Wintercraft: Legacy Read Online Free PDF

They were so engrossed in this new subject that no one looked twice when one of the Blackwatch officers entered the inn. He had removed his warden’s robe and now looked just like any other traveller. He mingled perfectly with the villagers, laughing with them and even accepting an offer of a drink before he took a seat in the corner furthest from Kate. She tried to ignore him, and turned instead to the company of the book hidden secretly beneath her coat. People glanced over at her whenever they thought she wasn’t looking, but the innkeeper made sure that she was left alone.
    Kate opened the book to a page near the back and a black feather slid out from its place tucked against the spine. The feather was old and tattered. The place it had marked held details of a Skilled technique that could binda dying soul to that of a living person in order to prolong their life, but what had begun as an attempt to save the life of a dying subject had become something far more sinister. Different writers had added to the book over the years, and those who had worked on that technique reported that it did not just prolong a life; it prevented the one woman who had been experimented upon from ever knowing the peace of true death.
    Dalliah was that woman, still living, centuries on, but her story was not what had drawn Kate to that particular part of the book. She had the feeling that there was something more there – something important that she had not seen – but no matter how many times she read that section, her broken memories would not tell her what it was.
    Kate remained alone at her table, sometimes reading, sometimes sleeping in her chair, until a loud thud woke her. Something had hit the window next to the inn’s main door.
    ‘Was that a bird?’ A woman’s voice rose from a chair next to the fire, where she had been sleeping with a baby in her arms. ‘Are there more out there?’
    Two men scratched their chairs back and looked out of the windows.
    ‘Can’t see nothin’,’ said one of them.
    ‘Where there’s birds, there’s wardens,’ said the other. ‘I’m not lettin’ them take me!’ He pulled the bolts across the inn door and backed away from it as if death itself was waiting for him on the other side.
    The innkeeper threw a spoon at the man’s back, making him jump wildly. ‘Stop scaremongerin’! No warden hasever put a booted toe across that threshold, so don’t you be frightenin’ people off with your talk. Hear me?’
    The woman rested her baby in a cloth sling across her chest and went to look for herself. ‘I was in Harrop when they harvested it last,’ she said. ‘Some of us got out over the walls, lots of us didn’t. The wardens took half the town away that day. None came back.’
    ‘We all have stories,’ said the innkeeper. ‘There’s a right time to tell ’em, and this isn’t it.’
    Kate and the Blackwatch officer kept quiet as everyone gradually agreed that the noise was nothing to worry about and they all settled cautiously back to their business. The innkeeper walked round to unbolt the door and, despite his assurances, opened it just wide enough to take a wary look outside. His hand was shaking, and his fingers rested on the bolt as he hesitated, in two minds over whether to lock it or not. The view of the street reassured him, but – just before the door swung shut – Kate was sure she saw something he had missed. Someone standing out there in the dark.
    ‘Nothing to worry about, miss,’ said the innkeeper, returning to his counter. ‘You’re safe as houses here.’
    Kate was not ready to take his word on that. She carried her book to the window and slid a lit candle to one side so she could look out. The moment she was close enough to see through the dimpled glass, something moved behind it. A crow was sitting on the windowsill. It perched there for a few seconds, its black eyes turned her way, and then took flight, swooping over to land on the shoulder of someone