The Malmillard Codex Read Online Free PDF Page B

spoken.
    Valerik didn't argue further. He picked up a
blanket from the pile on the shelf and offered it to her, but
Madryn shook her head. She took up her fur-lined cloak and settled
into a chair before the fire, her face towards the door. Valerik
shucked out of his so recently donned new breeches and shirt, laid
them on the floor beside the bed, then lay down and huddled under a
cocoon of blankets.
    He watched Madryn's profile, outlined by the
fire, as she stared into the dimness of the room, wondering. Who
was she, where was she going, this strange woman who had decided to
help him? His mind whirled with old thought and new
feelings…feelings he had never dared to feel before. He knew he
would not be able to sleep for a long time, tired though he
was.
    Moments later, he was lost in deep black
slumber.
    ***
    An instant later, so it seemed—though he
knew it must be longer, by the depth that the fat candle had sunk
in its pewter holder—someone was shaking him. Valerik sat up.
    "Listen," Madryn whispered, her mouth so
close to his ear that he could feel her breath. "Do you hear
that?"
    He could. It came from outside the door, in
the hallway…the hallway that Frague had said was seldom used. A
slithering kind of noise, as if bodies were congregating in a
silent, watchful mass. There…a tiny click of metal against
metal.
    Madryn pressed a dagger into Valerik's hand.
He looked around the room, his eyes bleary from disturbed sleep.
The fur-lined cloak was spread across the chair and a fresh log
from the pile next to the fireplace lay on simmering coals.
Madryn's tall boots were on the hearth, gleaming black against the
cheerful orange light.
    "I heard it when I rose to put wood on the
fire," Madryn breathed. Valerik suppressed a chill of excitement.
"Get dressed. If they're after you, we may have to go out the
window."
    She tiptoed on silent feet, sword in hand,
to lay her ear against the wood of the door. Valerik struggled into
his unaccustomed clothing, striving mightily for silence, and then
followed her. He had no need to catch her sense of danger; he had
his own. He held his ear against the battered wood, listening for
his life.
    Almost at once, a look of relief spread
across the narrow brown face so close to his own. She nodded to
Valerik, a grin on her long mouth.
    "Sorry," she murmured and gave a rueful
laugh before flinging the door open.
    A woman and a man, both dressed in rumpled
finery, were wrapped around each other in the drafty hallway. Their
lips locked together, hands struggling for purchase, they swayed
and turned, now leaning on the wall, now standing free. The swish
of the two thickly embroidered cloaks that muffled them was the
sound that had alarmed Madryn. It was interrupted from time to time
by a soft clink from the metal beads of the embroidery as the two
clashed together in the midst of their frantic pawing.
    "Would you be kind enough to continue this
in your own rooms?" Madryn called out. She tapped the hilt of her
sword against the doorjamb.
    The two stumbled apart, quite obviously far
gone in both wine and lust, and their dull eyes widened at the
sight of the cold steel. They mumbled unintelligible phrases of
apology about lost rooms and abandoned parties, then staggered back
down the hallway.
    Madryn slammed the door with unnecessary
force and snapped the latch.
    "Get back in bed," she ordered, her tone
thick with irritation.
    Valerik was glad to comply. He watched from
his mountain of blankets as she settled herself back in the chair,
pulling her cloak tight about her and resting her stocking feet on
the low table.
    This time, he thought, I know I'll
never get back to sleep.
    An instant later, he was snoring.
    ***
    Valerik was running, running in desperate
fear from a pack of ravening wolves. The wolves had human faces and
hands, and their howls sounded like children sobbing in the night.
The faster he ran, the closer the wolves came, but if he slowed the
slightest fraction they backed away, as