The Ogre's Pact Read Online Free PDF

powerful, much more forceful than the scout would have expected even for Brianna’s large frame, and he found himself stumbling backward, until at last he tripped over Basil’s feet and crashed down at the verbeeg’s side.
    “Please, Brianna. I know this looks bad-“
    “You played me for a fool, Tavis.” the princess snapped. “While I was protecting you from Earl Dobbin, you were looting Stagwick-and I was blind to what everyone else saw as plainly as the sun in the sky!”
    “No!” Tavis started to rise, but quickly found the tip of Morten’s sword at his throat. “That’s not what happened!”
    Brianna shook her head angrily. “How could you do this?”
    With that, she stepped into Blizzard’s stall and untied the mare. “I’ll send someone for the children this evening, I can only hope you haven’t corrupted them beyond redemption.” She started toward the door and added, “I expect you to begone by then. It will spare me an abundance of humiliation-and save you several decades of torture in my father’s dungeon.”
    Though Brianna’s voice was cracking with grief, she did not look back.
    2 Coggin’s Rise
    Blizzard snorted, then tossed her head and slowed from a gallop to a trot, angrily stamping the ground each time her front hooves came down. Brianna reluctantly reined her mount to a stop. She leaned forward and stroked the mare’s sleek neck.
    “What is it, girl?”
    The horse tipped her ears forward and flared her nostrils. After testing the air for a moment. Blizzard’s muscles tensed, and she became as motionless as a statue.
    Scowling, Brianna pulled a silver-handled axe from it’s saddle sheath. A cool mountain breeze hissed down from the aspen-covered slope ahead. Though she smelled nothing but damp leaves on its breath, the princess knew her mount well enough to realize Blizzard had caught the scent of danger. She laid her weapon across her lap and, remaining as still as her horse, studied the path before her.
    A canopy of small, heart-shaped leaves hung over the road. They quivered incessantly in the light breeze, flashing waxy green and dusty silver, filling the air with a rustle just loud enough to cloak the whisper of creeping feet. Supporting this shimmering vault were hundreds of papery white tree trunks, rising from a steep, boulder-strewn slope with ample cover for an ambush.
    This was Coggin’s Rise, named for an ancient carl who had been found on its slopes mysteriously torn limb from limb, and Brianna had learned better than to travel it recklessly. Once, she had nearly lost Blizzard when a cave bear sprang from among the boulders along the trail, and another time a marauding mountain giant had chased her from the base of the hill all the way to Castle Hartwick. In spite of her eagerness to return home, she thought it wise to let her bodyguard inspect the wood.
    Brianna twisted around to look at Morten, lumbering Up the trail fifty paces back. After leaving Tavis’s inn, she had ridden hard for half an hour, and the effort of keeping pace with Blizzard had nearly done the firbolg in. He wore his helmet pushed half off his head and his leather armor fastened too loosely to offer protection. His buckler hung across his back, slung in place by a rope strung beneath his armpits, and his feet had grown so heavy that he stumbled over the slightest obstacle. He kept his eyes fixed on the ground, and he was panting so hard the princess saw his chest heave each time he gasped for breath.
    A guilty pang shot through Brianna’s breast, for her anger at Tavis had overwhelmed her concern for the firbolg. Even a fire giant would have found it difficult to keep pace with Blizzard for more than a league, and the princess had forced Morten to run several times that distance. It was a good thing something had alarmed her horse, or she might have run her poor bodyguard to death. It might even be possible that an apology was in order.
    Blizzard snorted again, vanquishing all thoughts of