Thrice Sworn: A Short-Story Prequel to Winterling Read Online Free PDF Page B

The shadow snarled—it looked like a black dog—as one of the wolves darted in, its jaws snapping. The other wolves, two of them, swarmed around, and another plunged at the black dog. Fer heard a yelp of pain. The wolf leaped back, smiling with bloody fangs.
    Three against one—not fair!
    Without taking her eyes from the wolves, Fer groped on the ground for the thing she’d tripped over. There . A branch as long as her arm, with a jagged, broken-off end. Gripping her club, Fer raced around the edge of the pool, her feet slipping on the moss.
    Swinging the branch like a baseball bat, Fer connected with the hindquarters of one wolf, which whirled and snapped at her; the other two wolves snarled and left the dark thing crouched in the shadows.
    The three wolves advanced silently, their heads low, their fangs bared.
    Fer held her ground and gripped her branch tightly. “Go away!” she shouted, and with her free hand felt in her jacket pocket for her bag of spelled herbs. She pulled it out and kept it clenched in her hand. One wolf lunged toward her and Fer stepped up to meet it, bashing her club across its muzzle. Fer swung the branch back and caught another wolf in the ribs, then jabbed the jagged end of the branch into the face of the third wolf. Still holding the spell-bag, she shouted, “Go away!” again, then a third time, and the wolves flinched back as if her words had more power than the club she swung, watching her from the corners of their eyes, fading back into the shadows.
    Panting, Fer turned to the thing they’d been attacking. It had fallen beneath the branches of a bush; she saw its dark shape huddled there. Carefully, gripping her club in case it tried to bite, she pushed aside the branches, letting the moon’s light in. Fer blinked and set down the club.
    It wasn’t a dog at all. It was a boy.

Copyright
    Copyright © 2013 by Sarah Prineas
     
    All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
     
    EPUB Edition OCTOBER 2013 ISBN 9780062290229
     
    EPub Edition © 2013
     
    ISBN: 978-0-06-229022-9
     
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    FIRST EDITION

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