Ozark Trilogy 1: Twelve Fair Kingdoms Read Online Free PDF

Arkansaw was shared by Castles Purdy and Guthrie and Farson. And those were three of the most likely to have something to hide from me and require an investment of my time.
    An alternative that might save me time in the long run would be to fly straight on south to Castle Clark on Oklahomah, and make a quick circuit of Castles Smith and Airy, both of which—along with Clark—were loyal to the Confederation. I could maybe do the entire continent in eight, nine days, counting one to a Castle for the required ceremonial stopover, before I moved on to Arkansaw and more reasonable sources of trouble.
    The McDaniels children found me poring over my map and gathered round to look over my shoulder, all nine of them. The room shrank around me; not a one of them that was not a typical McDaniels, big and stocky and broad-shouldered (and if female, broad-hipped as well). It got very crowded in that room.
    “This is a nice map you’ve got,” said one of the younger of the herd, a boy called Nicholas Failtower McDaniels the somethingth—I could not remember the what-th there for a minute. The 55 th ? No; the 56th. I was embarrassed; if there is one thing expected of us it is knowing people’s names , and this boy was a second cousin of mine.
    “What are you looking for, Responsible? It’s a nice map, like Nicholas says, but there’s a lot on it.”
    “She’s looking for the kidnapper—” said the very littlest, and instantly clapped both hands over his mouth. “I forgot,” he said around his fingers.
    Either Anne or their father then had threatened them with dire events if they mentioned that baby; still, it was a McDaniels baby, and it was not surprising that they’d be interested. Manners were hard to get the hang of.
    “I am trying to decide,” I said, ruffling the boy’s hair to show I didn’t intend to take notice of his lapse, “which is the best way to go when I leave in the morning. Like you say, there’s a lot of choices.”
    The children hadn’t any hesitation at all—zip due west to Arkansaw, as any fool could see. Except for one of them. Her name was Silverweb, and she was fifteen years old and not yet married; perhaps it was her intention to become a Granny without the bother of waiting around to become a widow. She was a handsome strapping young woman, with a pleasant face; she bound her hair back in an intricate figure-eight of yellow braids that I could never of managed, and she carried herself with dignity. I made a mental note to compliment Anne on this daughter—her only daughter—who seemed to me to show promise.
    She laid a well-tanned finger that showed she wasn’t afraid of a little sun to my map, and traced a different route. Castle Clark, on Oklahomah’s northeast corner. Castle Airy, at the southern tip ... Oklahomah came very near being a triangle. Then to Castle Smith, in the northwest corner. My choice exactly.
    “Do it that way,” she said. “Then over to Arkansaw; only an easy morning’s ride. And you’re at Castle Guthrie.”
    “Faugh. Silverweb,” said one of her brothers, “she can’t do that at all. You heard Mother—Cousin Responsible is touring all twelve Castles on solemn Quest. The way to do it is go straight on to Arkansaw, then Mizzurah, then Kintucky, then Tinaseeh, then end up in Oklahomah, and back to Marktwain.”
    “If she ever gets out of Tinaseeh,” said another “Horrible old place, Tinaseeh is, and full of things that would as soon eat you alive as look at you.”
    “Not as horrible as your room!”
    I moved out of the way so as not to get my costume spoiled, grateful that the map was indestructible, and let them shove and carry on for a bit to get it out of their systems. Silverweb, calm among the turmoil, held fast that it would be just as sensible, and twice as pleasant, and break no rules that she’d ever heard of, if I went the other way round.
    “But then she’s got all that open ocean between Tinaseeh and Oklahomah to fly! Look at it,