Five Portraits Read Online Free Page A

effective way with words, Astrid,” he remarked.
    â€œThank you.” She hadn’t said anything, but her threat of a glare had been enough. That was his point.
    When they reached the cave, Tiara was just arriving, swimming through the air with the man called Ease on her back as if riding a dolphin. Her hair had to be struggling to float them both but was managing. He waved. Then he did a double take. “Trolls!” He drew his trusty wooden board and brandished it threateningly.
    â€œWe are in truce, unfortunately,” Truman said. “But after our business here is done, if you wish to try your board against my club, I will be glad to accommodate you.”
    â€œHe’s right,” Astrid called. “We made a truce. We are friends for this hour. No fighting.”
    â€œOh, bleep,” Ease said, lowering the board as Tiara landed. He jumped off her back.
    â€œHere is the situation,” Pewter told Ease. “I need to unlock this lock to free the goblin captives, but it is protected by an invisible shell. Kindly bash apart that shell.”
    â€œSure,” Ease said. It was his talent to make things easy. He swung the board at the lock. There was a sharp crack, and a small explosion of sparks, and the formerly invisible fragments of the shell dropped to the ground.
    â€œThank you,” Pewter said. “Now let me concentrate. This may take a little time.”
    â€œWe have made a deal to exchange captives, goblins for trolls,” Astrid said. “It’s a situation I blundered into, but it is working out.”
    Ease turned away. He touched the board to the ground, and it became a lovely young woman with dark eyes and luxuriant dark hair. “And hello Kandy,” Astrid said.
    Both the goblins and the trolls were startled. “What just happened here?” Truman asked.
    â€œI have the ability to change forms between human and board,” Kandy explained. “Just as Astrid changes between human and basilisk. When I’m the board, I make sure Ease’s aim is good and his strike effective.” She rubbed her neck. “Though I must admit that charge on the shell gave me a jolt.”
    â€œIt occurs to me that you folk are no ordinary group,” Truman said.
    â€œWe’re a special mission to eliminate the last of the anti-pun virus,” Kandy explained. “To that end we have been granted certain additional abilities. We are a bit unusual.”
    â€œSo it seems,” the troll agreed, glancing at Astrid, Kandy, and Tiara. “Are all the females of your party as pretty as the three of you?”
    Demoness Metria appeared. “Yes.”
    â€œAnd a demoness!” Truman said. “The surprises keep coming.”
    â€œSurprises can be fun,” Metria said, inhaling so that her decolletage threatened to tear loose and float away.
    â€œI am curious how a basilisk came to associate with a human party, and a demoness, a machine, a girl who floats on her hair, and a board woman,” Truman said. “Not that it’s any of my business, which makes it even more intriguing.”
    â€œWe’re curious too,” Ginger said. “It’s not our business either.”
    â€œWell, that would be a chapter-length personal narrative,” Astrid said. “I wouldn’t want to bore you to distraction with a dull literary flashback.”
    â€œAs it happens, this lock threatens to require a chapter-length effort,” Pewter said.
    â€œSo we’re stuck for the time anyway,” Ginger said.
    Truman and his henchmen settled down on the ground. “Bore us,” he said.
    The others settled similarly. What could she do? Astrid began to speak.

Chapter 2:
Flashback
    Astrid Basilisk-Cockatrice was the daughter of anonymous parents who had wiled away a dull minute by generating her on a warm compost pile, then gone their own deadly ways, never to see her or each other again. Why should they? It was their