The Crowded Shadows Read Online Free PDF Page A

horse. Fear clenched Wynter’s heart as all the nightmares of the previous three nights flooded her mind.
    She jerked her knife upwards, turning her head as she did so. As the blade came slicing up between the man’s legs, Wynter found herself glaring triumphantly into a pair of brown eyes shot through with gold flecks.
    Razi jerked and made a sharp little
guh
as her knife came up into his groin. Wynter froze with a cry. She had no idea whether or not she’d cut him. Before she could do anything, there was a
thud
above her and a wild scattering of leaves as the second man leapt the dead tree and slithered down the hill.
    Razi lifted his eyes to the new arrival and grated out a hoarse, “
Don’t!
”
    Wynter hardly dared to hope. She turned her head to look up into the masked face of the man sliding into place beside her, and whispered, “Christopher?”
    Christopher’s knife was already pressed to her throat. As he registered her voice, his fury changed to shock and he jerked the blade away from her neck. He lay still for a moment, as though not trusting his eyes. Then he gently pulled the scarf from her face. Wynter couldn’t help but smile as his clear grey eyes creased up in joy.
    “Razi,” he said. “You’ve finally apprehended the scoundrel who stole my coat.”
    Razi, still frozen in place, huffed dryly. “Oh aye,” he said, “though I think the scoundrel may well have apprehended
me
. Wynter? Could you perhaps…?”
    Wynter laughed as Christopher leant forward to look between herself and Razi. He squinted theatrically, as though peering down a rabbit hole, and raised an eyebrow at the position of her knife. “Oh my
…,
” he breathed. “Tell you what, Razi, swap places, will you? I do so love a woman who knows what to do with her hands.”

Company

    “G ood God…” Razi’s stunned voice trailed off into muttered Arabic.
    Wynter put her hand over her mouth, torn between laughter and apology. Her friend was sitting on the leafy slope, his long legs splayed, his body hunched as he examined the slit her knife had left in the crotch of his trousers. Christopher was kneeling by his side. Wary of the nearby camp, they spoke in hushed tones.
    “Good
God
.” Razi held the torn fabric apart and gaped at the long shallow cut high on the inside of his thigh. “Wynter! You almost gelded me!”
    Christopher chortled. Razi turned to him in wounded dismay, and Christopher turned his palms up in apology, trying to swallow his laughter. “Sorry, friend! I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I can’t…” He started laughing again and had to turn his head so that Razi’s hurt look wouldn’t push him over the edge entirely. “After all,” he chuckled, getting himself under some control. “It ain’t like we were playing patty-cakes. We were fully intent on slitting the poor woman’s throat.”
    This bald truth stunned them all into silence and stole the smile that had begun to creep into Razi’s face. They’d all come so close. One small slip of blade or hand and any one of them could have inflicted real harm on someone they loved.
    Wynter swallowed hard. “Chance would have been a fine thing, Christopher Garron,” she said softly. “You being such clay-footed creatures, and so timid in battle. Be grateful I decided to take mercy on you, and thank your Gods that I do not demand your eternal obsequience as tribute.”
    Christopher gave her a shaky smile. “What are you doing here, girly?” he asked, his eyes grave.
    Razi pressed his hand against his thigh and stared at Wynter for a moment, then he rose abruptly to his feet. “Let’s save all that,” he said. “We need to get some distance between us and them.” He began to pick his way down the slope, grousing as he did. “Good God, Wynter Moorehawke, if this cut rubs against my saddle, I shall tan your hide.”
    “Don’t you want to see who they are, Razi?” she said, leaping to her feet. She had to restrain herself from taking his arm