Damsel Knight Read Online Free PDF Page A

to make a space under the cloth. After a while she stops to look over her shoulder and glance at Neven. "Hurry up."
    He steps forward, nothing but a twitching shadow in the scant moonlight. He's heard the tales as she has, but he was always one to focus on dangers rather than adventures. "This is a really bad idea. Can't we just stick to the road?"
    She knows the road he means. The one that leads from Porthdon all the way east to King's city. Going to the city isn't a bad idea. There are enough orphans scurrying the narrow alleyways that two more won't be noticed. Whether they'll be able to avoid the soldiers patrolling the city long enough to avoid whatever danger they're recruiting for is another matter. But no. Either way the road won't do. "The soldiers will go that way. And I don't fancy striking out on goat trails and getting lost. The water's our only way."
    Neven bows his head. He knows it too. Still, he glances at the other boats tied to the mud caked dock before putting a hesitant foot in the boat. It lurches forward against the rope, causing him to balance precariously, arms pinwheeling before it stills. With eyes squinted shut like he expects the wood to eat him, he puts the other foot in the boat.
    "See it's not so bad," Bonnie says, ducking beneath the cloth. The air is stale under here and tastes of rot. But there's enough space for her and Neven both. Enough for them to crouch between the boxes long enough for the boat to get up the coast and away from here.
    "Right," Neven says, sounding like he's going to be sick. Unlike her, who hassles fishermen for a trip along the coast, this is the first time Neven has stepped foot inside a boat. She hopes he's not going to turn out to be seasick. It would be ironic given how devoted he is to the Gods if his stomach protested his travel across where the line between their world and this world is the thinnest.
    A large hand reaches out of the darkness and closes around Neven's throat. He yelps, but any further noise is cut off when a second hand touches a savage looking knife to his neck. The shadow towers over him, and over Bonnie.
    "What're you doing on my boat, boy?" The gruff voice rolls over them both along with warm breath smelling strongly of cider. "Stealing? You been stealing my things?!"
    Neven cringes away from the hand, his adam’s apple bobbing too close to the knife for comfort. His body trembles, and the colour drains from his face.
    "Jack put him down," Bonnie says, standing up from beneath the cloth. It's a struggle, but she makes sure to leave her sword under there before she exits. No sense escalating things. "You're scaring him half to death."
    The knife is removed from Neven's throat, but his legs stay dangling several feet off the boat. Jack bends down to squint at Bonnie through the darkness. He's a giant of a man. Nearly seven feet tall, and almost half as wide. A thick fur vest covers his barrel chest even in this warm weather, and the skin not covered is about as hairy. His eyes are not small, but his oversized jaw and wide broken nose make them seem so.
    "I know you?" His gruff voice holds more confusion than menace now.
    "Picture longer hair," she says, attempting a smile. It's strained. Jack may be a friend of a sort, but trusting him with this secret was stretching that friendship to its limit. "And a dress covered in fish guts."
    "Bless my whiskers," Jack says, releasing his hold on Neven. He falls to the deck with an audible thump. "Bonnie Ceana. What are you doing looking like that? Did someone steal your clothes? You can tell me lass. I'll deal with those scoundrels. Got a druid I know who's looking for a couple fresh organs. Liver, kidney and such like. Not too picky where they come from either."
    Neven scurries away to Bonnie's side. Once free, terror quickly turns into anger as the man's words seem to catch up with him. "You snuck us on a black market boat?!"
    "Just a little one," Bonnie says, holding her thumb and forefinger a short