The Golden Griffin (Book 3) Read Online Free

a crouch and prepared before it emerged. It was a large badger that eyed her with curiosity as it sniffed the air.
    Daria sheathed the sword. “You could get hurt that way, friend. Oh, and I suppose you want some of my supper, too.” She broke off a piece of bread and held out her hand. “Here, I can spare some of this. No?” She popped the bread into her mouth. “Well, you’re not getting my rabbit, so forget it.”
    She expected the badger to wander off, but instead it stood on its back feet. Then it seemed to be stretching. Growing. Daria’s eyes widened and when she blinked, a man with a gray beard stood in front of her. A wizard. She shrank back in alarm, then saw it was only Narud.
    “What are you doing here?” she asked.
    “I might ask you the same thing.” Narud licked his lips. “The truth is, I smelled cooking rabbit and got hungry.”
    She sniffed. “I wasn’t going to share with a badger, and I’m certainly not going to give it to a wizard. I’ve been traveling all afternoon and evening and I’m starved. Can’t you forage your own supper?”
    He pulled a pouch from his cloak and opened it for her to see. It was filled with mushrooms, leeks, and wild carrots. “I did. Or at least, part of a supper.”
    “Why didn’t you say so in the first place? How about rabbit stew?”
    “Sounds good to me.”
    She removed the rabbit from the fire and gingerly picked off the steaming meat. She put it in a pot with Narud’s vegetables, and collected water from a nearby stream. About twenty minutes later they had a nice-size meal for two. Then a second wizard showed up. It was Markal, huffing and bending over to grip his knees. It seemed that he’d been running after Narud too fast to bother collecting food. He had plenty of appetite, though.
    Markal kept his left hand tucked against his body as they ate. She supposed he’d withered it with some spell, although what, he didn’t say. Neither wizard spoke much. Soon, the food was gone, and the berries and cheese Daria had packed for breakfast as well.
    The moment they finished, Narud wiped his mouth with his beard and gave Markal a look.
    “Use your own hand this time,” Markal grumbled. “I’ll be helpless.”
    “The girl can look after you.”
    “You shouldn’t have changed back in the first place.”
    “I had to, she wasn’t going to give the rabbit meat to a badger.”
    “Fine,” Markal said. “What now?”
    “An owl,” Narud said. “I need my eyes.”
    Markal bowed his head and chanted. Daria didn’t need to see the wizardry, so she climbed up to where Joffa nested in the tree. The griffin was asleep with his head tucked under one wing. His claws flexed in some dream. She stroked her hand along the feathers of his neck, down to where they gave way to fur. Then she returned to the fire.
    Narud was gone. Markal rolled a glass sphere in his stiff left hand. He tucked it away when she approached, and the hand, too.
    “Good night to you,” she said. “Will you be here in the morning?”
    “Are you really going to do that to me?”
    “Do what?”
    “Go to bed already. I’ve been traveling with Narud for a week. I could use the company. It wouldn’t kill you, either. Toss another branch on the fire and take a seat. We’ll talk.”
    She obeyed, although she was at a loss for words. If he had news, why didn’t he share it already? Did he want something?
    Markal smiled. “Well?”
    “Well, what?”
    “You’re sixty miles north of the Tothian Way. There’s a company of Veyrian deserters two miles from here, holed up in a ruined castle. A few miles to the north is a band of cutthroats recently driven from the Old Road.”
    “They’ll never find us here,” she said. “And if they do, we’ll take care of them.”
    “Narud and I spotted dragon wasps three days ago. They seemed anxious for us to depart from their lands.”
    “Their lands? They are interlopers, they do not belong here.” Daria leaned forward. “Where was it? Near