Dragon Tree Read Online Free PDF Page B

think to do
it.”
    With a flush
rising in his face, he blew out half an oath and bowed over her
again, sliding one arm beneath her shoulders, the other beneath her
knees. Without stopping to acknowledge the foolishness of what he
was doing, he lifted her off the bed of leaves. A gasp escaped the
blue-gray lips as her wound was jarred; another brought her head
rolling against his chest as he grasped the horn of his saddle and
pulled himself up onto his horse. The action was awkward,
undoubtedly an agony for the maid, and by the time he was settled
with her cradled before him, he could feel fresh blood from her
wound soaking warmly into his sleeve. He whistled once for the dogs
then picked his way carefully but quickly back through the woods in
the direction of the north road.
    Roland was
there with the woodsmen, and to judge by the look on his face, he
would not have been more surprised had his lord emerged from the
greensward carrying the body of Richard the Lionheart in his
arms.
    Jaw slack,
mouth gaping, he stared at the girl.
    “She is still
alive,” Tamberlane said, forestalling the question.
    “Alive, my
lord? Did she know who attacked the village?”
    “We had no
time for idle chatter. Here, take her from me. You likely have a
gentler touch.”
    Roland moved
his horse closer, but one look at the arrow lodged in the girl’s
shoulder made him draw back.
    “The arrow is
acting as a stopper, my lord. Jostle her too much and the bung may
pop free.”
    “The bung will
pop free if I throw her to the ground.”
    The squire’s
gaze rose sharply and Tamberlane swore under his breath. “Very
well. She will likely be dead before we reach the castle anyway.
Where is the stag? You have not left it to rot in the woods, have
you?”
    “We thought...
that is to say, my lord, I thought—"
    “Well you
thought wrong. We came out to put meat on the board tonight, and by
God, there will be meat."
    Tamberlane
took up the reins and spurred his destrier onto the road. The
girl’s head bounced a moment but then settled back into the crook
of his shoulder with such a soft sigh, he looked down, expecting to
see her eyes open and staring up at him again.
    They were not
and his own gaze slipped unwittingly to where her breasts were
pillowed against his chest. A ragged tear in the bodice gave him a
shadowy view beneath the cloth and he glimpsed a flash of silver
cut in the shape of an ornate crucifix.
    The sight of
it set his jaw in a grim line, for here again was proof that faith
was no protection against evil. It had taken him many long and
bloody years to learn that. The girl had discovered it in less than
a day.
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
    Taniere Castle
was perched at the tip of what had at one time been a finger of
land that stretched out into the silky smooth waters of a lake so
small it bore no name. When the Normans had conquered England and
replaced the Saxon’s mud and timber keeps with stone
fortifications, a small army of men had labored for months to dig
an aqueduct fifty feet wide and equally as deep to completely
surround the castle with water. The crumbling breastworks had been
replaced with rock and mortar walls twenty feet high and twelve
feet thick. The wooden enclosure was razed and in its place grew a
massive stronghold consisting of a stone keep three stories high,
with a slanted base measuring five hundred long paces down each
side of the square. Each corner was surmounted by a tower extending
out over the crenellated walls. The parapets that spanned the
distances between these four towers provided a breathtaking command
of the view of the surrounding forest and distant hills for miles
in every direction.
    The only way
into the island fortress was across a drawbridge that was guarded
at one end by a gatehouse, and at the other by an arched portal
flanked by ominously unwelcoming barbican towers. The walls of the
barbicans were slit with cross-shaped meurtriers through which
archers could fire at anyone addled enough to