The Legacy of Lord Regret: Strange Threads: Book 1 Read Online Free Page B

figure.
    She was the very image of her portraits. Small and slender in a scarlet cloak, under which other layers wrapped her tightly
     – gloves and leggings, boots done up to her knees, her shirt almost flat across her chest. Her kerchief was draped across
     her knee, but the broad-brimmed hat still hid her face. The quill in her right hand came down to meet the notebook in her
     left, and the point flew deftly across the page. There was a glimmer of threads streaming in from the air around her, only
     visible in the moment before they reached her. She chuckled, a wet sound, and a moment later her ghostly words floated out
     of the air.
    Apples taste so fresh and sweet
    It’s what makes them so good to eat
    In the dark Rostigan felt his heart grow cold. Had she really just done what he thought she had?
    ‘See if you like that, Aorn,’ she muttered to herself. ‘So precious a simple thing, you probably didn’t even know you had
     it, but you’ll notice now it’s gone, gone, gone …’
    A night bird hooted on a branch above her. She glanced up at it, and Rostigan saw glittering eyes and a mouth that there was
     no mistaking. Jagged strips of flesh were missing from her lips, leaving the rest to hang like tattered curtains that permanently
     revealed her yellowed teeth.
    As the bird stretched its wings, her quill descended toward a fresh page.
    ‘Such whimsical destruction,’ said Rostigan.
    She started, her eyes snapping to where he lurked, quill hovering at the ready.
    ‘Who’s that?’ she hissed through jiggling lips.
    ‘Do you really need a bird in your collection, when you already took a whole city today, Stealer?’
    She laughed. ‘I thought I was forgotten after so long, but I do myself discredit.’
    ‘Who else would purge Silverstone from the face of Aorn?’
    ‘Yes, it was I – and, knowing that, you still sneak upon my fireside, bold enough to speak when most would flee? Do you fancy
     yourself protected, there in the shadows?’
    ‘If you cannot see me, surely I am safe from being described.’
    Her laugh was louder this time. ‘Perhaps you’ve heard the tale of the knights who slaughtered me? It’s given you false confidence.
     Do you really think there’s nothing to be said about someone, just because they dress in brown trousers and only carry stupid
     blunt weapons?’
    ‘Then how did they kill you?’
    ‘We all sleep sometimes. It seems that men would rather remember themselves as gifted planners, rather than brutes who butchered
     a woman in her bedroll.’
    ‘And why,’ he said, ‘have you returned?’
    ‘Do you know, it is the strangest thing – I have no idea at all. Just woke up as if I never left, imagine that! I think it
     was even in the same place as where they killed me, though the landscape has changed a little so I can’t be certain.’
    ‘Aorn was better off without you. It will be again.’
    ‘Oh yes?’ Her eyes narrowed, and her quill darted across the page.
    He makes a dangerous remark
    This skulking fellow in the dark
    Her words crawled up Rostigan’s arms like ephemeral centipedes … and passed him by. Stealer’s expression turned to one of
     shock. She leapt to her feet and bolted.
    Rostigan had not expected her to flee. He bounded after her, his bulk a hindrance in the confines of the wood. She darted
     ahead, a flash of scarlet slipping between crowded trees. Gritting his teeth, Rostigan ignored the long scrapes of clutching
     twigs down his arms, the sharp branches that gouged him or flew at him in shards as he slashed them from his path. He heard
     her curse, and rounded a trunk to find her struggling with her cloak tangled in a bush. She ripped free and spun to face him
     as he advanced, her eyes widening at his raised sword.
    ‘Wait, it’s not fair!’ she cried. Her hand flew up as she tried to undo the threads of his sword, but with a mental flick
     he batted her influence away.
    ‘Don’t you want to talk?’ she said. ‘I only just –’
    He