Malice Striker Read Online Free PDF Page A

left unattended this day.”
    Skatha realized Lady Gráinne had decided none in the holding were to know of her blindness. Not until the people of the keep earned the abbess’s trust and mayhap not even then.
    “What if we are ordered to leave her?”
    “Then, Elspeth, find me and I will deal with the situation. We go now.” Lady Gráinne linked her elbow through Skatha’s, and they began the journey to Biting Wind’s great hall.
    The sun hadn’t taken the chill off the morn, and Skatha’s cheeks iced in the brisk wind. She inhaled and wrinkled her nose. “Manure. The cattle pens are near?”
    Elspeth grasped her free hand. “They sit on a ridge behind the longhouse, but the breeze blows from that direction.”
    All at once Skatha’s shoulders slumped and the enormity of her situation brought tears to her eyes. She blinked and clenched her jaw. “My lady. How will I do this? Why does he want me for a wife? What will I do when you all leave?”
    “Where is my stouthearted, fearless girl? The one who defied all and mastered a wild stallion?” Lady Gráinne squeezed Skatha’s hand. “All will be well. Focus your attentions on this day. The rest will come.”
    If only ’twere possible to halt the questions popping into her head with every step. She chewed the inside of her cheeks and focused on her surroundings. “’Tis not noisy. I hear none milling about, and we have walked thirty paces.”
    “The Lady Hilda left to visit a neighbor at dawn, and the maids were twiddling their thumbs, so I suggested to them that the lord might look more favorably on them if they used the good hands he gave them to launder the linens of the keep.”
    Skatha repressed a smile. When Lady Gráinne gave a ‘suggestion,’ one obeyed without delay. Prisoner though the abbess may be, she wore her God-given authority with such confidence that none would defy her direction.
    Elspeth leaned closer and whispered, “They cowered like mice and sped to the river.”
    “Stop that whispering, Elspeth, and go help Dagrún up the steep part of the hill.”
    “At once, my lady.” After giving her hand one last squeeze, Elspeth hurried away.
    “Are there children in the keep my lady?”
    “I suggested the maids take the children to the river. Most of the men have gone to the mountains to hunt. We approach the main entrance to the longhouse. ’Tis a double door similar to that of Sumbarten. But these are made of oak and of a height and width so as to be managed only by a large warrior. The longhouse is made of stone. To be cert, ’tis a formidable fortress. The jarl has spared no coin building his holding.”
    Muíríne caught up with them and twined her fingers with Skatha’s.
    “Who opens the door if no warriors are about?”
    “The holding is guarded. Four men, fully armed, are at the door, two on either side.”
    Skatha kept quiet as they entered the great hall, not speaking until their shuffled footsteps echoed in the chamber. “’Tis warm. More than one hearth?”
    “Aye, three. Six men are in the great hall. All are older with missing teeth. They are hunkered at a bench and table close to the entrance to the kitchens.” Lady Gráinne slowed her pace, and Skatha adjusted hers.
    “I have not heard a dog bark. And only the occasional cat’s meow.”
    “Why ’tis the truth of it.” Muíríne caught Skatha by the forearm. “I have seen nary a one. ’Tis most peculiar. And mayhap why the rats have the run of the place. For the only cats Lady Gráinne saw last eve were moth-eaten creatures in their dotage.”
    “Our words and footsteps echo. The chamber is bare?”
    “Bare of rushes. There are no tapestries; instead weapons cover the walls. Axes, swords, daggers, bows and arrows, all gleaming and polished and ready to be used. Mayhap while we are here, your jarl will consent to make Bita Veðr more of a home than an armory. The floors here are stone and whitewashed. The roof is timbered, high, and arched.”
    “It smells