Seeker of the Four Winds: A Galatia Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

received a kick in the crotch for
his efforts. With a grunt and a grimace, poor Rolf tipped over onto
the ground holding his groin.
    Josie’s charisma kicked in. A second later
Lindsey was thrown into the tree branches. In a swish of auburn
hair, she deftly cherry-flipped to the ground, where she picked up
a hundred pound fallen log and swung it at Josie’s head. Josie
flattened herself to the ground just in time.
    “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Dante said. “No charisma!
You’ll kill each other!” He ducked as the log flew over where his
own head had been, and ricocheted off the tree behind him.
    The men regrouped to pull the girls apart.
Rolf and Dante each had one of Lindsey’s arms. Hogard and Lars had
Josie’s. The two cussed hatefully at each other.
    The tension was broken by a rich vibrato
voice lifting to the trees, carrying sweetly in the wind—Prince
Loyl singing a Regalan ballad. The startled girls forgot their
dispute for a moment, carried away in the beauty of his song.
    Lars had no idea what the words to the song
meant, but he felt stirred anyway. The hostility between the girls
seemed to slink back into the forest with its tail between its
legs. When Prince Loyl was through, Lars about fainted when Lindsey
made a partial confession.
    “Okay, I’m tired of the bad blood between
us.” She looked down at the ground. “I may have had something to do
with the incident in question, but I didn’t take your guitar.
Melissa did.”
    “And you put her up to it,” Josie said
through gritted teeth.
    “Could I help it the girl was a total
suck-up? I said it would be a hoot if your guitar went missing, but
I didn’t think she would actually do it; she just wanted to make
nice with me.”
    Josie’s chest heaved. Her hands went out in
front of her as if she intended to strangle Lindsey there on the
spot. Lars held on tighter to Josie’s arm as she lunged at
Lindsey.
    Dante stood between them, spreading his arms
like a referee. “Remember what the mayor said about putting away
our petty differences?” he said.
    “I know we shouldn’t have interfered with
your act,” Lindsey said. “But our tumbling routine had gotten
stale. I saw first place slipping away and I panicked.”
    “Why would that make you panic?”
    “I don’t want to be a loser.”
    “It’s easy to be a gracious winner. The true
test of character is how good you are at losing. If there was a
contest for being a gracious loser, you’d get last place.”
    “You’re not such a gracious loser yourself,”
Lindsey countered, wiping a dribble of blood from her nose with the
back of her hand. “Hating me all these years over a trophy.
Puh-leez.”
    “Oh, now you’re a better loser than me?”
Josie’s nostrils flared.
    “I felt kind of guilty about what happened.
I’m glad it’s finally off of my chest.”
    “Only because I tricked you into admitting
it.”
    “Maybe I could have handled it differently,
sure. I’m starting to realize that those girls just wanted to ride
on the coattails of my popularity and probably weren’t real
friends. If I still had the trophy, I’d give it to you. But I
don’t. So how long are you going to carry on about it?”
    Josie raised her fist, but it hovered in
mid-air.
    “As much as I’d like to break your face,” she
said, letting her fist fall to her side, “we promised Red we would
get along and that’s what we will do.”
    “Does this mean you forgive me?”
    “I’ll never forgive you, but let’s call a
truce. Because it’s in the best interest of Galatia.”
    “Of course,” Lindsey raised her fists like
the cheerleader she once was. “Let’s give a shout out for the home
team—yeah, Galatia!”
    “Yeah, for Galatia!” Dante bellowed, raising
his own fist. He motioned for the other men to get into the
spirit.
    Lars and Rolf did a fist bump. “For Galatia!”
they bellowed.

Chapter Four
     
    (Larsen Drey Steelsun)
     
    In Lars’s opinion, the
only attractive thing about a Bulwark