Merlin's Shadow Read Online Free

his druidow.
    Sucking his wound, Grandpa nodded. The blood covered his teeth and dripped down onto his beard.
    â€œWhere, then,” he rasped, “is your mother? Where is my daughter?”
    Ganieda’s tongue caught in her throat. She turned away and shook her head.
    â€œWhat? What are you saying? Did her little infection from that armband get so bad that —?” He clucked his tongue, and took two deep, deep breaths. “Oh, to think that my lineage has come down to this,” he cried, “and in such a little time.”
    Ganieda looked at him, and he was crying.
    â€œAnd all because of that Merlin, that scourge upon my house, has this happened. And so you, little vengeful girl, you are all that I have left in the world. Come, then,” he said. “Come … come back to my tent in the woods. Remember the dried strawberries and smoked meat? You — you are hungry, yes?”
    Her stomach was burning. The strength she felt from the fangdidn’t fill
that
emptiness. She would go with him. Tellyk padded over to her, and she stroked his fur, climbing onto his broad back.
    Grandfather’s smoldering gaze flitted to her bag — which hung from her belt over the side of the wolf — but he said nothing.
    He led the way, first picking his way through the smoking debris of the smithy and then out onto the clouded and thundering moor.

CHAPTER 2

PURSUED
    M erlin’s chest tightened as Arthur’s cries grew louder.
    Colvarth listened to the oncoming sounds of their pursuers and looked at Merlin anxiously. “I will follow you to Gorlas,” Colvarth relented. “But we have come too far east. Keep the moon left of your back, so that we’ll head toward the coast. Hopefully to Dintaga.”
    Merlin turned them away from the direction of the moon — as well as the road where Vortigern’s men lay in wait — and led them down into a valley. Arthur ceased his bawling and sucked on an oatcake.
    Onward Merlin led them, through the dark fastness of the trees and toward the northern coast, but he was tired and his body ached from the jolting horse. Even when the sound of their pursuers had completely faded, Merlin kept looking backward, and Natalenya always met his gaze, urging him onward. But she leaned upon her mount like a wilted flower, clutching the mane with her free hand and holding Arthur with the other. How much longer could they go?
    When the path broadened somewhat, Colvarth rode up beside Merlin. “The coast is not far,” he said. “So we must talk now of what is to come.”
    â€œI’ve been there before,” Merlin said, “even if I couldn’t see it.”
    â€œBut have you been to Dintaga itself? Gorlas’s fortress is not like Bosventor’s. It lies on an island out in the sea, and there is only a narrow, treacherous causeway that leads to it.”
    â€œSo we’ll leave the horses behind. We’ll make it.” Merlin spurred his mount forward, but Colvarth reached out and clutched his sleeve.
    â€œYou are a like a bull,” he whispered, “who knows not where he is rushing. Long ago Gorlas was in love with Uther’s wife, but she spurned him. You may regret entering his fortress with Uther’s child.”
    â€œBut Uther brought Arthur along. It appears he was going to do that.”
    â€œNo, he was not,” Colvarth said. “He would never have entered there without his men — and never to stay.”
    Merlin ducked under a looming pine branch. “Is Gorlas so dangerous?”
    Colvarth chewed on this question before answering. “No, Gorlas is not a traitor … he has answered Uther’s call for men before. But Uther would not have brought his wife and children
into
Dintaga. Of that I am certain.”
    â€œIsn’t Arthur the child of Igerna as well? Isn’t that in our favor?”
    Colvarth shook his head. “I do not think so. It has been many years