The Two Princesses of Bamarre Read Online Free PDF Page A

wouldn’t forget.
    “How far is she?”
    “Not far. Perhaps a quarter—”
    A stone caught him behind the ear, and I saw blood. We both spun around.
    Meryl was running toward us from the direction of the cave.
    Meryl! But she was in the forest. How could she be here?
    She stopped every few steps to pick up a fresh stone and throw it. In her left hand she waved Blood-biter.
    A stone gashed the child’s forehead, and more blood flowed. He began to cry.
    “Meryl! What are you doing? Stop!” With my free hand I found my handkerchief and pressed it to his forehead.
    “Let go of him, Addie!”
    He was only a child! But I dropped his hand.
    Meryl reached us and pointed her sword at the child. His wails rose in pitch. I wanted to hug him and comfort him. What was Meryl doing?
    “Get away from my sister! You can’t have her!”
    He stopped crying and began to giggle mischievously. Then he changed, thinned. I could see the trees through his open, laughing mouth.
    He—it—was a specter! I stepped back, stunned.
    It was vanishing.
    “Stop, monster!” Meryl said. “I command you.”
    Its face filled in again, but its body remained wraithlike, transparent. A monster, there in front of me!
    “Do you think me a child?” Meryl asked. “I found you out, and now you must prophesy for me. When will my adventures begin?”
    It continued to giggle, and now I saw its malice. “You’ve just had your first adventure, so they’ve already begun. But your next one will not be what you expect.” It laughed harder and began to vanish again.
    “When will that be?”
    “Only one question.” A last shriek of laughter, and it disappeared.
    “Oh, Meryl!” I would have gone with it. It would have gotten me hopelessly lost. I would have wandered until I died of starvation or despair. “How did you know?”
    “I didn’t know, but I guessed. It was too beautiful, and I wondered how it got here.”
    In spite of my fright, I wanted to cry over the loss of such a sweet lad. It would have killed me, and I was sad over losing it. That was power. I couldn’t stop trembling.
    Meryl crouched down. “See, Addie? It left no footprints. That’s how you can tell a specter.”
    I looked. The ground on the edge of the forest was soft and moist. There were half a dozen impressions of my boots and Meryl’s but none of the boy’s. The specter’s.
    She stood up. “What do you think it meant about my next adventure?”
    I shook my head and continued to tremble. It had meant something horrible, I was sure.
    “It could have told me when,” Meryl grumbled. “That wasn’t really a separate question.”
    “You know when,” I whispered. “After I’m wed.”
    Then I swore to myself that I’d never marry. Bamarre would be too perilous without Meryl.

Chapter Six
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    I WAS WEEPY and trembly for the rest of the day. It was fortunate that specters never came indoors, or I would have suspected every elf and servant I didn’t know well.
    I wouldn’t let Meryl out of my sight, and by nightfall she was impatient with me. We were in our sitting room, and she was trying to develop a battle plan for a company of forty knights against a pack of seven ogres. I had Rhys’s cloth in my lap and was absently stroking it.
    “Addie! Stop worrying. I can’t concentrate.”
    “I’m not doing anything.”
    “Every minute or so you shudder, and then you glance at me.”
    Just seeing her reassured me. I faced her profile, her stubborn, square jaw, and her snub nose. She was hunched over our small table, and her toe tapped a rhythm on the braided rug. An oil lamp was at her elbow, and I made out an ink stain on her knuckle and one on her sleeve.
    “I have to work this out. Listen, Addie.” She looked up. “If the terrain is rough and the ogres are throwing rocks, what should the knights do in defense?”
    “Gallop away?”
    “I should have known better than to ask you.” She bent over her notebook again.
     
    By Thursday my fright had receded,