The Callindra Chronicles Book One - First Quest Read Online Free PDF Page B

at his belt and then up
to his eyes, a cautious look of respect on her face.
    “ The best news is this
fellow here explains why the deer have been hard to come by.”
Glarian said, avoiding her question, “Thanks for fixing my jerkin;
he might have had me if I hadn’t been wearing it.” He set his
unstrung bow on the rack and took off the freshly ruined leather
vest.
    Callindra wasn’t paying attention to him; her
eyes were on the puma. She took his skinning knife from its place
on the wall and thumbed the edge. Nodding idly in satisfaction, she
began making small, precise cuts around the legs of the animal,
leaning with on one crutch while balancing on her unbroken leg.
    “ Pull here, I can’t use both
hands.” She said and with his muscle and her expertise the skin was
quickly separated from the body. With her instruction, he was able
to stretch the skin out so she could properly scrape it.
    “ While I’m scraping this
hide, you need to go back and get the head.” She said, “Since I’m
sure you don’t have a supply of tanning chemicals I’ll need the
brain to properly cure it.”
    “ The brain? That’s how it’s
done then?” Glarian was surprised, he usually just sold pelts to a
furrier on the outskirts of the Lord’s holding.
    “ Well only if you don’t have
another choice. Brain tanning is pretty disgusting.”
    He left her tending to the hide while he
ventured back down the trail to retrieve the cat’s head. What, he
wondered should he do about Shojin, what should he do about the
Weave, and what in the name of the Gods was he going to about
Callindra?
    There was a change about her; the more she
began to recover the stronger her affinity with the Weave was. He
was certain this fact had not eluded Shojin, or if it had the man
was losing his edge; not a likely scenario. Still Callindra had not
given him information which would indicate that he, Glarian had
broken his oath to The Order.
    Shojin would not act without a broken oath.
While he might be a spiteful whoreson, he followed the laws of the
Inquisitors laid down without fail. At least Glarian had some
amount of leeway as long as he did not break his oath. Now all he
had to do was figure out a way of keeping Callindra from killing
them both without teaching her anything.
    -
    Callindra awoke, her leg throbbing with yet
another muscle spasm. There was something else too; a whistling
sound that she could only just hear but that played at the edge of
her hearing like a mosquito at night.
    “ Glarian, what the hell are
you doing out there?” When he didn’t answer, she levered herself
awkwardly out of bed, her splinted leg making every movement
difficult. The sun had not quite risen, but the pre-dawn glow
illuminated the room enough for her to be able to see. Grabbing her
crutches she hobbled out into the main room of the house, but
Glarian was nowhere to be seen.
    She made her way to the window, where the
whistling sound seemed to be coming from. What she saw upon looking
out was the man she thought of as a wizened old fossil reborn.
Glarian was stripped to the waist, every muscle in his torso
clearly defined as though carved from stone. He had six feet of
polished steel in his hands; it moved as though it weighed less
than a feather.
    He slid through the motions of a battle with
many enemies; his movements exaggerated and slow but precise.
Callindra could almost hear the screams of the wounded and the
harsh clang of metal on metal. An undercurrent, almost like a
drumbeat thudded through her body and she could hear the whistle of
his sword tip cutting the air, cleaving it in twain, almost as
though sundering the air itself in passage. It was beautiful. He
was less practicing with the sword than dancing with it.
    “ I don’t believe it, he’s a
sword master. He has to be, nobody else could move like that.” She
tore her eyes from Glarian’s sword dancing and looked around the
room. There had to be something she could do to ingratiate herself
to