Fable: Blood of Heroes Read Online Free PDF Page B

redcaps were cursed, transformed by changeling magic. In that instant, Rook could believe it. Blue looked almost human, confused and exhausted. And then his expression turned crafty, and any trace of humanity vanished. “Heroes helped Blue. Blue will help you.”
    “What kind of help?” Rook asked warily.
    Blue grinned, showing off crooked, green-stained teeth. “Help kill outlaws. Kill Nimble John. Kill everybody !”
    Tipple nudged the burning outlaw with his toe. “I take it this ain’t Nimble John, then.”
    “Nimble John? Ha!” Blue spat on the body. “That’s Ugly, Stupid Weaselface.”
    “Who’s this one?” asked Tipple.
    Blue glanced over. “Ugly, Stupid Dogarse.”
    With an exasperated sigh, Rook grabbed a coil of rope from beside the cage. The instant he turned towards Blue, the redcap shrieked in dismay and tried to flee, but in his panic, he ran face-first into Inga’s shield. He bounced off and fell to the floor like he’d collided with a mountain.
    While Blue groaned and clutched his bleeding nose, Rook tied a quick noose and looped it over the redcap’s head. He pulled it snug, then coiled the rest of the rope over his shoulder.
    “How’s a twisted-up wreck like you going to help us?” asked Tipple.
    Blue climbed to his feet. His eyes went round as plates. “Magic.”
    “ You can do magic?” Tipple folded his arms.
    “Very strong Will,” Blue snapped. In his enthusiasm for killing, he seemed to have forgotten to rhyme. Rook hoped that lapse continued.
    Tipple sniffed. “Very strong stench is more like it.”
    “Watch, watch.” Blue tugged what looked like an old finger bone from beneath the rags of his shirt.
    Rook tensed, and even Inga readied her weapon, but the redcap didn’t act like he was trying to fight or escape. He seemed excited, bouncing in place and muttering as he gripped the old finger in both hands.
    Blue closed his eyes. His forehead wrinkled like a prune. A rotted prune, one that had sat in the mud for three days in the hot sun. Veins bulged beneath his skin, and his muscles trembled.
    “Will, Will, can’t sit still.” Blue rocked faster and faster, his body taut with concentration. Rook rested his finger on the trigger of his weapon. This crossbow was as much a wife to him as any woman could be, and he knew precisely how far he could squeeze her trigger before she spat death from her maw. He brought the trigger to that razor-thin edge, until the slightest twitch would send a series of bolts into Blue’s throat. Any hint of attack, and Blue would be dead before he could blink.
    Leech, Inga, and Tipple leaned closer. Blue raised the bony finger towards the ceiling. “Here it comes, ugly humans!”
    At the end of Blue’s pronouncement, a thunderous fart echoed through the tunnel. Blue toppled forwards, as if the force of the expulsion had flung him to the ground. The others staggered back.
    Rook kept Blue in his sights, which was difficult, given how badly his eyes were watering. By the old king’s ghost, he could taste the foulness in the air. “ That was your ‘magic’?”
    Blue’s eyes were wide, like he was just as surprised as anyone. He sniffed the air. “Nope.” He glared at the dead finger, then shoved it back into his shirt. “ That was bad seagull.”
    “It smells like a corpse crawled out of his arse,” Tipple wheezed.
    Blue twisted about, snatching at the seat of his trousers as if to reassure himself that they remained corpse-free.
    “We should—” Inga coughed and rubbed her face. “The quicker we escape these tunnels, the sooner we can bring the rest of these outlaws to justice.”
    “Yes!” Blue whirled and grabbed the rope trailing from his noose. He tugged hard, trying to drag Rook along. His apparent terror from before had vanished like it never existed. “Kill the outlaws. Blue knows where.”
    “You’ll take us there?” Leech asked.
    Rook scowled, but for the life of him, he couldn’t tell whether or not Leech had made