Bloodwitch Read Online Free PDF

open sky.
    Icy wind whipped me around, buffeting my unpracticed wings around like leaves. I tumbled through the air, struggling to regain control, and eventually landed back on the ground with a thud. A bank of snow broke my fall, but that was the only comfort I had. I changed back into human form, miserably aware that I was no longer on the path. I didn’t even know where my lantern was.
    I hugged my cloak more tightly around myself and limped onward, feeling every bruise keenly.
    As soon as Taro realized I was missing, he would come looking for me. Right? In the meantime, though, I couldn’t stop moving. It was too cold.
    I grabbed a fallen stick and used it to drag a trail in the dirt and snow around me as I walked. Occasionally I made arrow marks to indicate my direction. I thought about adding my name—Calysta had shown me how to write it once—but couldn’t remember all the marks required. Instead, I took my quetzal form just long enough to reach back with my beak and pluck a tail feather. After I returned to human form, I stuck the long feather in the snow so that it poked up where it seemed most visible.
    There. If anyone saw it, they would follow the trail to find me.
    Feeling better about my chances, if not any warmer, I started out.
    At first I sang as I walked, but then singing reminded me of Calysta, which made my throat tight and made me feel even colder, so I stopped. When I was silent, though, every noise around me made me jump. Distant crashing sounded like a monster. And was that a roar? What lived in this forest?
    That roar could have belonged to a lion or a jaguar. My neck ached from trying to look all ways at once, including up, since jaguars could attack from the trees. What about wolves or bears?
    Lady Brina loved to talk about savage beasts, which she found beautiful and exotic. I had never asked
where
they existed, because all that mattered to me was that they didn’t exist in
my
world.
    I yelped as a figure emerged from the forest’s shadows, like a ghost stepping into my path. I raised my stick, then set it back down as I realized he was a man, not a monster, holding a small lamp that illuminated little beyond our feet.
    “I thought I heard someone stumbling around.” He raised the lamp. “Aren’t you Brina’s boy?”
    The light was in my eyes, but I finally recognized Malachi Obsidian, the trader who had come by the greenhouse the day before.
    “My name is Vance,” I said. “You’re Malachi, right?”
    “This isn’t the safest area to wander, Vance,” he replied.
    “If it’s not safe, what are you doing here?” I asked defensively, one breath before I realized his words could havebeen a threat instead of a warning. Though his hands were empty at the moment, he had a slender sword—really more of a long dagger—at his left hip, and a bow and quiver on his back.
    The retort apparently took him aback. He frowned and said, “You’re not broken.”
    “Not
what
?” I hoped he could help me find my way home, but the intensity of his stare was making me uncomfortable.
    “Are you a slave?” he asked.
    “No!” I said vehemently, before I remembered what Lady Brina had said about Calysta:
on loan from Taro
. Had she been a slave? “And I’m allowed to be out here. I’m just lost.”
    “Are you happy?” he asked. Seeing my look, he added, “Not right now, obviously. I mean when you’re at the greenhouse. Are you happy there?”
    “Yes,” I answered, grateful for an easier question. I almost added more, about the things that had just happened—the painting, Calysta, Lady Brina, and Lord Daryl’s rage—but I bit my lip. I had lived there for fourteen years, and nothing like this had ever happened before.
    “Then I’ll help you find your way back. In the morning,” he added firmly. “It’s pitch-black out here. You can come to my camp for the night. I have enough dinner to share.”
    My stomach chose that moment to growl, remindingme that it had been a long time