Return of the Ravens (Ulfrik Ormsson's Saga Book 6) Read Online Free PDF Page B

bone and the painful cough. He drove his knee into the son's groin and tossed him aside like an old sack. The other son had recovered and squared off in a fighting stance. Ulfrik wasted no time, dodging in to strike. The son punched Ulfrik's head, staggering him, and followed up with a kick to his bad left leg. The pain shot his vision with white. The son recognized the weak spot and hit again.
    Now rage bubbled over and Ulfrik charged low into the son's body, taking a beating on his head even as he slammed the son to the ground. Once atop him, he landed a withering punch to the son's face, followed by another, and one more until he heard Finn shouting his name.
    "I've got Gils," Finn said over the screams of the women.
    Ulfrik paused over the bloodied face of the son who stared hatefully back up at him. He shoved himself upright. Finn had gone into the home to find a weapon and now had returned with the other daughter and Gils, who he held hostage with a long knife to the throat. The old man stood-stock still, frowning into the distance as if he were unaware of others.
    "Good work," Ulfrik said. When he stepped toward Finn, his leg buckled and the pain blinded him, though he marshaled a smile and steadied himself.
    "Told you we should've killed them." The son who Ulfrik had just beaten sounded as if he were ready to cry.
    "No doubt you should have," Ulfrik said. "But your chances for that are done."
    "We don't have your gold," Gils said, still refusing to look at anyone. "So kill me if it'll make you feel better, but let my family go."
    Inhaling the bittersweet scent of burning wood and thatch, Ulfrik smiled. "I burned down your barn, which makes me feel better. I don't believe anything you've said, Gils. That much gold is probably worth dying for just to pass it on to your family."
    He grabbed the pitchfork and put his boot on the dog's corpse, yanking it free. One of the daughters sobbed at the sight. He pointed the bloody tines at the son on the ground. "I'll ask you to return the gold to me one last time. I'm sure you had to divide it among your other friends. Also, my sword and my traveling pack, all of it I want back now. If you don't, I'll use this fork to pluck out this one's eyes. What do you say, Gils?"
    "I don't have any of your belongings. That's the truth. The four others, they're Thorgest's men. He's the true power here. We owed him gold, so when you arrived we promised to hold you long enough for his men to get your stuff. I saved your lives, you know that? Told them I didn't want any deaths on my head."
    "And a bandit leader obliged?" Ulfrik's pitchfork did not waver.
    "Not Thorgest, the four with my boys. I've known them since they were children, and they listen to me."
    "Then they'll listen to you when you ask for my belongings."
    Gils shrugged, and Finn dug the knife deeper. His two sons flinched, but Ulfrik touched the pitchfork to one's chest and they both subsided.
    "Thorgest will have taken it from them by now."
    Ulfrik stared at Finn, whose wide eyes indicated he was as nervous as the rest of Gils's family. Ulfrik had expected his belongings to be divided up, but not to a bandit leader. He silently cursed this ill luck, grinding his teeth in frustration. Now he had a whole family as hostage and was no closer to reclaiming his belongings. He could walk away, claiming what he could find from Gils's home. Yet his stolen sword was a beautiful weapon, made to his exact specifications. Also, it was no mean sum of gold that had been stolen, and he would be hard pressed to the same find again. Walking away did not appeal. Striking at a bandit camp was equally foolish, if not deadly. He had no real options.
    "Well, we'll arm ourselves with what you have around your home. You at least have an ax, and Finn has found himself a fine knife. You've got to have other weapons at hand."
    Gils seemed to relax, closing his eyes and slouching. The sound of the barn collapsing in flames shocked everyone, and all paused to