We Will Hunt Together Read Online Free PDF

Camille's lean body and slender features and almost said something, but stopped herself just in time.
    "When I fled my family," Camille continued, "I took a cache of coins father thought he had hidden and a sturdy knife—that one—" she nodded at the old but wickedly sharp knife Helgaer had used to prepare the rabbit—"and a pair of my brother's pants because I knew they would let me move faster.
    "I didn't have far to go, though." Camille smiled smugly, almost lost in memory as she checked the dagger she was working on. "I had left to be with a woman whose caravan was camped just outside the gates of our town."
    Helgaer nearly cut herself.
    "She was a Gharaj. Have the Gharaj traveled as far north as Vreeland?"
    Helgaer was so shocked, she barely heard the question. Camille, apparently unconcerned, carried on.
    "No? They are travellers, constantly on the move, in elaborate wagons drawn by the sturdiest breed of horses you have ever seen. They pick up colour from wherever they go until they dress like peacocks. Their clothes seem to have multiple layers just to hold all the color and decorations."
    Camille's hands were still now, her mind lost in memory. Helgaer was still frozen in disbelief.
    "I met Katrin first in the market. She stood out in her Gharaj clothes like a parrot among sparrows, and I was awestruck that anybody could dress like that. She walked past me and said hello. I never could have introduced myself, I was far too … fucking timid.
    "Katrin started looking out for me. She 'bumped into me' everywhere. She saw in me what I hadn't admitted to myself, and I was so very miserable. My parents had arranged to give me to a man with no redeeming qualities except money. It didn't take her much effort at all to lay me in the forest at the edge of our fields one day. I was late returning home, so my parents shouted at me and beat me, but I was too happy to care. That was the night I decided to run away."
    The admission of what had been unthinkable in not only Camille's culture, but Helgaer's as well, and had required such strength from Helgaer to admit to herself, was so casual, so matter-of-fact, that Helgaer could barely tell she was not dreaming. They had both stopped their sharpening—Camille under the weight of memory, Helgaer so she would not miss a single word.
    "I tried to be clever, of course. I started by running away from the Gharaj camp, heading west, before doubling back along a stream, running through freezing cold water for an hour until I could head back to find their wagons—which was easy. Apart from their fires, they were still wide awake. Everybody who could play an instrument was doing so.
    "Have you ever seen them dance? Oh, you wouldn't have. The men don't dance. Only the women."
    For a second, the look of nostalgia on Camille's face was mixed with naked lust. Helgaer, staring at her, shivered and felt a stab in her guts.
    "When I turned up out of the darkness," Camille said with a twist to her lips that Helgaer was not in a position to recognise, "they were not surprised, and they welcomed me, and that was the first night I drank wine. I didn't like it, but I got so drunk I don't remember going to bed.
    "By the time I woke up the next morning, they were on the move, already well away from home. I felt so ill that the movement and the sounds made me vomit almost as soon as I was awake. Luckily, Katrin was there and waiting for me to wake up, and guessed how I would be and had a basin ready. I was not the first innocent girl Katrin had taken a liking to. She seemed to have a talent for it."
    Camille sighed, tested the dagger she was working on, then swapped it for another one. She went back to sharpening, but did not stop talking.
    "We stayed on the road for three days before stopping outside another town. When I wasn't with Katrin, I was talking to the men and the boys. I had never before had men be friendly to me, let alone treat me as an equal. And I found that after so much working in the