The Silver Pear Read Online Free PDF Page A

disgust, and Sam looked back and gave a cheeky shrug. The massive bear of a man who’d woken second shoved him, but not as hard as he could have, and Sam grinned as he rubbed his shoulder.
    “Just obliging a pretty lady.”
    Miri snorted. “You can’t even see me in this light.”
    “I think what he means is any lady is pretty when you’ve been stuck in a dungeon for long enough,” Soren said.
    She didn’t know if he meant it as an insult, but she was too impatient to care. And too sick at heart. She knew that gem. These men were all innocent victims of her own father’s paranoia.
    She lifted her hand to the silver pear and fed a little magic to the lock of their cell door. It swung open on a creak.
    All except Soren stared at her in shock.
    “Hurry, I would prefer to be gone before they raise the portcullis.”
    There were questions aplenty on their faces, but they surged forward, and Miri opened the door to the outside.
    The men pushed and shoved their way through, and Miri saw the big man give a dark look to one of the others as they shouldered past.
    “Wait for me. There’s a special way out,” Miri whispered, and then, when everyone was out of the cell, turned back to it.
    She was angry, and that was never a good state to cast a spell in, but she needed to do this, no matter how agitated she was. The sorcerer William had brought back was breaking every rule. She had received no word from him of his visit and he was negotiating with her liege lord without her knowledge. Which meant he also intended to kill her, or break her, and take her territory for his own.
    He and William would both be in for a shock when they stepped into this room.
    She stayed in the doorway, her hand on the silver pear, and lifted her other hand up.
    The light that flared was sky blue, and over in an instant, and she carefully stepped back and closed the door behind her, used a little of the excess power she’d just transferred into the silver pear to lock it again.
    The men were staring at her from various steps above her, and she realized a hint of the blue light would have leaked out into the stairwell behind her.
    She ran up past them and they pressed themselves against the wall to avoid her brushing them, as if she were a dangerous beast.
    Only Soren stood his ground. He was right at the top, and he made room for her, his shoulder touching hers.
    The guard who’d been hovering outside the entrance to the little courtyard was walking toward the gate to help raise the portcullis, his back already to them, and Miri ran across the cobbles, hoping the noise William was making at his front gate would cover the sound of everyone’s footsteps.
    The men were wary about following her into the enclosed garden and she realized it would be because this was where they’d appeared in the first place.
    How like her father, to make this the destination. It showed how off he was with his perceptions, always a little bit skewed. Never quite getting it right, no matter what his intentions.
    She said nothing, simply ran to the far side of the courtyard, and with no alternative, they were forced to follow her in.
    At least they were silent.
    She found the secret door and opened it. “There’s a nail at the far end, just feel for it midway between the floor and the ceiling on the left side, and pull it toward you. The other door will open. Run for the trees.”
    Sam eeled past her first, and then the others, until they were all jammed into the low, narrow space except her and Soren. Some had whispered a thank you as they slipped past her, but not all.
    At last Sam found the nail and they were gone, and Miri stepped into the now clear passage, and grabbed the door, waiting for Soren to follow her in so she could close it.
    He was staring at the dark opening of the tunnel with a look in his eye of such terror, Miri looked behind her, expecting danger.
    There was nothing.
    Beyond their little courtyard, the portcullis had been raised and she could