The Malmillard Codex Read Online Free PDF Page A

widened, and an
expression darted through their violet depths that looked almost
like—fear?
    No. It was not fear, Valerik knew. He was
familiar with that particular emotion; none better. What was it,
then? Anger, perhaps?
    No.
    It was recognition.
    Madryn jerked to her feet, rattling the
empty dishes and knocking an empty bottle on its side. Valerik
grabbed for it, caught it before it rolled off the table, and set
it back up on its stubby base. He watched Madryn as she took the
three short paces to the grate and kicked aimlessly at a dying log,
her back to him. Her back, rigid and straight, spoke of her
irritation.
    "My lady," Valerik began, uncertain as to
how he'd offended her, but she interrupted with what sounded like
anger, though she did not turn to face him.
    "Call me by my name, if you please. We must
give no one reason to doubt that we are equal companions, else
you'll be returned to your interrupted hunting expedition. Neither
of us wishes that, I believe?"
    Valerik nodded, realized that she could not
see his response, and said in a low gruff voice, "I do not. I have
not thanked you for…all you have done for me. If we had been caught
by the hunters, you'd have been in as much danger as I was."
    Valerik paused at the image of this elegant
woman in black, stripped naked and bleeding, running through the
forest at his side with the hounds at both their backs.
    To help a hunted slave was punishable by
death. She knew that, he was sure. A cold chill ran over him.
    As if she had seen what was in his mind
instead of the fire that crackled before her eyes, and answering
shudder ran through Madryn's body. She turned to face him at last,
leaned back against the mantel. There was a crooked smile on her
long mouth, but Valerik didn't think it had been there long.
    "Yes, not a pretty thought, is it? But the
main thing is, what am I to do with you? Taking you with me would
cause problems. Leaving you here could potentially bring about
more. Master Frague has decided that I've picked you up somewhere
as a bedmate, so to leave you here would draw his attention all the
more, and to both of us. It's an interesting conundrum…that I
believe I'll sleep on."
    As if in answer to her words, there came a
knock at the door. Valerik, after a nod from Madryn, unlatched it
and flung it open.
    "My lady," Frague intoned, broad grin
illuminating broader face, "after much travail and endless trouble,
I have managed to find you a room for the night. If you are quite
finished here, it would be my honor to take you to it, you and your
gentleman."
    "We were just wondering, and hoping, that
you'd be able to accommodate us, Master Frague," said Madryn as she
buckled on her sword. "Weren't we, Val?"
    Valerik felt a shock of pleased surprise go
through him at the sound of his new name…so short, so clean, so…not
a slave. Not daring to risk a word, he nodded in mute agreement and
gathered up in one hand the cloak and his new boots and stockings,
which he'd not bothered to don until his feet warmed. Seizing the
saddlebag with his free hand, he followed Madryn and Frague out the
door.
    ***
    "Here we are, my lady and sir, here we are,"
burbled Frague as his row of bellies and chins shook in some secret
delight. "A fine room—clean as a needle, as the ole ones say—with a
bed big enough for…well, quite big enough for comfort, as I was
about to say, milady, if you'll pardon me, I'm sure."
    Valerik had followed Madryn and their host
down a long corridor, out of the inn proper, across a damp covered
porch and into an ell that had obviously been built at a somewhat
later date than the rest of the inn. Several doors, heavily barred,
lined a long passageway that smelled of apples and vinegar and
beer. Frague stopped at the very last door on the right. A window,
shuttered against the rain that had begun to fall with abandon, was
the centerpiece of the end of the hallway, a length or two from
their door. The candle in Frague's flabby hand threw