Hidden Warrior Read Online Free PDF

calls that her window spell,” said the wizard, not sounding the least surprised.
    Before Tobin could question him further, the witch stepped from the trees to meet them. She always knew when they were coming.
    Dirty and gap-toothed, dressed in a shapeless brown dress decorated with polished deer teeth, she looked more beggar than witch. Squinting up at them, she shook her head and grinned. “You keesas has no breakfast. Come, I feed you.”
    As if it were just another day and nothing strange had ever happened between them, she turned and walked back into the trees. Tobin and Arkoniel tethered their horses and hurried after her on foot. Another of the witch’s peculiar magics guarded her camp. In all the time Tobin had known her, she had never used the same path twice, and he and Ki had never been able to find their way to her on their own. He wondered if Arkoniel knew how.
    After many twists and turns, they came out in the clearing where her oak house stood. He’d forgotten how huge it was. Grandmother oak, Lhel called it. The trunk was as wide as a small cottage, and a natural split had hollowed a great space inside the trunk without killing it. A few leathery, copper-colored leaves still fluttered on the upper branches, and the ground around it was strewn with acorns. A fire crackled near the low opening that served as Lhel’s door. She disappeared inside for a moment, returning with a bowl of dried meat strips and a few wrinkled pippins.
    Tobin wasn’t interested in food, but Lhel put the bowl in his hands and wouldn’t say another word until he and Arkoniel had done as they were told.
    “You come now,” she said, going back to the oak. Arkoniel rose to follow, but she forestalled him with a look.
    Inside, another small fire burned in a pit at the center of the packed-earth floor. Lhel pulled the deerskin door flap down and sat on the pelt-covered pallet beside the fire, patting the place beside her. When Tobin joined her, she turned his face to the light and studied him a moment, then opened the neck of his tunic to inspect the scar.
    “Is good,” she said, then pointed down at his lap. “You see more blood?”
    Tobin blushed and shook his head. “That won’t happen again, will it?”
    “Someday later. But you may feel moontide in the belly.”
    Tobin remembered the ache between his hipbones that had driven him here. “I don’t like that. It hurts.”
    Lhel chuckled. “No girl like that.”
    Tobin shivered at the word, but Lhel didn’t seem to notice. Reaching into the shadows behind her, she handed him a small pouch containing dried bluish green leaves. “
Akosh
. If pains come, you make tea with just this much, no more.” She showed him a generous pinch of leaves and mimed crumbling them into a cup.
    Tobin stuck the bag inside his tunic, then stared down at his clasped hands. “I don’t want this, Lhel. I don’t want to be a girl. And I don’t want to be—queen.” He could hardly get the word out.
    “You not change your fate, keesa.”
    “Fate? You did this. You and the wizards!”
    “Goddess Mother and your Lightbearer tell it must be so. That make fate.”
    Tobin looked up to find her watching him with wise, sad eyes. She pointed skyward. “The gods be cruel, no? To you and Brother.”
    “Brother! Did Arkoniel tell you what he did? I’m never going to call him again. Never! I’ll bring you the doll. You keep him.”
    “No, you will. You must. Souls tied tight.” Lhel locked her hands together.
    Tobin’s hands curled to white-knuckled fists on his knees. “I hate him!”
    “You need him.” Lhel took his hands and spoke in his mind without words, the way she always did when she wanted to be clear. “You and he must be together for the magic to hold. He is cruel. What else could he be, angry and alone all the time and seeing you live the life denied him? Perhaps you can understands little, now that you know the truth?”
    Tobin didn’t want to understand, or to forgive but her