The Silent Goddess: The Otherworld Series Book 1 Read Online Free PDF Page A

respectable.”
    “Barely passable,” Duncan said eying his unusual companion.
    Knackers had managed to hide most of his more feline qualities, including, Duncan noticed, his tail.  His usually ash covered body was washed clean. (Knackers had a habit of lying too close to any fire he could find.)  His black cape had been replaced by a very loud shirt with brightly colored flowers that Duncan was sure did not exist in nature.  His usual tight knickers and boots had been replaced with long tan short pants that hung loosely on him and stopped just at his knees.  But perhaps the most disturbing garment on Knackers was the footwear on his feet.  He did not, ever again, want to see Knackers’ toes.  His gray-black beard had at least tried to accept a combs manipulation, or at least it no longer stuck out at odd angles.  Knackers made a cat-like snort.
    “Passable?  This is gorgeous,” Knackers said waving his hands up and down his diminutive, strangely attired frame.
    At that Duncan did laugh.
    “Finally, now that is a sound I have no’ heard in an age.  So now that yer out of yer head what have ye ta tell?”
    Duncan sat back down and stared across the Commons.  It was quiet.  A few people wandered on the path that encircled the grass.  A handful of people were gathered together laughing and playing some sort of game with a flying disk.  Mothers watched their small children climb, and fall off a miniature combat course of some kind.  He took this all in as he tried to form his thoughts into words.
    “It was-“he began.  It was wonderful soothing and frustrating.  There were no human or Fae words to describe exactly how he was feeling.  “Confusing,” was the word he finally settled on.  Knackers raised a shaggy questioning brow but said nothing.
    “It was her and yet not her.  It is as if she were asleep or rather as if I were to see her in a dream,” he tried to explain.
    “Like just a poor copy?” Knackers inquired.
    “Yes, she’s there. Her eyes, they’re her eyes! The same beautiful color, the same sparkle.  She’s there sleeping behind those eyes.  The look of her is the same, or almost the same.”
    “So powerful magick spent more on hiding her essence than her appearance,” Knackers mused.
    “Aye that is it.”
    “Did she, ken ye?”
    Duncan shook his head.  Knackers responded by patting him on the back.
    “She will,” he reassured.  “So what now?”
    “I am invited back later.”
    “Oh ho! Guess it went better than yer lettin’ on.”
    “There will be others; her friends are attending as well.”
    “Ye speak to a lass, who, dunno ken ye for five minutes and get invited to meet her court!  Ye are a silver tongued devil Duncan.”
    “Mayhap,” Duncan said with a deep sigh.  “I have been wondering though if the one who stole her might be among those she is close to.”
    “Ye think that important?”
    “Aye, verra important.”

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Four
    Fiona Makes Three
     
     
    “Why is it important who stole yer love?” Knackers asked again.  It was a question that he kept asking since Duncan had first mentioned it.  Duncan gave no answer because he himself had been pondering the question over the last few hours. 
    Duncan sighed, it was close to six and he wanted to be at Annie’s early to steal a few moments alone with her.
    “It matters because then we will understand why she was taken,” he said giving the first answer that came into his head.  Duncan waved his hand in front of his chest to change the color of his V-neck shirt.  Knackers shook his head at the red color.
    “Too much like her,” he said.  At Duncan’s confused look he explained, “Too much like the queen.  Tis ye we want her remembering first.  What color were ye wearin’ when ye first met?”  Duncan waved his hand over his chest again and the color of his shirt changed to a deep blue.  “Perfect,” Knackers said giving