Risen Read Online Free Page B

and he glanced
further about, startled by the similarity of it all. He half
expected her to step from the kitchen door and greet him, drying
her hands on her skirts as she’d always done.
    Slowly, time seemed to crawl to a
standstill and with it sound faded away as well. He was momentarily
suspended in the vortex of his memories, and all within stopped
what they were doing to simply stare at the peculiar intruder.
Ravan remained where he was, not moving at all, almost struggling
to convince himself that this was not that inn.
    Closing his eyes, he rubbed at them
with the heel of one hand to push the images away, to collect
himself. Sanity held, and on some level he realized it would not do
for him to be so distracted after having spent nearly a year
imprisoned. No, he must maintain control, try to appear civilized,
try to fit in as best he could. He repeated this thought to himself
several times over.
    “Can I help you?”
    Ravan didn’t hear the
question.
    “Sir, can I help you? Would you
like wine…or dinner? Do you need lodging for tonight?” a soft voice
pulled at him.
    Dropping his hand from his eyes, he
only stared at the young woman who’d appeared from seemingly
nowhere. When he at long last paired the voice with the woman, he
could not take his eyes from her—he was so suddenly affected by her
appearance.
    The hand she gently reached toward
him was not a hand at all, for it was gone. There was only a stump
at the end of her thin arm. Her face, which might be ordinarily
charming, lacked an eye. Where the beautiful, blue orb should be
was only a sunken pit, blackened and stretched tight—a leathery
cavern of hideous proportion. Neither did the young woman’s hair
grow well on that side of her head, and she wore scars upon her
scalp for whatever the cruel insult had been. She was smallish,
feeble as a poorly kept child, and standing a mere arm’s length
from the mercenary.
    For all her appearance, it was she
who gasped involuntarily and backed a step away from him, the stump
going up to her mouth in surprise. Ravan hadn’t considered that his
own dreadful appearance was a vision all its own. He’d been a
prisoner for so long and only free just four days ago from that
awful cell. Since then, his entire business had been preoccupied
with the burying of his brother and riding like a man possessed.
Not a moment had been taken to consider his own appearances, how
others might see him.
    Consequently, there was never a
wilder, more wretched creature than the one standing in the middle
of the small inn on this evening. All within had stopped whatever
they were doing and simply stared at the odd exchange between these
two. The miserable stranger and the butchered young woman were a
strikingly bizarre pair to be sure. It was dinner and a
show.
    “Pardon? Oh, yes,” he
replied.
    Ravan was unaccustomed to being
approached as a civilian. In truth, he never had! There was really
not a time that he could remember not being a mercenary…or a child
of bad fate. Now, he was a free man and seen by others as just
that—a free man! His brother had given this to him—a gift of the
greatest proportions! Even so, it was a difficult role to become
accustomed to, and he swallowed thickly, tasting richly the
unfamiliarity of it.
    “I’m sorry. For a second I
thought…” He shook his head, began fresh. With conviction he said,
“Yes, I wish to take a room for the night, with dinner…and care and
lodging for my horse as well—the bay mare, just outside.” He
examined the girl more closely, and she looked away from him,
cowering from beneath his awful scrutiny. Ravan was oddly reminded
of the orphanage just then. “Thank you,” he said apologetically. “I
hope I did not startle you. I’ve been traveling for…” he shook his
head, “…for a very long time.” Truthfully, remarkably, he appeared
worse for wear than she, but he could not know this.
    “Certainly,” she said in a small
voice, “please come with me, and