Ghost in the Storm (The Ghosts) Read Online Free PDF Page B

man’s wrist, and shoved. The dying soldier crashed into the live one, and both went down in a tangled heap.  
    It gave Caina all the opportunity she needed to dart forward and cut the throat of the second man.
    A chain whistled through the air. 
    She jumped back as the Immortal's chain whip blurred through the air. Caina recovered and pivoted, intending to charge as the Immortal recovered his balance from the massive blow. But the Immortal did not leave himself open, and Caina backed away as the he came at her, whip snapping in a series of short, darting blows. She flung a knife, aiming for his exposed face, and the Immortal blocked the blade with a flick of his whip. 
    He was too quick, and his whip gave him a far greater reach. Sooner or later his chain whip would land and tear out a chunk of her flesh, and then he would finish her.
    Unless she removed the advantage of the whip. 
    Caina sprinted for the tenement stairs, the Immortal in pursuit. She dashed up the stairs, saw Nicolai still perched upon his step, staring at her with wide eyes. 
    She would have one chance to do this right. 
    Caina jumped and seized one of the beams of the narrow stairwell’s ceiling, spinning herself around so her feet pointed at the door. A heartbeat later the Immortal charged up the stairs, sword leading as Caina pulled herself back.
    Then she surged forward, her boots slamming into the Immortal’s face with enough force to shatter his jaw and nose. The Immortal fell with a cry of rage and pain, and Caina landed atop his legs, his armor scraping against her skirt.
    She yanked the curved dagger from her belt.
    The silver blade flashed in the dim light. Forged of rare ghostsilver, the dagger was proof against sorcery. The Immortal started to sit up, blood streaming from his face, but Caina was faster.
    She buried the dagger to the hilt in the Immortal’s right eye. 
    He collapsed with a clatter of black armor, and Caina wrenched the blade free, breathing hard. 
    Another rumble of thunder echoed overhead. 
    Nicolai stared at her in silence. 
    “Are you all right?” said Caina. 
    Nicolai managed a nod.
    “Mother,” he whispered, “Mother said you were the Balarigar.”
    Caina grimaced and wiped her bloody dagger clean on the fallen Immortal’s cloak. “Then let’s get you back to her. Come on.”
    Nicolai hurried down the stairs, pressing close to the wall to avoid the dead Immortal. Caina led him into the courtyard, retrieved her throwing knives from the dead soldiers, and looked around. She still heard screams and fighting from the Great Market, accompanied by the occasional blast of a lightning bolt, but the courtyard was deserted. Good – she could circle through the alleys, avoid the Istarish soldiers, and get back to Zorgi’s Inn and Halfdan. 
    And get Nicolai back to his mother and father. 
    “This way,” said Caina.
    Again she felt the spike of sorcery, and a lightning bolt screamed out of the sky toward the Citadel.
    But this time Caina felt a second tingle, and the lightning bolt rebounded from the Citadel to smash into the city.
    The city's chapter of magi. They had begun to fight back. 
    Another lightning blast rebounded from the walls of the Citadel.
    Only to crash into the wall of the tenement above Caina.
    For a moment the world went white. 
    Caina smashed hard into something, realized that the force of the blast had flung her into the brick wall of a warehouse. She slumped to the ground, vision swimming in and out of focus, saw burning timbers raining around her, the tenement ripped in half by the ferocity of the stormsinger’s lightning. 
    She heard Nicolai crying.
    Something dark and heavy fell in front of her, blocking her sight.
    Caina tried to rise, tried to stand, but her muscles had no strength to them. 
    Cold numbness swallowed her.
    Time passed. She could not have said how much.
    Voices came to her ears, as if from a vast distance.
    They spoke Istarish.
    “What happened here?”
    “The