Hero in the Shadows Read Online Free PDF

scar tissue had formed. Taking his hunting knife, she carefully cut through the twine, pulling each stitch clear.
    “I have never heard of anyone healing this fast,” she said as he pulled on his shirt. “Do you know magic?”
    “No. But once I was healed by a monster. It changed me.”
    “A monster?”
    He grinned at her. “Aye, a monster. Seven feet tall with a single eye in the center of his forehead—an eye that had two pupils.”
    “You are making fun of me,” she chided him.
    The Gray Man shook his head. “No, I am not. His name was Kai. He was a freak of nature, a man-beast. I was dying, and he laid his hands upon me, and all my wounds closed—healed in a heartbeat. Ever since then I have known no sickness, no winter chills, no fevers, no boils. I think even timehas slowed for me, for I should by now be spending my days sitting in a comfortable chair with a blanket around my knees. He was a fine man, Kai.”
    “What happened to him?”
    He shrugged. “I don’t know. Perhaps he is happy somewhere; perhaps he is dead.”
    “You have lived an interesting life,” she said.
    “How old are you?” he asked her.
    “Seventeen.”
    “Kidnapped by raiders and taken away into the forest. There are some in years to come who will hear of this tale and say, ‘You have lived an interesting life.’ What will you say to them?”
    Keeva smiled. “I shall agree, and they will envy me.”
    He laughed then, the sound full of good humor. “I like you, Keeva,” he said. Then, adding wood to the fire, he stretched out and covered himself with a blanket.
    “I like you, too, Gray Man,” she said.
    He did not answer, and she saw that he was already asleep.
    She looked at his face in the firelight. It was strong—the face of a fighter—yet she could detect no cruelty there.
    Keeva slept and woke with the dawn. The Gray Man was already up. He was sitting by the stream and splashing water onto his face. Then, using his hunting knife, he shaved away the black and silver stubble from his chin and cheeks. “Did you sleep well?” he asked as he returned to the fire.
    “Yes,” she told him. “No dreams. It was wonderful.” He looked so much younger without the stubble, a man perhaps in his late thirties. She wondered momentarily how old he was. Forty-five? Fifty-five? Surely not older.
    “We should be at your settlement by noon,” he said.
    Keeva shivered, remembering the murdered women. “There is nothing there for me. I was staying with my brother and his wife. They are both dead, the farmhouse burned.”
    “What will you do?”
    “Go back to Carlis and seek work.”
    “Are you trained in some craft or skill?”
    “No, but I can learn.”
    “I can offer you employment at my home,” he said.
    “I will not be your mistress, Gray Man,” she told him.
    He smiled broadly. “Have I
asked
you to be my mistress?”
    “No, but why else are you offering to take me to your palace?”
    “Do you think so little of yourself?” he countered. “You are intelligent and brave. I also think you are trustworthy and would be loyal. I have one hundred thirty servants at my home, administering often to more than fifty guests. You would clean rooms, prepare beds for those guests, and help out in the kitchens. For this I will pay you two silvers a month. You will have your own room and one day a week free of all duties. Think on it.”
    “I accept,” she said.
    “Then let it be so.”
    “Why do you have so many guests?”
    “My home—my palace, as you call it—houses several libraries, an infirmary, and a museum. Scholars come from all over Kydor to study there. There is also a separate center in the south tower for students and physicians to analyze medicinal herbs and their uses, and three further halls have been set aside for the treatment of the sick.”
    Keeva remained silent for a while; then she looked into his eyes. “I am sorry,” she said.
    “Why would you apologize? You are an attractive young woman, and I