In the Hand of the Goddess Read Online Free PDF

for that, and pay well.
    Slowly she stepped back and away from Dain, painfully transferring Lightning into her left hand. Blood dripped onto the floor from her right arm. I’ll have to be careful and not slip in it , she thought as she readied herself.
    Faithful yowled encouragement as Alanna lunged forward viciously. Lightning met Dain’s sword with a crash. Instantly she pulled away, then thrust in again. The knight blocked clumsily, falling back as she bore in on him. Her sword never stopped moving; she never stopped looking for an opening. There it was!
    She brought Lightning down, under, and up, catching Dain’s hilt and yanking the sword from his hand. It went flying. In his haste to escape, the man stumbled, falling flat. Alanna darted forward to press Lightning’s brightly gleaming point into Dain’s throat.The Tusaine knight looked up into the coldest eyes he ever hoped to see.
    â€œStupid,” Alanna told him quietly, her voice shaking with fury. “That was very stupid. And you’re lucky I’m a better ‘knight’ than you are, or you’d be dead.” She turned contemptuously and walked back to her friends, letting Jon brace her as Duke Gareth bound up her wound.
    â€œHe was holding back,” Ambassador Mikal murmured thoughtfully. “All along—that boy was holding back.” He looked at Roald. “If all your young knights are like that one squire, your army must be formidable indeed.”
    â€œSee for yourself.” The king pointed to Jonathan, quiet and commanding; big Gary and even bigger Raoul; slender, dark Alex with his cat-like grace. “They are part of our future,” the king said. “It is a future we all want to protect.”

    Alanna was cleaning Lightning in her room when Myles found her. “You didn’t kill him,” the knight said bluntly. “He would have killed you, but you didn’t kill him.”
    Alanna’s arm was hurting; she hadn’t yet gotten the chance to place healing magic on herself. The painmade her short with her friend. “So? He was stupid. If I killed everyone who was stupid, I wouldn’t have time to sleep.”
    â€œHe gave you every excuse to kill him,” Myles persisted. “Even his Ambassador would have understood if you had.”
    â€œJust because he behaved badly is no excuse for me to behave badly.” Alanna’s lower lip began to tremble. It was too much excitement. She wanted to go to bed, and she wanted to heal her arm so it would stop throbbing. “Why are you picking on me? You of all people should’ve known I wouldn’t kill him.”
    Myles hugged her tightly, taking care not to bump her wounded arm. “You’re a good lad, Alan of Trebond,” he whispered. “You give an old man hope.”
    â€œNonsense,” Alanna growled, pleased and embarrassed by the unexpected praise. “You aren’t that old. And I’m not that good a lad.”

    Duke Roger settled into the chair before his fire, picking up a chess piece from the game set up there. It was a pawn. The man smiled ironically; before the Black City he had thought Alan of Trebond was a pawn. A Gifted, athletic pawn, but a pawn nevertheless; a pawnwho could be moved around by Roger. The Black City—and tonight’s bout with Dain—had taught him differently. Alan of Trebond was dangerous.
    Jonathan should not have returned from the Black City. Roger knew that place of evil well, and he knew the Ysandir who lived there were invincible. That was why he had taken the risk, using magical suggestion to make Jonathan need to visit the forbidden place. But Jonathan had taken Alan with him, and both had come back alive. Two young, untried boys had not only escaped the Ysandir, they had destroyed them!
    Roger made a face and poured himself some wine. At least one of the gods was protecting Jonathan, maybe more; he was certain of that. It did not matter; if