The Hermetica of Elysium (Elysium Texts Series) Read Online Free PDF

his secret in the face of such abuse. His body may have been slight, but his courage was considerable. She remembered how his blue eyes spoke to her in the end when his lips could no longer move. He had entrusted her with his last words. Trusted her to tell his brother what he had withheld from his torturers. A great surge of pity swelled inside her.
    “You did not stop for his body,” she whispered.
    “No.” Montrose took her arm again, and Nadira did not resist the grip. “There is no time, and I have not the heart to disturb his grave.” Now his voice was soft and low.
    Nadira stared at her feet. She recalled Inez’s fear and her warnings. She looked back toward the town, long gone from sight. Her day was going to be full of inventorying the buttery and the larder, then perhaps copying a manifest. She looked down the road away from town, a ribbon of road stretched north toward places she had never been. She looked at the men and horses circled around her.
    Three men sat patiently on mounts loaded front and back with supplies. The youngest-looking man in the back held the reins of two packhorses, he was not much more than a boy. They were very definitely on a long journey. The three other men were dismounted, hands resting on the pommels of their sheathed swords, quietly watching her make this decision. These men were not like Massey’s band of rough sailors.
    She looked at their faces one by one. She saw that they knew she must come willingly or be of little use to them. Their patience seemed odd to Nadira who was used to being told what to do. In her narrow world, men gave the orders. Did it matter to her which men were her masters? It was only a matter of time before the Black Friars visited Sofir. Something else entered her mind, a thought she had not allowed herself to savor for many years. A possibility. Perhaps an opportunity.
    “I will come with you for his sake, but I must ride vertically, not as a sack of barley.”
    “Ha! She will bargain then,” The red-haired man barked out a short laugh. “You’d best ken what the merchant said about her bein’ clever, Rob, lest she get the better of you.”
    Montrose ignored him. To Nadira he said, “Very well.”
    “And I must have shoes and proper clothing.”
    “I will get them for you at the next town.”
    “You must swear not to harm me.”
    “I have.”
    “Do it again, and make your men swear.”
    “Agreed.” Lord Montrose gestured to the mounted men. They joined their comrades on the ground, drawing their swords. “I swear you will not be harmed,” he said. The men repeated his words, pressing their pommels to their foreheads one by one. “Are you satisfied?” he asked her.
    “There is more.”
    Montrose looked like he was forcing himself to remain calm. “Speak already. We are in a hurry.”
    “You will send me home when you are finished with me.”
    “Already agreed. Let us not waste another moment.” Montrose pulled his gloves on.
    “No, I mean, my real home. Morocco.” Nadira lowered her eyes, looking up at him through her lashes. She waited for the expected expletives, but she heard only the crunching sound of the horses at their bits. The silence went on so long she began to doubt her new idea. She clenched her fists and looked up boldly. Montrose was rubbing his chin with the reins while he studied the sunrise, then he looked at her hard.
    “You will come willingly?”
    Nadira nodded.
    “You won’t run away?”
    She shook her head. He studied her for a few more minutes, cocking his head and narrowing his eyes. “Agreed.” He signaled to the scarred man who immediately mounted his huge horse and scooped Nadira up before him on the saddle. She leaned back against his body as the horse moved into a rough canter. While not comfortable, it was bearable in this position. He kept one thick arm around her middle as the horse thundered down the road. Nadira did not look back. The group continued down the road, and soon they were quite