The Haunted Wizard - Wiz in Rhym-6 Read Online Free PDF

grim. "A nice try, landlord, and you might indeed have helped your friends escape—but I am the companion assigned to protect the prince, and I'll not take the blame for this alone! Corin! Ferol! Bind these three and take them to the castle—and do it quickly, before that rat pack comes back!"
    Alisande's lady-in-waiting laid down the brush. "There! Your Majesty's hair glistens like the sun! Shall I braid it?"
    "I shall do that myself tonight." Alisande stood up, clad in only her shift and long blond hair. "I thank you for your ministrations, ladies, but I shall tell you good-night now. It has been a long and wearying day."
    "Good night, then, Your Majesty " The senior lady curtsied, and the others after her. They went out the door, already beginning to murmur in amazement at their young sovereign's strength in standing against Page 16
    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    the worst arguments and tempers of her royal guests.
    The door closed behind them—and Alisande turned to throw open the other door, the one that connected to Matt's suite. He stood there waiting and came in, arms up to embrace. Alisande all but fell into them, buried her face in his shoulder and let herself go limp at last, let herself stop being strong, let herself take refuge for a few moments in her husband's love. "What a horrible family!" she said into Matt's chest.
    "Not the worst I've seen, but certainly in the running for second place," he agreed. "With so much bickering, it's a wonder they can govern their kingdom at all!" Alisande pushed herself a little away, though not far. "You cannot entirely blame Petronille if she is a virago, though— not with a husband like that."
    "What—aside from the fact that she doesn't dare turn her back on him for a second? Look at it this way, Drustan's entirely dependable—she can depend on him to betray her anytime he takes it into his head to want something that might hurt her!"
    "Well, be fair to him," Alisande said with a half smile. "He never stops to mink whether or not his actions will hurt her, or anyone else."
    "Right. He knows what he wants, and he sets about getting it, and if anybody gets in his way, too bad." Alisande shuddered. "How could a woman marry a man like that?"
    "Oh, I expect he looked a lot better twenty years ago,** Matt said, "when he was new to kinging, and didn't realize how much power he had yet."
    "Which he may have learned from her, if the tales of her former marriage are to be believed," Alisande said.
    "She did kind of run her first husband, didn't she? But after all, she was the one who'd been born with a title."
    "Yes, and he was only a knight errant, though a handsome one by all accounts." Alisande sighed. "One wonders why he died so young."
    "Delayed action from an old wound, no doubt. Riding the tournament circuit can be dangerous."
    "So can Petronille," Alisande said darkly. She went to sit down and stare into her mirror. "Could I ever be like that, husband?"
    "Only if I didn't do my job right." Matt came up behind her, caught a stray blond lock and began to wind it about his finger. "No, I don't think you could ever be that selfish, love. You're too busy fighting off rebels and invaders, and trying to find some way to make life better for your people."
    "Sometimes it is hard to know right from wrong," Alisande said, "and one step to the wrong can begin a long slide to perdition and tyranny. What of our children, husband? How can we prevent them from becoming like those boys?"
    "By being as loving to one another and to them as we can," Matt said, remembering his own parents. "I Page 17
    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    don't think the Bretanglian princes learned insulting and pettiness on their own, after all. They tend to do what they see their parents do."
    "There's truth in that," Alisande said somberly. "I've never seen a man who matched that Gaheris for pure malice. How could