Fortune and Fate (Twelve Houses) Read Online Free Page B

Ghosenhall.
     
     
    Karryn continued to fidget for the next ten minutes, but she grew quickly still when Wen sat up straighter and made a motion for silence. Yes, there was the sound she’d been waiting for—horses’ hooves, probably from a pair of animals, traveling fast. In another minute, two riders galloped into view. Wen didn’t need Karryn’s sharp intake of breath to realize these were the devvaser and his accomplice. They appeared to be mounted on fresh horses bred for the saddle, so they’d probably rented or purchased the animals at the posting house, and they were riding hard.
     
     
    Karryn only relaxed once the sound of hoofbeats had died away. “Now what do we do?” she asked.
     
     
    That was, indeed, the question. “I think we find something closer to civilization,” Wen said, cautiously coming to her feet. She didn’t know how long the devvaser would continue onward before he began to wonder where his victim might have gone to ground—and came back to look for her. “A good-sized town, perhaps, where there might be a garrison of soldiers who would be inclined to protect you as we head back to Forten City. Wanting to earn your uncle’s gratitude, you see.”
     
     
    Karryn nodded. “All right.”
     
     
    Wen surveyed her. The girl still looked defiant and sulky, but exhaustion was showing through her big eyes and rosy complexion. If she’d been abducted a day and a half ago, she’d probably been strung tight with tension ever since. “Where might the nearest sizable town be found?” she asked.
     
     
    Karryn shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t know where we are.”
     
     
    Wen’s temper snapped. “By all the gods in Gillengaria, child, why not ? You’re the serramarra! When you’re old enough—assuming you have the brains to survive that long, which I am starting to doubt—you will inherit every scrap of this land! Shouldn’t you know where every road, every river, every town, every house is situated? Isn’t that what it means to be marlady? That you own the land—and, in a sense, it owns you?”
     
     
    “Well, I don’t know!” Karryn fired back. “All my father cared about was where every gold coin in the land might be situated! I don’t know how a marlady behaves! And I don’t know where any town is! So go ahead and leave me if you want to, but stop telling me how stupid I am!”
     
     
    And with that, Karryn flounced off, back toward the road, in full view of any chance passerby. Wen stood there, watching, as the girl stomped onto the road and set out in a most determined fashion in the direction they had been headed before.
     
     
    The gelding gave a high whinny and clambered to his feet, tired of lying there, tired of inaction—tired, perhaps, of arguments between bad-tempered women. Wen stroked his nose, refolded the saddle blankets, and sighed heavily.
     
     
    Tempting as it was, she could not abandon the girl to the many hazards of an open road in Fortunalt.
     
     
    Leading the gelding by his bridle, Wen set off at a light run until she caught up with Karryn, and then she slowed to a walk. She couldn’t bring herself to apologize, but it was pointless to keep quarreling. “We need a plan,” she said. “I think we look for the nearest town. I didn’t come this way, so I don’t know what’s down this road, but eventually we’ll arrive at a place where we can ask directions. As soon as we can, we probably need to buy another horse.” She paused a moment. “I don’t suppose you have any money.”
     
     
    Karryn merely shook her head. She was watching her feet as if she wasn’t sure she’d remember how to walk otherwise.
     
     
    “And I don’t suppose you have any rations.”
     
     
    Karryn shook her head again.
     
     
    “Are you hungry? I’ve got some food in my bag.”
     
     
    “I ate at the inn,” Karryn said in a subdued voice.
     
     
    “Not much, I’ll wager. Do you want an apple?” It was a peace