The Rogue Knight Read Online Free Page A

gave Cord confidence. He knew the laws and customs of the fief, but his heart went out to the small girl. His two mastiffs barked as they raced at Old Sloat.
    The giant boar looked up from his hole. The small girl took a terrified step backward. Old Sloat grunted in surprise, perhaps not knowing until now that she stood so close. He charged her.
    Closer to the boar than anyone else, Lame Jack hurled his hoe. It clipped Old Sloat in the side an instant before he reached the girl. The massive boar spun in rage, spraying dirt upon the moaning little waif. Lame Jack snarled his defiance, a puny knife now in his hands.
    The mastiffs launched themselves upon what seemed like the unsuspecting boar.
    The canny monster spun again, squealed in what seemed like glee and ripped open the belly of the first mastiff. Cord went cold with fear. Baron Hugh would whip him for allowing the mastiff to be killed like this. The second mastiff, bigger and more battle-wise than the first, dodged the bloody tusks that tried to rip into him. Boar and mastiff squared off, each circling the other, looking for an opening.
    The small girl shrieked and somehow broke the spell that had rooted her feet to the ground. She fled to her Uncle Jack, who picked her up and hobbled away to join the others.
    Unmindful of his safety, only knowing that he couldn’t lose two mastiffs, Cord ran up to Sebald and clicked a leash onto the spiked collar.
    Old grunting Sloat, the enraged King, charged again.
    Cord swore in fear, twisted and slashed with his long knife. Thick pigskin parted. Old Sloat squealed and slashed with his tusks. Cord’s hunting boot, made of armor-like leather, parted as if it was made of silk. For an instant, Cord felt the warmth of Old Sloat’s breath on his ankle. Then Sebald raked his teeth across the boar’s hindquarters. Old Sloat jumped away. Sebald tried to follow.
    “No!” Cord bellowed, as he hung onto the leash. Although yanked brutally forward, Cord managed to keep Sebald by his side.
    Old Sloat ran back to the truffle-hole. His dark evil eyes never left the madly barking mastiff.
    Cord’s heart raced and his breath came in ragged gasps. He was trembling. The boot was ruined, but thank God, he wasn’t crippled for life. If he’d gone down....
    The monstrous grunting old boar eyed him, clearly ready for another go. The coppery stink of blood hung in the air.
    Cord looked away, afraid lest he entice the bloody beast by staring at him too long. His eyes lingered on the dead mastiff. That made Cord tremble anew. Flies already crawled over the exposed intestines. Cord was used to seeing his charges killed. Stags, boars and bears took a fearful toll of hunting hounds. But to lose such a costly hound without being on a hunt....
    Sickened by fear of Baron Hugh de Clare’s future wrath, Cord almost vomited. He saw the forester position escaping him like a starling from a freshly cut pie. Taking the mastiffs along in order to awe Tiny now seemed like the stupidest decision of his life.
    “You must run to the castle, dog boy.”
    Cord turned. Lame Jack, wheezing his onion breath, stood behind him. There was another hoe in his gnarled hands. A small bent old man in a dirty sheepskin blouse, Lame Jack was considered by the others to be a wise village elder.
    Jack hobbled a little closer and closed a callused hand around Cord’s wrist. “Hurry, and wipe away that blood,” he whispered. “Don’t let anyone know you cut Old Sloat. Someone might be telling Baron Hugh about it in order to gain his favor.”
    Cord turned his back toward the knot of peasants who touched the little girl in wonder. He wiped the blood off his knife and sheathed it.
    “You lost a mastiff,” Lame Jack whispered.
    “I know,” Cord whispered back, his stomach turning over.
    “You’ve got to win back the baron’s affection or face his coming wrath.”
    “Why are you telling me this?”
    Jack squeezed Cord’s arm with surprising strength. “You just saved my