Fortune and Fate (Twelve Houses) Read Online Free

hunker down.” She glanced at the route behind them as if she could discern any signs of pursuit. “Quickly. I don’t suppose they’re more than fifteen minutes behind us.”
     
     
    Karryn dismounted and followed her off the road, still worried. “But if they find us—if they see us—”
     
     
    “I told you. I can protect you.”
     
     
    Karryn took a step that was practically a flounce. “You don’t even like me.”
     
     
    Wen held on to her temper. “I don’t even know you.”
     
     
    “Well, it doesn’t make any sense to me. Why would you help me when you hate me and everyone in my House?”
     
     
    Despite the urgency, despite the fact she was listening with half an ear for sounds of oncoming horses, Wen came to a dead halt only ten yards from the road. She glared at Karryn, but the young, frightened, wild-haired, big-eyed girl glared right back.
     
     
    “Well, you do,” Karryn added.
     
     
    Wen spoke in a tight voice. “I owe a debt. To a man I didn’t save. And since I lived, and he didn’t, I vowed that I would spend the rest of my life protecting others when I could. Giving them the service that I could not—did not—give to him.” She twitched the reins and stalked forward, Karryn mercifully silent as she followed.
     
     
    Still in silence, they found their cover in a small stand of trees blocked by a few scraggly bushes. The horse was the problem, his white coat bright enough to be seen from the road, but Wen was prepared for this contingency. She coaxed him to the ground and covered him with a saddle blanket. It was a rusty green that blended well with the vegetation, still brown on this extreme edge of spring. She and Karryn wrapped themselves in another blanket and settled to the ground right by his head.
     
     
    Safe as far as it went. Wen pulled her sword and laid it across her lap. She checked the knife strapped to her wrist, and drew another one from the belt at her waist, holding it loosely in her left hand.
     
     
    “What man?” Karryn asked.
     
     
    Wen looked at her blankly. “What?”
     
     
    “What man didn’t you save?”
     
     
    “Be quiet, serra. We have to listen for the sound of the devvaser’s horse.”
     
     
    So Karryn whispered, “What man?”
     
     
    Wen looked at her, prepared to snap a harsh reply, but the set of Karryn’s face was stubborn. Wen partially revised her earlier assessment. Karryn might be rich and spoiled to some extent, but her life surely hadn’t been easy. Rayson Fortunalt’s daughter had probably received very little affection or attention from that driven, ambitious man. She no doubt had had to kick and scream and throw tantrums to get anything she wanted. She wasn’t about to be put off by a cold answer.
     
     
    “A man I worked for. I was in his guard. There were—bandits. They attacked and killed him while I was supposed to be protecting him.”
     
     
    Karryn’s dark eyes widened. “Did you run away?”
     
     
    “No, of course I didn’t run away! I fought.”
     
     
    “Were you injured?”
     
     
    Almost mortally. Better, in fact, if she had died. “Yes.”
     
     
    “Well, then it’s hardly your fault. If you fought as hard as you could—”
     
     
    Wen couldn’t keep the utter bleakness from her voice. “I should have been dead before he was,” she said. “If he had to fall, it should have been at the feet of my lifeless body.”
     
     
    “And you’re never going to forgive yourself for being alive?”
     
     
    Wen drew a sharp breath. Succinctly put. “Never.”
     
     
    Karryn hunched herself a little closer together. “Well, that seems pretty stupid to me.”
     
     
    “But then, you were stupid enough to be kidnapped by a man who wants your House, so I don’t suppose your opinion has any value.”
     
     
    Karryn scowled at her but blessedly shut up for the moment. Wen closed her eyes and listened for pursuers. She could have killed both the devvaser and his accomplice—oh,