The Darkness of Glengowyn Read Online Free PDF

as I should be.” She shrugged. “Ulric insisted I learn. My talent with bow and arrow notwithstanding, he said I needed a second way to defend myself. Just in case.”
    “Your cousin is a good man. I’m glad he was able to teach you.”
    She slipped the borrowed weapon into her belt sheath. “I’ll wake you once it’s been full dark for a bit. Thank you for the knife.”
    She was at the doorway when his voice made her pause again.
    “He deserved to die, Nuala. Don’t regret killing the traitor.”
    Without turning, she said, “I don’t. But the fact that I could, that I had to, makes me…sad.”
    She left without saying more. This was not the time to discuss her regrets. There were too many anyway.
     
     
    Nuala caught sight of the small group of minions while they were a block away. Torn between watching their progress and waking Einar, she decided she had time to wake him.
    Slipping on silent feet into the small sitting room, she knelt beside Einar and would have smiled if not for the approaching enemy. He was asleep.
    With a soft touch on his shoulder and a finger over his mouth, she murmured his name.
    He opened his eyes instantly, coming to full wakefulness without any of the lag time she usually required. Moving her finger from his mouth, she whispered, “Minions approaching from the southeast.”
    He flowed to his feet, grabbing his sword from where it lay on the floor beneath the couch. Nuala stepped back to give him room then followed him to the windows. The room didn’t have any curtains, but it was completely dark inside now. Still, he kept to the wall, deep in the shadows. She used his larger body to conceal herself.
    “There,” she said when she spotted an individual minion coming into view. They were only a few doors away, but it was obvious they were searching the buildings.
    “How did they find us?” she asked.
    “How large was the party?”
    She shrugged. “There were five when I first saw them.”
    “Small groups, then. The Sorcerers have probably sent an army of minions into Noman’s Land looking for us. Small groups can cover a lot of territory.”
    “What about the humans patrolling the area?”
    “As dangerous to us as the minions right now.”
    “Won’t they…complicate the search?”
    Her heart pounding, she watched as two minions entered the building across the street and two doors away.
    “Maybe,” Einar answered, his voice barely audible he spoke so quietly, “but that won’t help us now. We need to get to the roof.”
    “Is there time?”
    He held still for one more heartbeat, then grabbed her hand and tugged, moving swiftly and silently back through the room to the entryway. Without pause, he led her up the stairs, circling around and climbing until they reached the top floor. Once there, they had to search for some way they might access the roof.
    Cursing silently, Nuala studied the ceiling down one length of the hall while Einar searched the opposite side of the corridor. When she heard the front door open, she spun to face Einar. He was already moving toward her, faster than most elves could move. He swept an arm around her waist and hurried her to the window at the end of the hall.
    He studied it a moment, then opened it as quietly as he could but some noise squeaked out. They froze. The shuffle of feet in the foyer thudded to the stairs.
    “ Fateesh ,” he cursed and threw the window open, sticking his head out to study their surroundings.
    She watched the stairway, his knife in her hand, her entire body tense.
    “Onto my back,” he ordered in that barely audible whisper.
    “What…?”
    But he didn’t give her time to question his plan. He grabbed her arm just above her elbow and swung her around to his back with a strength that surprised even her. She clung to his neck with one arm, careful not to choke him, slid his knife into one of the scabbards on her belt, then circled her other arm around his chest. She tried wrapping her legs around him high