Prisoner Read Online Free PDF Page B

your worst. The more excuses I have to beat you, the better."
    "You don't strike me as the type to need an excuse."
    "Think what you like." He turned away, dismissing Beraht entirely to examine their dinner, which had singed slightly. "Come. Eat."
    For a moment, Beraht thought to refuse, but his stomach growled, and he was forced to admit that a war—even a private one—could not be waged on an empty stomach. Reluctantly, he sat down and accepted what von Adolwulf gave him, eyeing it warily before biting into meat that, though singed, was still the best thing he'd had in months.
    "You need clothes."
    "Wouldn't you prefer to see me freeze to death slowly?"
    "Not until I've paid you back for killing my men."
    "The Illussor killed your men." Beraht glared. "I had nothing to do with it."
    "You were the motive."
    "Unwitting."
    "Irrelevant."
    "You're every bit the bastard I've always heard you to be."
    Von Adolwulf sneered. "Hoping to regain ground with compliments?"
    "There is nothing about you worth complimenting." Not bothering to respond, von Adolwulf rose to his feet and strode to a pair of saddlebags that were hanging from a tree. Rifling through it, he pulled out a shirt and over tunic. "Those are far too big for me."
    "If you do not put them on, I will do it for you."
    Finishing his meat, Beraht threw the stick to the ground and snatched at the clothes held out to him. "Would you like to search me for pollution before I change?"
    "I already did," von Adolwulf said.
    Biting off his curses, refusing to let the thrice-cursed general see how disconcerting that statement was, Beraht began to change. Von Adolwulf's clothes were far too large, but they were warmer than his own. If he was going to become a prisoner of Kria, why couldn't it have waited until spring?
    Von Adolwulf put out the fire, and in minutes it was hard to tell anyone had ever made camp there. "Come, we have far to go."
    Beraht started to protest, then thought better of it. The horse was as much a monster as the master. That reminded him—where had his chains gone? He looked at his wrists, which had partially healed as a side-effect of the protect spell. "Do you miss them?" von Adolwulf asked.
    "Don't you?" Beraht replied. "I am not the one who must worry about a knife in my back."
    Von Adolwulf laughed. "I've no need to fear such a thing from you, Beraht. You said so yourself?" He urged his horse forward, pulling up alongside Beraht. "Come. I don't have all day. You can ride the easy way or the hard way."
    "So you're not going to drag me around in chains this time?" Beraht said.
    "I gave you a chance," von Adolwulf replied. He reached down and grabbed Beraht by his tunic, then hauled him up and over the saddle as if he were little more than a sack.
    "Let me go!" Beraht said, twisting around in a vain attempt to knock them both down. Von Adolwulf laughed and threw him to the ground. "Would you like to try again? I suggest you do it properly, because my patience is wearing thin. We won't be stopping until we reach the Stone Temple, and that is several hours away."
    Beraht grimaced and mounted the horse. He wondered morosely how many times he would be picking himself up off the ground as von Adolwulf seemed to delight in throwing him down. Beraht must have been sporting more than a dozen bruises; no doubt he would break something before the journey concluded.
    They rode in a silence broken only by the sound of hooves speeding over dirt and grass. Von Adolwulf had chosen to avoid the roads, so there were not even other people to distract his attention. Nor any animals.
    Winter was falling hard and fast throughout Kria. Only the southern area usually escaped the worst of the weather which fell with lethal force across Kria and most of Illussor. The snow in Salhara was not nearly so bad. It was lighter back home, and for the first time since he'd left it, Beraht found himself missing his homeland.
    After another hour of riding, however, even those memories could