Wanderling (Spirit Seeker Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

feet of intruders in her home.

 
    Chapter 5: Adala
    A
dull thud startled Adala out of her sleep. She sat up straight on her straw
mattress. The crashing of wood downstairs brought her to her feet. Footsteps
scuffled on the dirt floor of their cottage below. More than one set of footsteps.
    Adala
knelt at her trunk and fumbled to find her knife. She trembled, unsheathing the
wide blade and bracing herself against the trunk. A golden light appeared
abruptly from the ladder’s hole. Adala’s throat constricted with panic as an
ominous shadow swayed on the roof of the loft. She crawled to Shem’s mattress
and laid a hand on his shoulder, covering his mouth. His dark silhouette
stirred and sat up. She pointed to the light and made a gesture to shoo him off
the mattress. “In the corner,” she whispered as quietly as she could manage,
“behind Mother’s trunk.”
    Shem
slid off the bed and Adala turned back to the ladder, struggling to steady her
breath. The shadow on the ceiling grew larger, and she could hear someone
climbing the rungs. In a panicked motion, she lay back on the mattress and
tucked her unsheathed knife beneath her pillow, still clutching the handle.
    Through
squinted eyes she saw a husky figure emerge, a rope in hand and a short sword
at his hip. Two more men followed him, the last bringing up a lantern.
    Light
filled the loft and Adala’s mother stirred across the room.
    Don’t
wake up, Mother, not yet! Adala pleaded silently, as she desperately tried
to formulate a plan.
    The
men moved forward as a group, one with a lantern, one grasping a rope, and the
other holding his sword.
    The
lantern light paused over Adala’s bed and she closed her eyes, trying to
breathe regular sleeping breaths as the men surveyed her mattress.
    “Just
a woman,” came a whisper, barely louder than a breath. “Where’s the kid?”
    Shem! She thought. What could they want with him?
    The
light moved away and Adala opened her eyes. The men were past her, looking over
her mother’s mattress. Their backs were turned.
    With
a cringe at the slightest shift in the straw, Adala stood up on their side of
her bed. She was in her undershirt, bare feet gripping the floorboards. Fear
for her brother’s safety welled in her chest, forming a pit of rage that rose
to her throat. Abruptly, she sprang into action. With three determined strides she
was behind the closest intruder, the one holding a sword. She pushed her
shoulder and the rest of her weight into a stab directed below his rib cage,
but she was not quick enough. The man turned around, leaning sideways and
calling out, “Whoa there!” Her thrust caught only air. His arm swung, and he
struck the side of her head with the flat side of his blade.
    Adala
staggered backwards and heard her mother’s frightened scream pierce the
darkness. Chaos broke out in the loft. Eleanor seized hold of their chamber pot
a few feet away and crashed it into the side of the man with the rope. The man
with the sword called to his companions, “The girl’s up,” and lunged for a stab
at Adala’s chest, but she dodged to the left. She heard the sound of the
chamber pot crashing to the floor and Shem’s scream, but was too busy ducking
another swing to even look past her hulking opponent. The darkness made it
difficult to see anything. Light bounced around the walls; the lantern was
bobbing, and the form of the man with the sword swung once more, this time at
her legs.
    Adala
leapt backwards, then dodged forward and thrust her knife at him. Her opponent,
caught off guard by the swiftness of her retaliation, had no time to block. Her
knife dug in easier than she expected, burying into the side of his stomach and
angled upwards to do the most damage, as her father had taught her.
    “I
don’t know who you are, but you better get the hell out of here,” she said.
Behind her opponent, Adala caught sight of her mother reeling backwards and one
of the intruders dragging her brother from behind the