The Sword Read Online Free PDF Page B

cup from her lips. He waited until she swallowed the last of it, working her tongue with a grimace to get the thick, coating of liquid off of it, then he spoke to her.
    â€œDo you understand me now?”
    A dizzying disorientation struck her ears, her head, and her mouth. Tingling on her tongue. Her ears buzzed for a moment, then everything settled and was still. “What?”
    â€œI said, do you understand me now?” the younger of the two repeated.
    And Kelly knew , watching his lips move, that he wasn’t speaking in English. That unnerved her more than being shaken out of her version of reality and dropped into this one, and even more than waking up with the whole house on fire. “Y-yes, I—”
    The man holding her dropped her. Not completely without care, since he dropped her legs first, but he barely allowed any time for her to settle her feet and get her balance before letting go of her upper half. “Good,” the slightly taller, loose-haired one asserted darkly. “Keep her away from me.”
    He turned and strode away.
    Kelly, torn between the two of them, turned to the nearer one for an explanation. “How the hell am I speaking…whatever this language is?”
    â€œMagic,” the younger one with the goblet replied, with a casual shrug. Taking it for granted she would understand, or rather, accept the reply.
    She had to accept his explanation. Nothing else made sense, not the change in location, the way they could speak her language so suddenly, and then she theirs…she just couldn’t take it. Not on top of everything else that had happened to her.
    â€œMa—” she got as far as saying. Unfortunately, Kelly Doyle didn’t finish the rest. She was too busy dropping in a dead faint, the second one in less than an hour, and the second one of her life.
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    J inga’s Balls!”
    Saber stopped a yard beyond the workroom doorway and called back to his brother. “Watch your language! I may not want her here, but she is a woman!”
    â€œSaber, could you please come back in here and pick her up again?”
    Saber turned around, stalked back to the door, and leaned inside. “No,” he started to assert. And saw the reason why his brother had made the request. The woman was crumpled on the stone floor once again. His brother was leaning back against the worktable a couple of yards away, all but sitting on the worn stone surface and looking a little pale as well as sheened with sweat, which concerned Saber. “What happened?”
    â€œShe fainted. And I’m not feeling too good myself, either.”
    Concern blanketed his irritation. Morganen was his brother after all, however irritating sometimes. “What is it?”
    â€œOh, nothing much…just two major spellcastings in one day, if you hadn’t noticed. It wasn’t easy, rescuing her from that fire so far away,” Morganen added, pinching his brow to avert the reaction-headache he was getting. “And then brewing and casting the Ultra Tongue, which just happens to be the hardest linguistics magic of all.”
    Saber could see that his brother did look wan. But he didn’t want to be any more involved than he’d already been. “I am not going to stand around, holding her all day!”
    Morganen set the goblet on the worktable next to him. Sometimes his eldest brother could be a real pain in the potion. “Just pick her up, carry her to one of the empty guest rooms, and put her on a bed. Then tell someone to watch over her. I’d do it myself, but I think I’m going to have to sit here a little while longer. And don’t forget to remind the others not to do anything with her…since you’re so good at that.”
    Saber gave his youngest sibling a dark look, but strode forward and crouched to pick up the woman again. For a moment her lashes fluttered, as he shifted her into his arms, giving him a glimpse of dazed blue