Where Serpents Strike (Children of the Falls Vol. 1) Read Online Free Page A

and
deep into the skin. He growled, a sound wrought of pain and
irritation. He spun and backhanded Lia across the face with his
metal arm. She flew backward into the trampled leaves of the
pockmarked road, the right side of her face exploding with
pain.
    Some of the soldiers laughed.
    The armored man looked down at Lia, eyes
steady and cool. Brown tangles of hair tumbled from his head,
veiling his pale face, a stark contrast to his black uniform. He
removed her dagger from his leg like a scholar withdraws a quill
from an inkwell, and handed it back to her handle first.
    “Would you care to try again?” he asked, his
voice indifferent, cavernous and cold. “Go for the inside of the
thigh this time. Twist the blade to open the wound.”
    “I think you should keep her, sir,” one of
the soldiers said. “Might make good sport later.”
    Bellows of laughter followed.
    The large armored man smiled wolfishly.
“Kill her,” he said.
    From the barn a horse neighed, beckoning the
soldiers’ attention. Lia scurried away from them on her hands and
knees until she glimpsed Khile bounding toward the house atop
Aggie. He arrived at her side in a matter of seconds and pivoted
the horse’s flanks to throw the closest soldiers off balance. He
reached down and grabbed Lia by the arm. She gave an undignified
yelp when he hoisted her onto his lap and urged the horse
forward.
    Aggie was afraid, Lia could tell, acting
half on instinct and half at the commands of the stranger on her
back. The horse rushed along the uneven road.
    Lia watched the soldiers behind them ready
their crossbows as Khile’s two companions stood at the entrance to
the barn, looking after him in confusion. Sprightly took a short
arrow through the face. Fatty ducked back into the barn as the
soldiers moved in to claim his life.
    Before Aggie descended the next crest in the
road, Lia glimpsed the massive man in the black armor staring after
her, calm as an oak tree in a gathering storm.
    Lia squirmed to right herself, but Khile
shouted at her, “Keep still!”
    “I’m slipping!”
    He hooked an arm around her small waist and
pulled her up in front of him to straddle the animal’s bare back.
The road ahead, with woods crowding up to both sides, rushed past
in a blur before Lia’s wet eyes.
    “Why did he kill them?” she asked. “They
didn’t do anything.” Then she thought of the baby in Abigail’s
stomach, that precious little girl, or boy. No one would ever
know.
    “That’s Sir Komor Raven, one of the high
king’s marshals,” Khile answered. “He is the very extension of the
Black King’s sword itself. He’s led the siege of almost all—”
    “I know who he is,” Lia spat, her voice
shaking with sorrow and rage. “Everyone knows The Raven.”
    “Then you know to fear him.”
    “I fear no one! And someday I’m going to
kill him for what he did to them.” Lia knew how absurd she sounded.
She knew ten-year-old girls didn’t kill soldiers clad in thick
armor, but deep within her boiled a growing hate she had never felt
before.
    “That man will gut you like a fawn,” Khile
said.
    “I don’t care. I’m going to rip his heart
out!”
    Khile huffed. “You’re a feisty little thing.
What’s your name?”
    “Lia Falls.”
    Khile’s body tensed. “Falls? Of Aberdour?
You’re a princess?” It sounded like less of a question and more an
exclamation of disbelief. “What are you doing out here all alone
with no protection? Are you crazy?”
    Lia didn’t answer. She only sobbed.
    “You’re lucky I found you,” Khile said.
“Those men would’ve killed you right along with that man and
woman.”
    “They were my friends,” Lia said, her voice
cracking. She shut her eyes as images flooded her mind of Thomas
teaching her how to ride, and Abigail helping her brush the coats
of their mares. Years of memories flooded through her as tears
washed down her cheeks.
    “I don’t understand,” she cried. “Why did he
kill them? They didn’t do