Lunatic Read Online Free PDF Page A

headlock, and twisted sharply. The Scab nearly fell on top of her much smaller frame.
    Johnis closed the door. "Key!" Silvie tossed it to him. Darsal came out and reached Silvie just as the girl drew the Scab's sword and gave it to her. Silvie took his knife.
    More footsteps.
    "Darsal!" Johnis plastered his back against the door, hand on the knob. He threw her a look.
    She nodded and took a ragged breath. After ten years the blade was familiar in her hand, but after Earth, the sword also sickened her. She wasn't sure she could kill again, not even to save her life.

    She'd done more in her ten-year life in the other world than even these two knew.
    Darsal passed Johnis the sword. "Bathe. Then Thomas."
    He accepted with little more than eye contact, then swung the door open. Darsal sprang out into the narrow hallway.

alt!" 
    Darsal raced the opposite way, ignoring the guard's shouts. She tore down the narrow passages and banked a sharp left, then right, praying to Elyon she wouldn't run into a dead end. The hallway was even narrower than Johnis had told her. The Scab Silvie killed had to have bent at an awkward angle just to fit through.
    "Stop her. We have a runner!"
    At the next three-way in the passage, she saw the left shaft was smaller than the right and chose it. The Scab couldn't follow where he couldn't fit.
    She threw herself down the passage and was forced to her hands and knees, sweating and crawling as fast as she could, feeling the rough, uneven beams.

    But she'd been wrong about the Scab not fitting; his loud grunts close behind made that clear enough. A hand latched onto her foot. Darsal curled into a ball, kicked into the Scab's belly, and kept going, free for the moment.
    She was on wooden beams that crossed over a large room, a catwalk of sorts. But the beams were spaced too far apart for comfort, and they bowed under her weight.
    "Get back here, you little wench! I'll slit your throat!"
    Darsal wobbled precariously, latched on with one hand, and pressed her foot against a beam to hold her weight. She grabbed with the other hand and resumed crawling. The shakes came so hard she could barely make her hands and feet hold on.
    The Scab grabbed her by the calf and pulled hard. She kicked and tried to keep going. But he had her like a fish dangling from a hook and wouldn't let go. He jerked her toward him.
    She released her grip and flew backward into him.
    The beams bowed, then broke under their combined weight, and they both fell, grappling for control.
    Darsal threw her weight sideways and grabbed his tunic, pulling her body close to his torso and curling her legs under her. He hit the ground with a heavy thud, flat on his back, unconscious. Heartbeat still skyrocketing, Darsal grabbed his sword and knife and sprang up. Turned. Where was she?
    A large, fan-shaped room. Council hall, but completely redesigned: wood floors, blue rug across the middle and down aisles on either side of three sections of silky cushions, picture on the wall.

    Shouts and running down the hall. More swearing. A voice that sounded like Silvie screeched from beyond the door.
    "Dear Elyon."
    Four Scabs poured into the room.
    Among them the one called Marak.
    Darsal scanned the room for another exit. One more, but it was on the same wall as the one the Scabs raced from, on the other end.
    She ran for it.
    The smallest of the Scabs sped toward her. She lunged forward, blade extended. The two swords scraped together, and his nearly took her hand off. She blocked, then took a swipe at his head, using her sword as a club.
    Even now the thought of killing this Scab struck her as offensive.
    She cursed herself.
    His blade slapped her sideways, then down. Almost cut her in half. Darsal rolled and raised her sword in time to block a third swing.
    Sweat trickled down her neck. Sticky morst from her assailant dripped down on her forehead. She grimaced.
    She could easily grab her knife and run him through the stomach...
    Instead, Darsal swept his