Sword of Darkness Read Online Free PDF

said quietly as he swept her from head to toe with his gaze. “That’s much better. I could never abide a woman in rags.”
    It wasn’t until after he left that she realized her tattered dress was no longer on her body. Instead she wore a shimmering gown of pale blue samite with a gold girdle and soft leather shoes that matched it.
    Seren’s legs went weak. It was all she could do to keep standing. Surely this was all a vivid dream. How could it be real?
    “Wake up, Seren.” But it wasn’t a dream. Somehow this place was real.
    The black knight was real. And something inside her warned that if she didn’t find a way to escape this place, she would be doomed and damned here forever.

Chapter 3
    “So you’re the Penmerlin’s mother.”
    Seren turned away from the window where she’d been watching an angry black sea crash upon the castle’s stones far below, to see an old crone entering her room. The crone was dressed in black, which seemed to be the color du jour here in the castle, with her gray hair pulled back into a gnarled braid. “I am no one’s mother.”
    “But you will be, God willing.”
    There was something in the old woman’s hopeful tone that gave Seren pause. A slither of instinct that begged her to listen to it.
    The old woman drew close to her and looked about nervously as if afraid someone might be able to overhear them. When she spoke, her tone was barely more than a whisper. “There isn’t much time, child. You have to leave here before it’s too late.”
    “Too late for what?”
    “To save you. Right now the Kerrigan is focused on using you to barter with Merlin, but once thatfails, he will take your head and drink your blood.”
    That was something Seren would most definitely like to avoid. “Then how do I escape this place?”
    The old woman sighed as if the answer troubled her greatly. “Unfortunately, you have only one choice.”
    Seren waited expectantly, but the woman appeared to lose her train of thought as she trudged about the room, examining the stones. “And that is?” she prompted.
    The crone stopped and looked at her. “The Kerrigan.”
    Seren frowned at the unfamiliar name the crone kept using. “The Kerrigan?”
    “The black knight who captured you and brought you here. You have to seduce him so that he will drop his guard and let you escape this damned place.”
    How easy the crone made it sound to drag a man to her bed, but it wasn’t easy and she knew it. Not to mention the small matter that she was a virgin who rather liked her innocent state. The last thing she wanted was to barter her maidenhead to a professed demon in exchange for a freedom she was certain would be only temporary. If she were to run, the black knight would most likely come after her, and then what would she have to barter with?
    “I can’t do that. I know nothing of seducing men.”
    “You have no choice, child,” the crone insisted in that low, commanding tone. “There are only two people who can come and go freely in and outof this realm. Morgen, who, no offense, will never help you, and the Kerrigan.”
    Still, she refused to believe it. “There has to be another way to escape.”
    “There isn’t. Trust me, men are susceptible to their lust. He is already attracted to you. Use his lust to gain your freedom.”
    Seren rebelled at that idea. “’Tis wrong to use people in such a manner.”
    The old woman snorted. “It is wrong to kill them as well, and they will kill you. Do you not understand me, chit? The Kerrigan is evil to the marrow of his bones.”
    “He has been kind to me.”
    She scoffed at that. “He knows nothing of kindness. Trust me. I have seen him cut the throat of his own men for nothing more than looking askance at him. He feels for no one, and it is by his own hand you will be slain when the time comes for it.”
    Seren’s heart pounded at her dire prediction. “And why should I trust you?”
    “Because I am the only hope you have. I have been here since