Wind Over Bone: The Estralony Cycle #2 (Young Adult Fantasy Romance) Read Online Free PDF Page A

stepped outside, two girls ambushed her. One of them was quite tall and the other just Sarid’s size but heavier; and Sarid, not a natural or inventive fighter, didn’t think of her magic, and could only jerk her limbs and howl as the two girls bound her wrists. Gryka jumped up and down, offering no help whatsoever, and the smaller girl wrapped a scrap of linen around Sarid’s head and adroitly gagged her.
    “You’re right,” she said. “She’s prettier than Selya. A regular vila.”
    “ Have you always been so handy with a gag?” said the tall girl.
    “ I’ve been practicing.”
    “ With whom?”
    “ Rokal.”
    The tall girl shook her head and looked behind her. “Let’s go through her rooms. Won’t take as long.”
    The shorter girl looked Sarid over and clicked her tongue. “Your dog looks a lot like you. So much so, in fact––I wonder, have we bound the wrong person?”
    The tall girl shoved Sarid back inside. “Very nice, that.”
    “The dog’s pretty, Mari. Why must calling a person a dog always be bad? ”
    “ Because dogs are servile and shamefully self-abasing. Now walk,” she said to Sarid, “or we’ll drag you.” Each girl grabbed Sarid by an arm and pulled her through her chamber. Gryka led the way, tail wagging furiously.
    “ Where’s the way out?” the short girl said, and Gryka bounded through the fireplace. The girl looked even more dismayed than Sarid. “We’ve got to crawl through the fireplace?”
    “ With a captive,” said Mari. “It’s an adventure, Ed––we’re fugitives fleeing our enemy’s fortress.”
    “ What fugitive in his right mind would get up this early?” The other girl yawned hugely. She got down on her knees and crawled through the fireplace.
    “ Not all fugitives lie in same as you.” Mari came after, dragging Sarid. She hauled her up, and the two girls marched her down the corridor.
    “ Hmmm hmm,” said Sarid.
    “ She’s probably wondering,” said Mari.
    “ You’re going to be our dolly,” said Ed. “Only what you deserve, baiting the dogs during a ball. The yod spin’s my favorite, and you tore right into the middle like a mad badger.”
    As the two girls bantered back and forth, walking, pushing Sarid before them, she willed her heart rate down enough to notice the taste of juniper wine on the cloth in her mouth. They led her into a salon decorated horribly in yellow. Her throat stuck and her stomach clenched.
    Mari looked at her expression and laughed. “Either the gag’s too tight, or she doesn’t like the color, Ed.”
    “ Lady Haek likes it.”
    “ Doesn’t know fashion from goat-shit.” Mari opened an inner door.
    “ Nor do you. You need me.”
    Mari kicked off her shoes. They were in a large, untidy bedchamber––there were furs and coats piled on the bed, and more on the floor, all muddy and covered in burrs. “Some lady’s maid you are.”
    “Mari?” someone said from the door. “I’ve never seen you up so early.”
    Mari looked up. It was Rischa. “What do you want?”
    “Help.” He held up a green jacket. “There’s a tallow stain on the cuff, and that woman in the laundry––”
    “ Nalia?” Mari snorted. “She’s a scary one. Borrow one of Rokal’s.”
    “ Too big.”
    “ Piss on it, then.”
    “ What?” Gryka nosed his hand. He looked around and saw Sarid. “You found her. Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “ We know she leaves at dawn,” said Mari, “and we know where her garden is. Full of monkshood and mandragora and other witchy things.” She undid the gag.
    Sarid spat it out. “Mandragora? What’re you doing?” Her voice made Gryka drop to the floor and wriggle in terror.
    “You gagged her?” said Rischa.
    “ She’d a headache,” said Mari.
    “ Bones,” said Rischa, “I didn’t think you wanted to go to a dance––”
    “ I didn’t,” said Sarid. “I don’t .”
    “ But then”––he squinted at her––“why were you there? Were you lost?”
    “ That