By Moonlight Wrought (Bt Moonlight Wrought) Read Online Free PDF

governments.  The current monarch of
Mendanar, however, had lately refrained from hiring any more these men, trained
by such an influential noble house as the Stormweather’s, fearing the men’s’
loyalty might be misdirected.  Mendric was a seasoned warrior and veteran of
many military campaigns, seeing his first bloodshed in The Erulian War, and was
therefore qualified to teach at the academy.  In fact, he was one of the
primary instructors, filling many empty hours there when not helping his father
manage the vast Stormweather holdings. 
             On the way to meet his brother, Selric had
passed down a street of tremendous buildings, apartments and the like, and his
memory was tweaked.  He paused outside one of the familiar structures climbed
the stairs to the fifth floor landing, went to one of the doors on that level,
picked the lock and stole inside.  To Selric’s surprise, two men and two women
sat eating at a table in the middle of the room, none of them he knew.  They
looked up curiously at Selric, and his face flushed.  Selric stepped back out
and checked his bearings:  it was the right room, though the occupants were
not.  They continued to stare at him in bewilderment.
             “Sorry,” he said.  “Maybe you can help
me.  I’m looking for a girl...Sonya.  She used to live here.”  One of the men
rose up politely.
             “If she was the young lady who lived here
before us, I’m sorry, but she met an ill fate,” he said.
             “What do you mean?” asked Selric angrily.
             “The woman who used to live here was
found murdered.  I’m truly sorry.  If she was a friend of yours...” 
              But Selric, numb and his mind spinning,
turned, walked out and down the stairs without letting the gentleman finish. 
The sickness in his stomach passed, but not his anger. 
     
             It was another hot day and Candy was
laboring under the load, so Dirk decided to spare her from the midday sun. 
Dirk laid himself on the bench seat and took a nap while Candy rested and drank
from a water barrel filled with rain runoff there in the shadowy alleyway. 
Dirk’s nap was a short one however, as he was soon awakened by a feminine
voice.
             “Hello there, girl.  Why are you pulling
such a heavy load?  You poor old horse.”  Dirk looked up to where a young woman
stood stroking Candy’s neck.  Her hair was dark blonde and thick, hanging full
over her shoulders, and her brown eyes were so vivid that Dirk could see their
color from all the way up in the wagon.  She was pretty, with a wholesome look
rarely found on anyone who had been in Andrelia for more than a month, though
her deep eyes bore a sadness revealing a life with unusual pain.  This young woman
looked on Candy in a way indicative of one born and raised with animals, and
Candy returned the affection, ducking her head at the woman to receive her
stroking hand.  The young lady looked up at Dirk, and it was then that he
realized he had been staring.
             “Hi,” he said simple and plain.
             “This horse is too old to be pulling such
a load in this heat.  A horse in that shape should be put to pasture,” she
said, all quite matter-of-factly.  “Do you want to kill her?”  Candy tossed her
head and nudged the woman, jealous to have the woman’s attention elsewhere.
             All Dirk could muster in the way of a
reply was, “Oh?”  He jumped down.  “I’m Dirk, and I don’t own her, I just use
her.  I mean...” he stuttered, “...my boss says to use her.  I don’t know how
old she is.  I guess that could be the problem,” he conjectured, rubbing his
scrubby chin as he looked the beast over.
             “You guess?  No, I’m telling you; it is the problem.”
             “Fine, don’t bite my head off,” Dirk said
growing red and looking back to the woman.  Though her