Spiritwalker 3: Cold Steel Read Online Free PDF Page A

carts shared
     the roadways with people making their leisurely way home from work, the market, or
     the batey game. No volley of shots disturbed the night, so presumably the prince had
     moved on before trouble started.
    Still hidden, I crept into the compound belonging to the household of my husband’s
     trusted friend, Kofi. Vai’s sister Kayleigh was busy in the big open-air kitchen,
     laughing with other young women as they helped with the cooking, supervised by Kofi’s
     mother and aunts. Wheels scraped behind me. I stepped out of the way as the household
     menfolk entered, pushing empty carts. Kofi was at the end of the line, a tall, broad-shouldered
     young man with scarred cheeks and his shoulder-length black hair in locks. Falling
     in beside him, I tweaked the hem of the sleeveless singlet he wore.
    “Kofi, it’s Cat,” I whispered. “I’m in trouble. Meet me in the back.”
    He startled, eyes going wide, but without a word he helped the other men sweep out
     the carts and store them for the night. Then he grabbed a lantern and beckoned to
     Kayleigh. She looked surprised but excused herself to his mother. I walked behind
     them as they made their way to the back courtyard and entered a shed for broken axles
     and wheels not yet repaired.
    When I unwrapped the shadows, Kofi jumped back in alarm. Kayleigh chuckled. My secret
     ways did not trouble her, for she hadgrown up in a hunters’ village and with a grandmother who was a wise woman with strong
     magic.
    He frowned, glancing at Kayleigh as his shoulders tensed. “I tell yee, Cat, yee shall
     not ever do that in front of any but them who know yee well. It don’ seem natural.”
    “My apologies.” I kissed Kayleigh on the cheek and Kofi likewise. “I’ve been accused
     of the murder of Queen Anacaona by Prince Caonabo. He came to the boardinghouse and
     arrested me himself. Once we were away from Aunty’s, I fled.”
    “Whsst!” Kofi rubbed his forehead. “Now yee’s a fugitive, Cat. It make yee look guilty
     of the crime.”
    “How can I be sure the Assembly won’t hand me over to the Taino?”
    Kofi rested a big hand on my shoulder. “Cat, every Expeditioner shall call the cacica’s
     death an act of war, and yee a soldier fighting against the Taino in defense of Expedition.”
    “That will scarcely help me if I’m brought to trial and everyone believes I killed
     her!”
    “I don’ have the authority to let yee seek refuge here. I must ask permission of the
     elders of the house.” He shifted broken wheels off an overturned wagon bed so we could
     sit. “Wait here.”
    As he stepped outside, I said, “I told Uncle Joe to send Rory here. I don’t want the
     Taino to take him into custody. Because he’s the one who killed the cacica.”
    “I don’ see it that way.” The lamplight made his scars shine, a reminder that he had
     endured torture in the cells of Expedition’s Warden Hall for being a radical and revolutionary
     agitator. Few things intimidated him now. “’Tis true yee made the suggestion and yee
     brother struck the blow, but ’twas the maku spirit lord, the one yee call master and
     sire, who had the power to command it done. Seem to me the spirit lord is therefore
     the killer.”
    He walked off, taking the lamp to light his way. In the darkness, Kayleigh took my
     hand. She was a sturdy, big-boned young woman, not more than seventeen, who looked
     like her older brother if not nearly as striking. We had not always gotten along,
     but I was very glad to have her next to me tonight. “What do you mean to do, Cat?”
    “I have to get to Europa. I just have to figure out how to get there, for I’ve no
     money for a berth on a ship taking passage over the Atlantic.I’ve already been warned off trying to walk into the spirit world here in the islands.
     An
opia
came to me looking just like Vai.”
    She snickered. “That must have startled you.”
    Heat burned in my cheeks, for I had kissed the opia quite