Dark Magic Read Online Free Page B

Parmell for his help. That would be better than surrendering to the barbarians.”
    Brinna stared at her. “Your father will kill me if he finds out I helped you.”
    Devon felt her heart squeeze. “You don’t have to help me. You only have to look the other way when I leave this room.”
    Brinna closed her eyes for a moment. “I have to think about it.”
    When the nurse had left, Devon sat on the bed, her mind whirling.
    She had always hated the idea of being sold to the ruler of a neighboring kingdom. To a man who wanted her to form an alliance with King Wilfred and to give his own kingdom children from a royal bloodline. A man who would never love her. Who would probably have more regard in bed for his mistress than for his wife. Because he would think of pleasure with the one and his duty with the other.
    Like her parents’ marriage.
    Now her father had come up with a plan that was even worse than a loveless marriage to a prince. And what guarantee did he have that the barbarians would leave Arandal intact if they had her?
    Was their leader honorable? There was no way of knowing.
    But her father’s desperation had driven him to consider an evil bargain.
    She shuddered, imagining the man’s dirty hands on her body. Especially after…
    Although she squeezed her eyes closed, she couldn’t hold back images of Galladar. He had made love to her without taking her virginity, and it had been sweeter than anything she had imagined. He had wanted to please her, and he had brought her to the peak of a woman’s pleasure. Probably few women even knew of it, because it took a man who wanted to give her that joy. And a man who could make himself vulnerable, she added, as she thought of him lying on his back with her hand around his cock.
    Yet in doing it, he had made her realize what she would miss if she were sold to the barbarian leader by her father.
    “Damn you,” she muttered. “Damn you for making me want more.”
    He had ruined her as surely as if he had taken her virginity. And now what was left to her?
    Why not take her chance with the dragon? If the dragon killed her to save the kingdom, so be it. An honorable death would be better than being thrown to the wolves.
    Plans whirled in her mind. She would go north, to the magic mountains where the dragon lived.
    But first she must escape, and she knew how she would do it.
    A river ran under the castle to provide them with fresh water.
    She was a good swimmer. She and Grantland had played in the millpond when they were young.
    Before she could change her mind, she jumped up and ran to the marriage chest, where she pulled out the boy’s clothing hidden there under her wedding accoutrements. After dressing in the gray wool britches and brown shirt, she tucked her long blond hair under a knit cap, buckled on a leather belt and slipped her dagger against her hip. Instead of putting on the leather sandals that went with the outfit, she put them in an oilskin carry bag along with some extra clothing.
    There was an inner compartment in the bag that was made to look and feel like the side wall. In that recess she secreted The Dragon and the Maidens , a gold chain with the royal seal of Arandal on a flat pendant and a white gown.
    With the bag’s long strap secured across her chest, she pulled the door open and stepped into the hallway. Although Brinna was lying on her pallet with her eyes closed, Devon knew from her rigid body that her nurse wasn’t sleeping.
    She wanted to stop and hug her good-bye, but that would give Brinna something else to lie about. Instead, Devon hurried past and crept down a back passage to a set of narrow steps that were hidden at both ends by heavy tapestries. In the darkness, she braced her hand against the wall, feeling the edges of the steps with her feet.
    On the main floor, she cautiously stared out into the hallway. When a guard walked by, she eased the hanging back into place and waited with her heart pounding. The man passed by, and she