Last Knight (The Champion Chronicles Book 2) Read Online Free

They are just wolves!”
                  “Shhh!” the voice said again.  “Do you have a death wish?”
                  “I am no threat to them, and they are obviously not hungry enough to scavenge me.  At least not yet.  Maybe if I were dead.”
                  “But you are tied up,” the voice protested.  “You cannot defend yourself.”
                  Conner found himself laughing, which surprised him.  “I don’t think the wolves know that.  They smell the blood and know that I will soon be dead.  Why risk their own safety when they can just wait me out.  If this was the middle of the winter, then I would already be dead.  But it is still late summer and they are not starving.”  He took as deep a breath as he could handle and leaned his head back against the tree.  “They are patient hunters.”
                  Suddenly, Conner’s hands were free.  He pulled them forward against the protests of his shoulders and arms.  He started to rub them, but the pain that shot through his chest made him forget the soreness of his muscles.
                  The man who had untied him dropped into a low crouch in front of Conner.  “You!” Conner said.  It was the man that the bandits had originally been harassing.
                  “We must hurry,” the man said.  “They will be back.”
                  “You are Taran?” Conner asked.  “You speak Karmon?”
                  The man had started to move away, but when Conner didn’t move, he dropped back down into a crouch.  “I live in a village to the east and we do much trade with Karmons.  It helps to speak two languages.  But the men who attacked us didn’t need to know that.  We must move before they come back.”
                  Conner glanced at the forest.  “No,” Conner said.  “They have no reason to attack us.  They would scavenge our dead bodies, but they wouldn’t attack us unless they were starving.”
                  The man shook his head and said, “No, not the wolves.  The men who attacked you.  They cut you so that you would die and be eaten by the wolves.  The bandits who roam the forest are nothing if not thorough.  They will be back soon to see the remains of your dead corpse.  If they find us here alive, they will just kill us.”
                  Conner let himself be pulled to his feet.  The first step caused so much pain he almost fell to the ground.  But with the man’s help, he rose to his feet and was led towards the trees.
                  Suddenly he stopped and looked around.
                  “Wait!” Conner said with clenched teeth.
                  “What is it?” the man asked.
                  “My horse.  Lilly.  Where is my horse?”
                  “It is gone.  I do not know where it is.  We need to keep moving before they come back.”
                  Conner did not let himself be moved.  “I need to find her.  She will be mad if she is lost.”
                  “It is just a horse,” the man said.  He gave a slight tug on Conner’s shoulders and after a moment, Conner let himself be led into the forest.
    It wasn’t too far before the man came to a stop and pulled Conner gently to the ground.
                  “He is hurt bad,” the man said.
                  Conner looked up and the woman who had been with the man appeared from the dense underbrush.  She pushed him down gently onto his back and studied the cuts.  She shook her head and then disappeared back into the underbrush.
                  “What is your wife doing?” Conner asked.
                  The man chuckled.  “She is not my wife.”
                  “Is she not with child?”
                  The man