Hidden Warrior Read Online Free

doll a secret, just as you have, and avoid Niryn as much as you can. Arkoniel and I will do whatever we can to protect you. In fact, I think it may be time for me to be seen with my patron’s son again.”
    “You’ll come back to Ero with me?”
    She smiled and patted his shoulder. “Yes. Now go see your friends.”
    T he corridor was cold but Tobin hardly noticed. Ki’s door stood slightly ajar, casting a thin sliver of light out across the rushes. Tobin slipped inside.
    Ki was asleep in an old high-sided bed, tucked up to the chin with counterpanes and quilts. His eyes were closed and even in the warm glow of the night lamp, he looked very pale. There were dark circles around his eyes and a linen bandage wrapped around his head.
    Tharin was asleep in an armchair beside the bed, wrapped in his long riding cloak. His long, grey-blond hair fell in untidy tangles over his shoulders and a week’s worth of stubble shadowed the hollows of his cheeks above his short beard. Just the sight of him made Tobin feel a little better; he always felt safer with Tharin nearby.
    Hard on that thought, however, came the echo of Iya’s warning. Here were the two people he loved and trusted above all others, and now it lay with him to protect them. A wild, rebellious love welled up in his heart as he thought again of Niryn’s prying brown eyes. He’d kill the man himself if the wizard tried to hurt his friends.
    Tobin tiptoed toward the bed as carefully as he could, but Tharin’s pale eyes snapped open before he reached it.
    “Tobin? Thank the Light!” he exclaimed softly, pulling the boy into his lap and hugging him so hard it hurt. “By the Four, we’ve been so worried! You slept and slept. How are you, lad?”
    “Better.” Embarrassed, Tobin gently freed himself and stood up.
    Tharin’s smile faded. “Nari says you thought you’d caught the Red and Black Death. You should have come to me instead of running off like that! Anything could have happened to you boys alone on the road. The whole ride but here we expected to find your bodies in a ditch.”
    “We? Who came with you?” For one awful moment Tobin feared that his guardian had come looking for him, too.
    “Koni and the other guardsmen, of course. Don’t go trying to change the subject. It wasn’t much better finding the two of you like this.” He glanced at Ki, and Tobin knew he was still worried about him. “You should have stayed in the city. Poor Arkoniel and the others have had a time of it. They’re ready to drop in their tracks.” But there was no anger in his eyes as he gazed earnestly up at Tobin. “You gave us all a bad scare.”
    Tobin’s chin quivered and he hung his head. “I’m sorry.”
    Tharin gathered him in again, patting his shoulder. “Well, then,” he said, voice rough with emotion. “We’re all here now.”
    “Ki’s going to be all right, isn’t he?” Tharin didn’t answer and Tobin saw tears glazing the warrior’s eyes. “Tharin, he will be well?”
    The man nodded, but doubt was plain in his face. “Arkoniel says he’ll probably wake up soon.”
    Tobin’s knees went wobbly and he sank down on the arm of Tharin’s chair. “Probably?”
    “He must have caught the same fever you had, and with the knock in the head—” He reached to smooth Ki’s dark hair back from the bandage. A yellowish stain had seeped through. “That needs changing.”
    “Iya said he fell.”
    “Yes. Struck his head quite a blow, too. Arkoniel thinks—Well, it looks like that demon of yours might have had a hand in it.”
    A shard of ice seemed to lodge itself in Tobin’s stomach. “Bro—The
ghost
hurt him?”
    “He thinks it tricked Ki into carrying that doll of yours out here for it.”
    Tobin’s breath hitched tight in his chest. If this were true, he’d never, ever call Brother again. Brother could starve, for all he cared.
    “You—you saw it? The doll, I mean?”
    “Yes.” Tharin gave him a puzzled look. “Your father thought it