Inside, the music and dancing continued. Serra and Sharlett were happily showing Astrid how to play their favourite past-time, breaking hearts. The girls would appear demure, adorable and shy until a man approached them thinking them easy prey. The man would try a few blatantly obvious lines which the girls would mock, causing the man to leave feeling demoralised and dejected. Other times they would appear to swoon with delight and offer dazzling smiles to any who looked in their direction, while ignoring any offers to the dance floor by those offering little more than cheesy one-liners. The two girls coerced and cajoled until Astrid decided to play a time or to herself.
A young man the
Astrid sat bolt upright with surprise and started swearing as she tried to untangled herself from her bedsheets. She was a sound sleeper but also a very mobile one. Astrid grabbed the yelling girl by her shoulders. Seeing how pale Serra’s face was in the light of the moon she immediately led the trembling girl to her writing desk’s chair and lit a candle. Astrid handed a glass of water to her trembling friend and made her calm down.“Speak slowly and quietly,” Astrid said in a firm but gentle tone after Serra was sitting and sipping the water.There was a timid knock on the door and a young girl opened it, her head peering around the corner.“I heard screaming,” the girl spoke softly. &ld
Sigwulf escorted Astrid back to the woman’s wing, carefully carrying a candle before them. Astrid was quite impressed by how well the imposing knight was handling her plan. “Are you completely out of your bloody mind?” He asked harshly in a quiet voice. Or maybe not.“Do you have any idea how dangerous your plan is?” Sigwulf demanded, his voice low and cold in its outrage.“Absolutely. But how else do you plan to stop this? We have a time, a date, and even a name. We may never get this opportunity again.”“It’s
Tiny sparks flared as the steel blade scraped the iron chains as it severed the links.He moved to the other end of the table and repeated the procedure. Astrid immediately scrambled up and wrapped Hrodgar’s cloak tightly around her.Sigwulf stared at the blade of his sword. “It’s going to take me a week to polish out all these nicks,” he growled.Hrodgar approached Astrid. “Are you all right?”Astrid nodded. “Just feeling very tired and more than a little queasy. Excuse me.” She leant over the back of the table and was violently sick.“Chloroform does that to people,” Hrodgar replied, sitting on the table
Lakon and Sigwulf spent the rest of their morning pouring through Wilson’s books. While Lakon worked at breaking the code, Sigwulf tested the code on various sections of the books to see if what worked in one place also worked in other sections. Wilson seemed to change codes part way through sentences, making the scholarly Lakon want to scream with frustration.“Cracked it,” Lakon suddenly shouted. He managed to look slightly guilty as several young men who studying for exams scowled at him. “Sorry,” he mouthed.Sigwulf slid his chair across to Lakon and peered over his shoulder. “What have you found?”“Listen to this.
Draynon angrily shushed Russ before gathering himself enough to form a sentence. “What did you just say?”Astrid tore her poisonous gaze from Russ and looked across to Draynon. “Me? Oh, nothing much. Just that it’s my choice. Sir Kenward was quite right when he said that your way is the long way around.” She went back to wiping her hands across her dusty and web covered clothes to remove the worst of the dirt.“It is safest to stay here.”“Is it? Are you sure? I insist on going, and taking my friends with me,” she added as s
“I... in the t... tent,” Mary stammered, still clutching Lakon’s arms while he caressed her raven hair as he tried to comfort her.There was movement at the tent flap and Astrid emerged, a disgusted look on her pale face. She wore only a long shirt that reached mid thigh and did nothing to hide her long, shapely legs, but her scantily clad state was not what caught everyone’s attention. In one hand she held her dagger that was covered in a dark yellow slime, and in the other hand, a creature from nightmares. It was the same size as a large cat, with pink and wrinkled skin showing through thick black hair that appeared more like bristles. It had no eyes with
The wind howled, but now there seemed to be a second howl nearly hidden in the wind. The knights readied themselves in accordance to Hrodgar’s instructions. They hid themselves behind outcrops of rocks, and stayed downwind as much as they could. The howl grew louder. A second joined the first. Hrodgar stared to swear quietly to himself, his harsh face growing darker with anger. Having a brother killed by such a beast will do that to a man. The first beast rounded the corner. Growling and slavering, its starving bo
Astrid stopped eating. “I really don’t know Serra,” she whispered. “He may survive, he may not. He has lost so much blood, has been unconscious and unable to eat. His wounds are very deep, so an antiseptic may not go deep enough. His lack of blood will make it very hard for his body to fight infection. I’ve done everything I can. All I can do now is watch and wait.” Serra nodded. “Where did you learn so much about medicine?”“Mother had a boyfriend for a while that was a doctor.