Husk: A Maresman Tale Read Online Free PDF

edge to ease his boots off.
    Maisie hovered longer than was comfortable.
    Jeb flicked her a look; patted the covers.
    Her lips parted, showing him a glimpse of pearly teeth. She made a pretense of looking flummoxed, but Jeb reckoned she knew what she was about. Reckoned she was more’n a little acquainted with this particular bed, too.
    She drew away, leaned back against the wall, hands clasped behind her. When she spoke, her eyes were on the plush carpet.
    “You really a Maresman? I mean, I heard of them, and all, but I never seen one before.”
    There was a faux innocence about the way she casually bent one knee and rubbed her heel against the wall.
    Fire thrilled through Jeb’s loins. He saw this sort of thing all the time; quite had the taste for it.
    He rolled forward off the bed and leaned over her, fist taking his weight on the wall beside her head. He drew in the scent of her auburn hair, gave her his knowing smile.
    “Well, now you have.” He brought his other hand up to stroke through her curls. “There something else you want to see?”
    Her breasts heaved, drawing his eyes to their milky softness. He dipped his head toward them, but she slipped away and crossed her arms over her chest.
    Jeb raised his hands. “Misread the signs. Sorry.”
    “That’s all right, sir,” she said. “I’m not one for minding, normally, but…” She fluttered her eyelashes and inclined her head toward the open door.
    “Work calls?” Jeb said. “Or should I say, Madam Sadie?”
    She giggled and smiled up at him with glistening lips full of promise. On her way to the door, she looked back. The strap of her dress fell slack, showing him a smooth, rounded shoulder.
    “You being here mean there’s a husk in town?” she asked, eyes wide, maybe with fear, maybe with something else.
    Jeb was starting to realize he couldn’t read her like he could most women.
    “That’s about the truth of it,” he said.
    She nodded slowly. “How’d you know? How’d you find them?”
    Jeb tapped the side of his nose. “Got a sense for it.”
    “Sense anything now? You know where it is?”
    He shut his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose. All he got was a head-rush from her perfume. When he opened his eyes, he backed onto the bed; it was the only thing he could think of to stop from ripping her dress off. But there was no trace of the husk. None at all.
    “Yeah, I know,” Jeb said. It was always better to sound confident; kept the panic to a minimum.
    She looked at him expectantly, but he just lay back against the pillow and crossed his ankles.
    “Don’t worry yourself none, Maisie. You’ll be first to know when it’s dealt with.”
    He felt rather than saw her leave, heard the door click shut behind her.

6
    N EXT JEB KNEW, it was a whole shade darker. His breaths came ragged and fast, and he was hunkered down beside the bed—another bed, not the one he must have fallen asleep on. First, he thought he’d switched rooms and forgotten, what with being bone weary. Next, he swallowed down his heart as he wondered if he’d been taken while he slept, moved someplace else. Couldn’t be right, that. Why would anyone—?
    “I know what you are, boy.”
    Jeb gasped, felt his throat constricting. A chill sweat ran down his back. He knew the rasp of that voice; its casual malice echoed through every night, invaded his dreams.
    The shadows coalesced into a leather mask roughly stitched down the center, one side red, the other black. Eyes so bloodshot they looked like they’d been whittled by a knife cut Jeb to the bone. He was seeing them for the first time, but they were also familiar. Too familiar. It told him in an instant he was half-dreaming, half-awake, that twilight state that had passed for sleep since the husk hunter first came for him.
    “Ever wondered about your father?” the masked man said. Glowing green smoke puffed from the mouth slit with each word, illuminating a pair of sword hilts that jutted over his