Shield of Thunder Read Online Free PDF Page B

little, but the pain in her abused body had wakened her. Just in time, for she could hear footsteps on the hillside.
    And she had run for her life, coming at last, her strength gone, to a small grove of trees. There she had expected to die. Instead two men had fought for her, then helped her to a cave high in the hills.
    They had not raped her or offered any threat, yet her terror would not subside. She glanced at the man called Banokles. He was heavily muscled, his face brutish and coarse, his blue eyes unable to disguise the lust he felt as he stared at her. There was no defense against him save for the wall of contempt she had created. The small dagger Kalliades had given her would be useless against such a man. He would knock it from her grip and bear her down as the pirates on the ship had.
    She swallowed hard, pushing the awful memories away, though it was beyond her skill to shut out the pain of her injuries, the bruising and cuts from punches and slaps, and the piercing of her body.
    The big warrior was not looking at her but staring at the tall, slim young man standing some distance away by a twisted tree. She recalled his promise to stand by her, then anger flowed once more.
    He is a
pirate.
He will betray you. All men are betrayers. Vile, lustful, and devoid of pity.
    Yet he had vowed to protect her.
    A man’s promises are like the whispers of a running stream. You can hear them, but they are meaningless sounds. That was what the First Priestess had said.
    The large warrior moved to the stream, leaning forward to cup his hands in the water and drink. His movements were not graceful like his companion’s, but then, she reasoned, it must be difficult to bend in such heavy armor. The breastplate was well made, scores of bronze disks held in place by copper wire. Banokles splashed his face with water, then pushed his thick fingers through his long blond hair. Only then did Piria see that the upper part of his right ear was missing and a long white scar extended from the remains of the lobe down into his bearded chin. Banokles sat back and massaged his right biceps. Piria saw another scar there, vivid, red, and no more than a few months old.
    He saw her looking at him, and his cold blue gaze met hers. Anxious to hold him at bay with words, she said: “Spear wound?”
    “No. Sword. Straight through,” he told her, swinging his body and showing her the back of his upper arm. “Thought it had crippled me for sure, but it has healed well.”
    “Must have been a powerful man to drive a sword that deep.”
    “It was,” Banokles said, pride in his voice. “None other than Argurios. The greatest Mykene warrior of all. Sword would have gone through my throat if I hadn’t slipped. As it was, it got stuck in my arm.” He turned and pointed to Kalliades. “That’s it there,” he said, pointing to the bronze weapon at Kalliades’ side. “The same sword made that big scar on Kalliades’ face. Very proud of that sword, Kalliades is.”
    “Argurios? The man who held the bridge at Partha?”
    “The very same. Great man.”
    “And you were trying to kill him?”
    “Of course I was trying to kill him. He was with the enemy. By the gods, I’d love to be known as the man who killed Argurios. I didn’t, though. Kolanos shot him with an arrow. An arrow! Bows are the weapons of cowards. Makes my stomach churn to think of it. Argurios was the reason they won. No doubt about it. We had the stench of defeat in our nostrils, but it was a Mykene who won the battle.”
    “What battle was this?”
    “In Troy. Would have made me rich. All that Trojan gold. Ah, well. Always another day.” Leaning back, he scratched his groin. “My stomach is beginning to think my throat’s been cut. I hope Kalliades comes up with a plan soon.”
    “A plan to defeat two pirate crews?”
    “He’ll think of something. He thinks a lot, does Kalliades. He’s really good at it. He got us out of Mykene lands even though they had hundreds of men