Lady Warhawk Read Online Free PDF Page B

only with his eyes and listen
only with his ears, and not wrap Threads around the caravan to study each member.
    Three horses ranged out from the group. Meghianna had told him two nights ago that the
boys had formed pairs, an older looking after a younger, and shared horses so they could go
adventuring when the steady pace of the wagon horses bored them. Mrillis was pleased that
Thrarin and Lycen got along well with Megassa's sons. He felt as if some ragged edges on his
soul were mending. He had missed Megassa, missed their spirited conversations over table
games, her teasing, the tales of her adventures. He had grieved with Meghianna when Efrin sent
Megassa and Lorkin into exile. Perhaps Megassa would smile when she recognized him, and he
might be allowed to make friends with her sons.
    "Please, blessed Estall, let them be innocent, good boys, allowed to enjoy life far longer
than Ceera and Meghianna and I ever did." Mrillis' voice caught, his throat tightening as his
vision blurred with a threat of tears.
    He silently scolded himself that he was just being maudlin, an old man feeling his age. It
was time to go back to Goarlotte and five-year-old Ynfara, to cuddle and amuse the child with
flashy, useless magic. Mrillis had been both relieved and disappointed the first time he saw
Ynfara. Her hair was dark gold and her eyes were deep blue and there was nothing of his
Emrillian about her. She was of his bloodline, and he intended to spoil her no matter what her
grandmother, Dowager Queen Lynzette said or did. Sometimes Mrillis suspected he enjoyed
visiting Goarlotte partly because the Noveni woman hated him so much.
    "Yes, you're an old man. A cantankerous, meddling old man." Mrillis got up from the
bench and walked through the inn yard to where the caravan would halt in ten more
minutes.
    The rangy old brown gelding ridden by Thrarin and the littlest of Megassa's sons
clattered into the inn yard first. Thrarin looked at him with the polite smile of greeting reserved
for strangers. He had never met the boy in his waking hours. Until Mrillis and Meghianna
unraveled the spell that let them teach Thrarin in his dreams, the boy would not recognize him
while he was awake.
    "Good day to you, Grandfather," Thrarin said. He swung a leg over the saddle and slid
down to the cobblestone yard. "Are you the innkeeper? Do you know the schedules of the
riverboats?"
    "Just a traveler like yourself, lad." Mrillis nodded, pleased at the boy's politeness.
    "Is traveling fun?" Garyn chirped, as Thrarin reached up to help him down from the
horse. "This is the first time we've gone anywhere. When we're Valors, we'll travel all over the
World, protecting people."
    "Yes, lad, traveling can be fun." Mrillis resisted the urge to bend down and tousle the
boy's golden brown curls. Garyn's easy spill of words reflected how he and his brothers had been
raised, the kind of people their parents were.
    Next, a gray mare slid to a stop only a few steps from the horse trough. The boys who
slid off it looked sulky. From Thrarin's and Garyn's grins, Mrillis suspected they had lost a race.
The sour looks didn't last, and soon the four chattered about future races with better horses.
    "When we'll each have our own horses and we won't be held back by the little ones,"
Lok boasted. He grinned at the brother who had ridden behind him.
    "That's because us little ones will be way ahead of you," his brother retorted.
    Then the remainder of their traveling party entered the inn yard, and between the noise
and the hustle and bustle of the innkeeper and his servants rushing out, Mrillis had no chance to
talk further with the boys. He retreated to his bench, content to be merely an old man resting in
the warm sunshine, watching a new group of travelers come into the inn.
    Meghianna climbed down out of the biggest of the wagons, with the canopy and gauzy
curtains made to shelter ladies' delicate skin from the sunlight. Mrillis bit his lip to keep from
laughing. Indulging in