Rose Victory - Eagle Series Read Online Free PDF Page B

down and ruffled the boy’s hair.  “I was in a bad mood this morning, nothing to do with you.”
    “You are pleased with me, truly?  I thought you tired of me, that you would send me away.”  The admiration and hero worship in the boy’s gaze humbled the earl.
    “You will not get off that easily.  I accepted your service and what is mine I keep,” Roydon paused, unsure how to continue, how to reassure the boy.  “But you will also have to learn to take my moods in stride.   Like a man, like a knight,” he finished sternly.
    The squire’s face had turned a bright red with pleasure, all his previous gloom forgotten in the knowledge that his lord found favour with him and would not send him away.
    “I have never had a squire before and apparently I have been remiss in not giving you due praise when merited.  However, I will also let you know when I am displeased with you.  Do you understand me, Ivan?”
    The boy nodded vigorously, “I do, my lord.”  The huge smile on Ivan’s face threatened to split it in two.
    A slight tilting of his lips softened the hard contours of the earl’s face; a sense of shared conspiracy and warmth making him forget his troubles for the moment.  Then his face lost its smile and settled into a stern expression.  “I most certainly do not approve of that.”  Roydon pointed at the sword lying on the ground.  “No knight ever drops his sword!”
    The squire bent swiftly to retrieve it.  “I am sorry, sir. You startled me and…”
    “No excuse,” Roydon said in a hard voice.
    “No excuse, my lord,” Ivan agreed ruefully.
    The earl nodded satisfied.  “Now come and I will show you why.”
    A few minutes later the young squire could hardly hold up his sword.  His arms ached unbearably and sweat poured down his body.  His breath came in irregular gasps but in spite of all this a half grin lingered on his face.
    “The boy seems to like being battered by your sword, my lord.”  Stefan had come up to where Roydon instructed his squire, noting Ivan’s exhausted but contented expression.
    “Unlike someone I could mention,” the earl stepped back and lowered his weapon.  “I was demonstrating why he should never drop his sword.”
    “Bad idea that.  Dropping your sword will get you killed every time,” concurred Stefan seriously.
    “I will never ever drop my sword again, Sir Stefan.”  Ivan gratefully lowered his sword tip to the ground and took up the exact same stance as his master.
    “You have done well …”
    A high screeching wail interrupted the earl’s words of praise.  Roydon looked up into the sky, indeed everyone in the bailey looked up.  This time not one but three eagles circled the sky above the castle.  Two remained riding the currents but the third seemed to be diving straight down towards the courtyard, straight for him.  Was this the same bird that had challenged him yesterday?  It was strange, he had never heard of eagles attacking people on his mountain.  Certainly they would never attack a full grown man in the middle of a crow ded yard.
    Some instinct made the earl look at the soldiers around him.  With horror he saw several of his archers notching arrows onto their bows.  They prepared to shoot his eagle!   An unfamiliar sense of doom and anxiety swamped Roydon.
    “HOLD!”   The earl’s booming shout froze everyone within hearing, their gazes shifting from the descending bird to their lord’s furious face.  Only when the archers had lowered their weapons did Roydon look back at the diving eagle.  He recognized it . A tingling awareness, a shiver of recognition, coursed through him.  He felt fascinated and disturbed at the same time.
    Instinct made Roydon pull up his sword at the last second in a defensive gesture, d eep down he knew he would be unable to hurt the eagle.  Just as he would allow no one to kill it; the mere thought of any harm befalling the bird made him break out in a cold sweat.  He could not