hated him, too!” she spat back. “Kirigi would have loved you as much as your father and I loved you. But jealousy perverted your heart and made you a sick thing!”
    His sword descended until the point hovered at her throat. His face twisted into something she no longer recognized. “You almost push me too far,” he said thickly, “but your time hasn’t come yet, Mother. Not quite yet.” The point moved down between her breasts. She felt the cold steel through the thin material of her apron tunic. “Just give me Demonfang, and I’ll leave you for now.”
    She forced a laugh. “I told you, fool, that was only a story.”
    He leaned ever so slightly on the sword. A spot of warmth trickled on her skin. In moments it would stain her garment. Another scar , she thought with a sigh, almost grinning at such a ridiculous worry.
    â€œYou push me with your lies,” he warned.
    She looked down at the point against her body, trailed her gaze up its gleaming length until their eyes met again. “You know we can never be friends after this,” she told him with a mocking dispassion.
    Obscenities burst from his lips. The sword flew up, crashed down, and carved a slice from the edge of the table nearest her head. It was the breakfast table, and mugs overturned from the impact. One rolled off, clattered on the floor, and stopped near her hand. She picked it up, ran a finger along the inside of the rim, licked it, tasted beer. Making a face, she cast it away. “Bitter,” she said disdainfully.   “It must have been your mug.”
    â€œI’ll find it,” he raged. “I have the means, if only you knew! You can’t keep it from me.”
    She inclined her head toward the door. “Get out, Kel.”
    A sickly smile spread over his face. Then he threw back his head and laughed. “Demonfang will be mine,” he assured her, regaining his composure. “I’d hoped to save myself some effort by asking for it. I’d hoped that out of guilt for what you’d denied me as a mother you might be generous. I’d thought you might worry about my safety when you learned I was a soldier and give me a powerful weapon.” He sighed and sheathed his sword. “Obviously I was a fool to think you cared.”
    She got slowly to her feet. “Good-bye, son,” she said sadly. “I did love you. Some part of me still does even after this.” She touched her swollen cheek. “But I know you don’t believe it.”
    Kel strode to the door, seized the iron ring, then hesitated. For a moment he looked as if he wanted to say something. Then his shoulders sagged, and his head drooped toward his chest. She resisted an impulse to go to him; something in her heart wouldn’t let her make the gesture. Kel had chosen his road. She couldn’t walk it with him. Perhaps he realized that, too, for he straightened wordlessly and pulled open the door.
    There was a shout and the briefest glimpse of someone outside.
    Kel slammed the door with a force that shook the walls. In one smooth motion he slid the bolt home. His sword leaped from its sheath again, and he ran for the rear door. Before he reached it, someone kicked it open. New sunlight flashed on ring-armor and ready blades. Window shutters around the inn burst open, revealing helmed and armored troops. The front door shivered on its hinges, splintered, and broke.
    A huge soldier filled the entrance, one massive arm locked around Kirigi’s throat, a short-bladed sword braced against the youth’s ribs. Samidar could see more men behind him, and the wagons of the caravan she had spied earlier. It was a trap, then, a planned ambush.