Through the Wildwood Read Online Free Page A

when the sun came up. The important thing was that Gallarael was still alive. Once he found a mount, he could track down the slave who had nabbed her, kill him, and gain all the favor the duke could muster. As the night wore on he even entertained hopes of winning Gallarael’s heart in the process.
    “What’s happening?” the sniffling young man asked. “Are they coming for us?”
    “Shut it,” Moyle hissed through clenched teeth. He had forgotten about the boy. “Sit still and keep your mouth shut or we’ll both be troll shit by the morning.” Moyle decided then and there that he might have to kill the lad. Once he saw the corpses of the duke’s bandits, he would be a liability. He would wait until they found one of the escaped animals, though. Four eyes looking for a scared horse or a skittish haulkatten would be better than just two. The boy sniffled loudly, then sobbed. Moyle turned and with the back of his hand smacked him across the face.
    “What’s your name?” Moyle whispered.
    “Darbon,” the adolescent whimpered.
    “If you make another sound, Darbon, I will kill you where you sit.”

    Matty and one of Captain Moyle’s guards had been off behind the picketed horses when the trolls came. Half naked and rolling in the rocky shrubs, they hadn’t even noticed the attack until a stalking troll crept right past them. The guard, Gregon, quickly lost his interest in the one-handed whore, but only for the moment. After the sounds of battle erupted and the trolls began to howl, he took Matty and two of the horses and fled. He had to take the extra horse because Matty was in leg chains and couldn’t straddle a saddle. He threw her over the second horse like a sack of grain and led the animal east down the bandit trail, not the well-traveled road. As soon as they had some distance between themselves and the massacre, he turned them south right into the wilderness. Gregon hoped to find a place to camp and spend a few days alone with the whore. He would grow bored of her, kill her and then cut himself. He would tell the Duke that he narrowly escaped the attack. Hell, he thought. He might even be able to get some stripes on his sleeve. When he got back to Highlake, he would be a bloodied veteran.
    “You’re—a fargin—bastard—” Matty grunted between the horses bouncing steps. “This—fargin—hurts.”
    “Hush woman,” Gregon said. “We’re not out of harm’s way yet. I’ll break your chains as soon as I can.”
    A few moments later a low, rumbling growl confirmed his assessment. The sound came from not far behind them and served to give Matty the will to bite her tongue no matter how uncomfortable she was. It also served to hasten Gregon’s pace as they twisted and turned out into uncharted territory.

    Vanx hissed to quiet the argument going on between Trevin and Gallarael. It turned out that the two of them were secret lovers. Vanx had the urge to tell the young guard an old saying that kept repeating in his mind:
Like mother like daughter,
but he held his tongue.
    He heard something not far ahead of them: voices. Thinking that it might be more of Duke Martin’s bandits, he left the trail, heading north toward Andwyn. This seemed to lift the spirits of his two passengers. He didn’t have the heart to tell them that it was only a false trail he was creating. In a few minutes they were going to backtrack south into the Wilds.



I picked a special flower
    to make my Molly purr
    but right after she kissed me
    she said two coppers sir.
    – Parydon Cobbles

G allarael jerked awake. The moon was low in the sky and the sounds of the night—the chirps, hisses and resounding croaks, wafted on the cool, late-spring breeze. The smooth, rolling gait of the haulkatten rocked her body gently back against Trevin. Reflexively, he tightened his arms around her waist in a reassuring hug. This caused her to smile and she leaned into him as the memory of her situation came to her.
    “I feel like I’ve