Knight's Shadow Read Online Free Page B

together but he started glowing red and ignored me.’ Brasti’s expression became grim. ‘He’s still doing it, Falcio. He just—’
    ‘I know,’ I said. Ever since Kest had defeated Caveil-whose-blade-cuts-water and taken on the mantle of the Saint of Swords, something had changed in him. Whenever we got into trouble he went straight for the strongest fighter,
only
the strongest fighter, as if compulsion had overtaken reason.
    ‘Falcio, we need a plan. We don’t know how many of Trin’s men there are here. They could outnumber us ten to one, for all we know – and they’re wearing armour.’
    There was something shockingly unsettling about the fact that Brasti Goodbow, a man who’d never met a plan he fully understood, never mind liked, was the one reminding me we needed a strategy. But he was right: as Greatcoats we were trained for duelling, not facing armies, and the dark grey cloth Trin’s Knights were wearing combined with the nightmist made it even harder to find the weak spots in their armour. We needed an advantage: a trick that could surprise them when the moment came . . .
    ‘Brasti, I need you to get Intemperance and get up to the rooftops.’
    ‘That won’t work. It might be clear up there but I can’t make out friend from foe in the mists – I’m just as likely to hit one of ours as one of theirs. Why can’t they run around with their armour all shiny like they usually do?’
    I reached inside my coat to a tiny pocket – one of the dozens that held a Greatcoat’s tools and tricks – and found three pieces of brittle amberglow. ‘Leave that to me,’ I said. ‘You just make sure you’ve got those bloody long ironwood arrows of yours and get up top.’
    ‘Fine, but don’t blame me if I end up shooting you by mistake,’ he said, and turned to run back the way we’d come, towards the centre of the village.
    I resumed my search for Aline, and a few moments later the mist shifted again and a figure appeared in front of me: a woman with dark hair, too tall to be Aline. She was looking off to the side and I could make out the elegant, sensuous lines of a face for which most men would do just about anything.
    Trin
.
    Hate and fear mixed inside me like the ingredients of nightmist, filling me with swirling desire. I tightened my grip on my rapiers.
She hasn’t seen me. She hasn’t even drawn her sword
. Part of me wanted to call out her name, to hear it drip from my lips, to see her face as I finally put an end to her. But I kept silent. Capturing Trin would have given us a huge strategic victory but if I challenged her or tried to take her alive there was too great a chance of her men being close enough to hear me and I couldn’t risk a dozen Knights swarming over me before I’d dealt with their mistress. Brilliant heroics are nice, but when you’re still partially paralysed and terrified a dirty win works just fine.
It won’t be assassination if I simply kill her, will it? This is a battle – we’re at war
. Even the King would have understood that. Wouldn’t he?
    I let the point of my rapier drift into position and began the three steps it would take me to reach Trin and take her from this world. All the rage and frustration I’d felt these past weeks ignited inside me like a bonfire. A few seconds more and she would join her damned mother in whichever hell was reserved for those who would murder children. The skin on my face felt tight and it took a moment to realise I was smiling.
    Just as I was in striking distance of her, she turned to see me. Her eyes went wide as the light glinted off my rapier, but when she saw my face the look of fear changed instantly to relief. ‘Falcio!’ she said.
    I barely stopped my blade in time, stumbling to a halt and barely keeping my balance.
Valiana. It’s Valiana, you idiot!
She and Trin looked enough alike that in the fog my hunger for revenge had overtaken my senses.
    ‘What are you doing here?’ I demanded.
Damn you! Damn you for not