Blood Of Kings: The Shadow Mage Read Online Free Page A

cracking voice.
    Aliss inhaled deep breaths as he rolled off her making the wooden-framed cot creak. The floorboards groaned beneath his weight when he stood on them. As he dragged a linen shirt over his head, he caught sight of her watching him, appraising his hard, muscular body.
    “See who it is and come back to me, my love,” she said in a breathy voice, a smile twitched at the corner of full lips. A mouth to savour , a wicked thought slid into his head.
    “Don’t move,” he said, pulling on coarse woollen breeches.
    “I’ll be right here.” She grinned back.
    The banging continued, the stout wooden door shaking under the onslaught. “Alright, alright, I’m coming,” he shouted back, becoming increasingly annoyed at the incessant knocking. Not to mention, concerned, at what could be so urgent at such an hour. He was the village blacksmith, who would need a batch of nails made, or a horse shod, in the depths of night? He paused and pulled down a crossbow hanging above the door and loaded a short arrow. Then he opened the door a crack. “Who is it?”
    “Tomas, come quick!” He heard a familiar voice, although out of breath, and with an edge of panic to it.
    “What is it, Comal?” he asked, recognising one of the young men of the village. The baker’s son if he remembered rightly.
    “You need to come. Marjeri’s baby has been taken.”
    “Taken?”
    “Yes, snatched from its crib as it slept. The mother is distraught, all of the men are gathering in the village square. They say it must be wolves come from the Great Wood. They are going after them. We need your help.”
    “Wolves?” Tomas tried to process the information coming at him in waves of hysteria from Comal Bakersonn. “Has the magistrate been sent for?”
    “Yes, yes, but there is no time. We need to go after them if the child is to have any hope.”
    “Okay. Give me a minute. I’ll follow you down to the square.” Tomas collected his thoughts as he closed the door on Comal.
    He sighed with regret, as he thought of his wife waiting for him in the bedroom. Instead of returning to her, he removed the bar from the back door and walked out into the cold night air, and out to his workshop. He put the crossbow down on a workbench and then heaved the bench away from the wall.
    “What is going on?” Aliss came out covered in a woollen blanket.
    “A child has been snatched from its bed by wolves. A hunting party is going after them,” he answered. He wiped away a thin covering of dust on the stone floor, to reveal a square wooden door, barely visible in the flickering torchlight. Sliding his fingers into the creases at the edge he lifted the hatch, and sat back on his heels as he regarded a wooden chest concealed there.
    “Why do you need that?” she asked, as he hauled the chest out. “You made a promise to me.”
    “Because wolves do not come into villages and take children from their beds,” he answered.
    “Please,” she pleaded. Tears glistened in her eyes.
    “This is different,” he said.
    “Not if you open that box. Once it’s open you will never close it again.” Beads of moisture leaked from her eyes. “You swore to me…” She trailed off as he stood and pulled her into his broad chest.
    “Okay,” he said, running his fingers through her cascading, golden curls. He let her go, and slid the chest back into the slot in the floor, covered it again, then pulled the workbench back over it.
    “When will you be back?” she asked, as they stood in the front doorway of their small stone cottage. The earthy perfume of the overhead thatch filled the air, along with the other night smells – the peaty aroma of the nearby forest, the icy touch of an early morning frost.
    He slung a pack onto his back and the crossbow over his shoulder. “I’m not sure. It shouldn’t take long.”
    “Be careful,” she said. He could see concern written on her face in worry lines across her eyes.
    “Don’t worry. I should be back before