Bonded: Book One of the ShadowLight Saga, an Epic Fantasy Adventure Read Online Free PDF Page B

a ridiculous
way every morning.
    "I mean it Rolf, go home to mother!"
    "You cannot treat me like a child."
    "Then do not act like one."
    Erik turned his mount, ignoring his younger brother. Hallad
and the young woman nudged their horses into a trot, leaving Rolf behind. Moments
later a fourth set of hoof beats joined theirs and a tight smile flashed over
Erik’s face.
    "Then hurry up about it," Erik called back,
"We won’t wait all night for you."
    They traveled onward. The moon shone down like a beacon,
lighting their way, and Hallad thanked the gods for the full moon. Cold gusted
through the area as they cantered. The young woman’s behavior switched from
calm to upset. She shifted back and forth, head swinging side to side like she
had done in the Great Wood earlier that night.
    Hallad perceived her discomfort almost as if it were his
own. Rolf and Erik eyed the woman suspiciously. The chill deepened, sending a
rush of frigid air through to their bones until they all shivered. The blast
came from behind them—from the village of Steadsby.
    "By the halls of Valhalla," said Rolf. "Has
the Shadow returned?"
    They shot apprehensive glances at one another.
    "We should go back," Rolf said tentatively.
    Avarr’s words stung Hallad’s head. Only death waits here. He could not disobey his father. He thought of the other warnings—about death
following in this girl’s wake and his mission to protect her.
    "Nei," Hallad stated firmly. "We go on. Quickly."
    He kicked Thor into a gallop.
    "Is the son of the godhi such a coward?" Rolf
called at his back.
    Hallad stiffened, reining his horse. The young woman pressed
into his side, her gray crowding Thor’s haunches, urging him to go onward. Go
now and never return. The words resounded again and again, an endless echo
in his mind, the pleading of his father’s face fixed in his memory.
    "We need to move quickly." Even to his own ears,
Hallad sounded cruel.
    "I do not take orders from the godhi’s son!" Rolf
replied.
    Erik’s head swiveled between his little brother and Hallad,
considering between the two of them.
    "I go with Hallad," Erik said to Rolf. "For
Emma."
    Rolf’s shoulders hunched downward at Erik’s choice, but he bowed
his head and moved to his brother's side.
    The chill grew unbearable, the ground hardening beneath the
horses’ hooves. Hallad, once again, kicked Thor into a run. The hoof beats of
the others sounded as they followed him. He sensed the woman next to him, like
an extension of himself.
    Rolf kicked his mare to catch up with Hallad, bending in close.
    "You are a cold man, Hallad Avarson."
    Then he checked Idunn until he was back in sync with his
brother, leaving Hallad and the woman in the lead.
    As they sped out into the harvest fields leading to the road
to Birka, Hallad thought of his father once again. Avarr had known he would
meet his fate. Hallad cursed himself silently. He had chosen obligation over
his own father’s life. He prayed Avarr would have a good seat at Odin’s table
in Valhalla. He thought of Thyre, but was strangely unmoved. Guilt tightened
around his throat as he thought of the others—they did not know his father had
warned him of a grim fate. Their own loved ones may suffer the consequences and
Hallad had not told them, making the decision to go onward out of his own duty.
    Duty? he wondered. What exactly did that mean?
    He thought of the woman entrusted to his protection and the
other two backsides he was now responsible for.
    The young woman yanked at him from some unknown string and
he glanced at her. She spun her head around in the same moment to meet his
eyes, but he hastily looked ahead. His eyes burned from the wind and dirt as
they galloped. Thor snorted beneath him. Hallad’s jaw tightened with the effort
to fight back the flood of emotions threatening to break free. Rule with
your head even though your heart calls. His father's words drifted through
his memory. The woman’s presence tugged at him again, like a