Queen (Brotherhood of the Throne) Read Online Free PDF

sit by as they harassed that poor
woman. But she really didn’t want to have to explain to Duke Ewart why
she was killing his people. Even if some of them deserved it.
    By the time the second man
was on the floor nursing his knee, the first one, Symes, was back on his feet,
angrier than before. He’d found a long wooden club somewhere and he slapped it
lightly against his thigh.
    “Give it up Symes,” Brenna
said. “You’re no match for me. I’ve been taught to fight by two former captains
of the Kingsguard.” She smiled at the look of surprise on his face.
    “Yer still a witch and
I’ll make ye pay.” Symes carefully circled her.
    Brenna kept eye contact
with him. The man was angry, and drunk, and she easily ducked his swinging
club.
    “You’re right about that,
I am a witch. Likely the first real one you’ve ever seen.” She stepped back as
the second man joined Symes. He limped slightly but held his knife high. She whispered
a spell and the second man’s knife slipped from his hand and landed, point
down, in the floor. “There, we don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
    “That’s not witchery.
Osker’s jes clumsy. Pick up yer knife, Osker.”
    Brenna grinned as the
second man, Osker, tried in vain to pull his knife from the floor.
    “Can’t Symes. It’s really
stuck there. Maybe she really is a witch?”
    “I am a witch.” Brenna
checked for old steel. Her pack had not moved, and there, very close, was
Dasid. She nudged him through the old steel and he headed her way. “If I wasn’t
a witch how would I know that my friend was about to come through that door? He
has sword, not a little knife like this.” She heard the door open behind her and
then the hiss of a sword being drawn.
    “Brenna?” Dasid calmly
positioned himself off her left shoulder where he wouldn’t interfere with her
right-hand and knife. She nodded once, keeping her eyes on Symes.
    “Time to sit back down,
gentlemen,” Brenna said, gesturing to the table with her knife. “Barkeep, get
these men another ale.”
    Symes looked from her to
Dasid and back. Finally, he scowled and stepped back to the table.
    “Not you,” Brenna said as
the barmaid, Neemah, went to pick up the mugs. “The barkeep will serve this
time.” She ignored the black look the man sent her and stepped back beside
Dasid.
    Brenna relaxed slightly as
the barkeep delivered the mugs to the four men, who continued to sit and watch
her, their faces red with anger.
    “Neemah?” Brenna slipped
her knife away and walked over to the serving woman. “I want you to come with
us when we leave. Pack up anything you really care about. You’ll never have to
come back here, I promise”
    “What about my job? I need
this to fend for my boy and me.”
    Brenna met her sad, gray
eyes. Neemah wasn’t as old as she’d first thought. In truth, she couldn’t be
more than a few years older than Brenna herself, though the lines and sorrow
that etched her face aged her ten years or more.
    “Not many places will let
an unmarried woman and her bastard son work for them,” Neemah said quietly.
    “I’ll find you a better
position,” Brenna replied. When she saw the doubt in the woman’s face, she
touched her hand gently. “Trust me. I spoke the truth when I said my own mother
had been called witch and whore all her life. You see, I’m bastard born too. I
will not let anyone hold that against you or your son.” Brenna held the other
woman’s gaze for a moment then finally, Neemah nodded.
    “Can’t be many places
worse than here. I’ll get my boy.”
    “First I need to retrieve
what’s mine. That’s what I originally came here for.” Brenna turned to Dasid.
“My pack got pinched.” She narrowed her eyes when she saw his lips twitch. “You
can have a big laugh after I recover the old steel.” 
    That stopped him. Dasid’s
eyebrows went up and he mouthed the words the coronet . She nodded and he
stood a little straighter.
    “All right Neemah. What’s
mine is