Spell of the Witch World (Witch World Series) Read Online Free PDF

settlers, yet there were still a few of those who had held this land eons before. And not all of them were such unseen presences as my mother had dealt with, but rather resembled men.
    Such were the Were-Riders, men, in part, in other ways different. There were many tales about them and none which could be sworn to, since they were always reported third- or fourth-hand. But that they were a formidable force to enlist on our side no one could deny. And such was our hatred for the invaders—those Hounds of Alizon—that we would have welcomed monsters if they would march with our host.
    The long summer became fall and still Jervon worked to restore skill to his hand. Now he took to combing the hills with his crossbow, bringing back game, yet not going as a hunter. He was a lone man, courteous and pleasant. Still as my father had been, one who erected a barrier between himself and the world.
    He stayed with Aufrica until his hurt was healed as well as she could manage then went to make a hut for himself a little apart. Never was he one with us. Nor did I see much of him, save at a distance. But since my skill with the bow was in much demand to lay up meat to be dried and salted (we had found a salt lick, a very precious thing), I was not often in our straggle of huts.
    Then one day I slid down a steep bank to break my thirst at a bubbling spring. There he lay. He must have been staring up at the sky, but at my coming he started up, his hand to sword hilt. But what he said to me was no greeting:
    “I remember where I saw you first—but that cannot be so!” He shook his head as if completely puzzled. “How can you ride with Franklyn of Edale and also be here? Yet I would have sworn—”
    I turned to him eagerly. For if he had seen Elyn, then indeed he would be bewildered by our likeness.
    “That was my brother, born at one birth with me! Tell me. when did you see him—and where?”
    The puzzlement faded from Jervon's face. He sat working his hand upon a stone as he always did. “It was at the last muster at Inisheer. Franklyn's men have devised a new way of war. They hide out in the land and allow the enemy to push past them, then harry them from the rear. It is a very dangerous way.” Jervon paused looked at me quickly, as if he wished he had not been so frank.
    I answered his thought. “Being his father's son Elyn would glory in such danger. I never believed he could be found far from action.”
    “They have won great renown. And your brother is far from the least among them. For all his youth they name him Horn Leader. He did not speak at our council, but he stood at Franklyn's shoulder—and they say by Franklyn's will he is handfasted to the Lady Brunissende. who is Franklyn's heiress.”
    I could think of Elyn as a fighter and one of renown, but the news that he was hand-fasted made me blink. Seasons had passed, yet I saw him still in my mind the boy who had ridden out of Wark, untaught in the ways of war, yet eager to see sword bared against sword.
    Moved by the thought of time, I wondered about myself. If Elyn was a man, then I was a woman. Yet of the ways of a woman I had little knowledge. In my father's day I had learned to be a son, from Aufrica to be a Wise Woman. But I had never been myself—me. Now I was a hunter, a fighter if the need demanded. But I was not a woman.
    “Yes, you are very like,” Jervon's voice broke through my straying thoughts. “This is a strange, hard life for a maid, Lady Elys.”
    “In these days all is awry,” I made swift answer. For I was not minded to let him think I felt that there was aught strange in what I did, or was. It questioned my pride and that I would not allow.
    “And it seems this must be so forever!” Now he looked at his hand, flexing his fingers.
    My eyes followed his. “You do better!” It was true, he had more control.
    “Slow, but it mends,” he agreed. “When I can use arms again I must ride.”
    “Whither?”
    At that he smiled with a touch of