The Golden Queen Read Online Free PDF

well that many thought him a psychic. No one understood Tlitkani better than Veriasse did.
    “The young man downstairs said that the gate is only five miles distant. Could the vanquishers have already found it?”
    “It’s hard to say-” Veriasse answered. “I feel certain that vanquishers are following, but they could be ahead of us, too. On such a windy night, I cannot even be sure that the vanquisher I smell is twenty kilometers off. It might be ten, or only two.”
    “Perhaps the vanquishers are searching for the gate, even as we are,” Everynne offered.
    “Or perhaps Tlitkani wants us to believe that her servants are only searching for the gate—hoping that we will foolishly rush into another trap. I think it best to wait here for the night.” Veriasse yawned and rolled his shoulders to keep the muscles loose, clearly uncomfortable. “We should proceed to the gate cautiously. We may have to fight our way through.”
    Without Calt, Everynne thought, that will not be easy. She felt a pang of grief, hoped that Calt had died painlessly.
    Veriasse said nothing for a moment, then asked, “And what of our guide, this Gallen O’Day? Shall we convert him to our cause? He reacts quickly, and he is marvelously strong.”
    “I won’t do it!” Everynne said, perhaps too forcefully. She knew all of the arguments. She needed protectors, she needed an army of men like Gallen O’Day, but what could he know of her world, the weapons that her people used? You could hardly expect a man to battle vanquishers with nothing more than knives, and Veriasse had no weapons to spare. Even if she did choose to persuade the young man to come along, it would be the same as murdering him.
    Veriasse sat down cross-legged on the floor, but gazed up at Everynne past heavy lashes. He looked at her knowingly. It was as if he read her mind as she considered the arguments, almost as if he were placing the thoughts in her head.
    “Then you are decided?” Veriasse asked. He smiled secretively.
    “What?” Everynne said. “What do you know?”
    “I know nothing,” Veriasse said. “I can only guess at probable outcomes based on what I know of my associates.”
    “What do you guess?”
    Veriasse hesitated. “I’ve seen men like Gallen before. He will want to follow you. Regardless of your good intentions, you must allow him to follow you, to fight at your side—if necessary, to die at your feet. So many people depend on you! I would advise you to use this man as your tool. He is only one, but his sacrifice might save many others.”
    Yet Everynne could not bear the thought of watching another guardian die. Especially not one so ignorant as Gallen O’Day, one so innocent.
    “Let’s get some rest,” she said. Everynne crossed the room, blew out the candle. She closed the window and stood for a moment looking out into the dark streets of Clere. There was a little starlight shining on the town. From this height, she could see over several house-trees and buildings, down to the quay. Small fishing boats lay on the rocky shore, dark, like beached pilot whales. Poles in the sand held twisted coils of fishermen’s nets, hung out to dry. Everynne could almost smell the kelp and the sea rime upon them. She had passed those nets only an hour before, as she made her way into town, and the memory of that smell came strong to her.
    High on the beach, the seagulls had huddled under folded wings, eyeing her darkly, ominously. Almost, it felt as if they were watching now, through this window.
    Everynne shivered, moved away from the window quickly and lay on the bed. Veriasse’s heavy, uneven breathing came to her, and she listened to it as she drifted off. Veriasse—with his unwavering devotion, his strong back—seemed somehow more than human. Certainly, by the standards of this world, he would not be judged human at all. Her teacher, her friend. He had guarded Everynne’s mother for six thousand years. And during the course of Everynne’s short