The Forever Knight: A Novel of the Bronze Knight (Books of the Bronze Knight) Read Online Free Page A

but knowing that inside it grew the offspring of my two closest friends. White-Eye sighed and closed her own hand over mine.
    “You will be the finest mother any child ever had,” I whispered to her. White-Eye chuckled. She’d been brave when her father died and brave when her eyesight was stolen. Having a child seemed not to trouble her at all.
    “And you must stay here to help us raise this child, Lukien!”
    “I’m here now,” I said without commitment. “Let’s sit.”
    We lowered each other to the edge of the fountain. Around us the children played and laughed. The great, white wall of Jador loomed in the distance, separating us from the throngs of foreigners that had come to White-Eye’s home. Foreigners like me. I had washed and scented myself, but White-Eye could tell I was troubled, and there was no point at all in hiding it from her.
    “I saw Gilwyn. Did he tell you?”
    “He told me. I expected you to come sooner, Lukien.”
    “I needed a bath first.”
    “No. I meant I thought you’d come home to Jador sooner. You were gone a very long while this time.”
    I nodded. “It is nice to be missed, though.”
    “You won’t find what you’re looking for in the desert. There is nothing in the desert. Only Jador.” She looked sad. “Jador won’t make you happy.”
    “And this scheme of Gilwyn’s? Do you think that will help me?” I asked sincerely. “I have been an adventurer most of my life, White-Eye.”
    “Adventure? You don’t understand, then. Purpose is what you need, Lukien. Find a cause and give yourself to it. And when you’re done, return here to us. That’s all we’re saying.”
    I looked down at her belly, imagining the child growing within. “I need to see your child,” I said. “I can’t be gone for that.”
    “Of course,” said White-Eye. “You must be here for that. I told you—I’ll need your help with this bundle! But there’s many months before the baby comes. Just go and then return. You can do that, can’t you?”
    Her words baffled me. Not her question but her statement. I kept staring down at her unborn child. “White-Eye, I’m a fighter. A killer. You want a child who lives in peace. What can I possibly teach your baby?” I thought about it. “A boy should learn how to use a weapon, I suppose. And I’m a good horseman . . . I could teach your baby that.”
    “Lukien, no,” said White-Eye. “Anyone could teach our baby those things.”
    “What, then?”
    White-Eye grew unusually serious. “You make me say this? You saved this city from invasion. You destroyed the demon that took away my Akari and made me blind. You are the hero of everyone in Jador. Lukien, boy or girl, you will teach my child the most difficult things of all. Things that cannot be learned from scrolls or stories: bravery and honor. But most of all, you will teach my baby goodness. Because even if you don’t think so, you are a good man, Lukien.”
    I sat there. I nodded. But I didn’t argue with her because I could not even speak.
    Ever gracious, she allowed my silence. She went back to her macramé, diligently making knots as I sat there beside her and watched the children play.

3
    H ow can I describe Cricket? She’s like a mirror image, the opposite of what you think you see. She’s pretty but doesn’t care at all about looks. She hordes trinkets till they’re spilling out of her pockets. She complains about her chores but does them to perfection, and she loves to be alone but clings to me like bark. Near as we can tell she’s fourteen years old. Sometimes she acts half that age, sometimes twice it. She’ll talk for an hour then shut up tight for days, and no one—not even Minikin when she was alive—can ever figure out what’s going on inside her impish head.
    The day we left Grimhold, Cricket was in the mood to talk. She wore the cape we’d made together out of the rass skin, proudly primping it over her little shoulders as her pony sauntered through the canyon.