Bound in Darkness by Jacquelyn Frank Read Free Book Online Page A

dagger of yours.”
    She had forgotten all about it. Eager to find it she pulled on her boots and followed him to his saddle. When he picked it up she went over to hers and made her way to Hero. She saddled him with practiced ease then swung up into the saddle.
    Maxum wouldn’t admit it to her, but he was impressed with her strength and determination. She hoisted her saddle with ease, didn’t ask for a lick of help. Clearly didn’t need to. She was unlike so many of the women he knew. Oh, he knew a few female warriors, but not many. Certainly none her size. Most of the women he came across were pretty much helpless. He supposed they could keep a house or some such thing, but overall, pretty useless. Women were meant to look pretty and make babies in his opinion. But every so often one would surprise him—like Airianne. Although he had never met anyone quite like her. He wondered what she’d be like in pitched battle. Not very useful, he surmised. She was just too small really. He wondered if he was going to regret bringing her with them. He already knew some of the men questioned the wisdom of the thing. They didn’t question
him,
they didn’t dare, but he knew they were questioning it just the same.
    He rode beside her down the forest path, his eyes scanning over the ground. It had been dark last night and he didn’t really know how far they’d made it before turning back, so he really didn’t know what the chances were of them finding the missing dagger.
    After half an hour of looking, he opened his mouth to tell her it was lost and they should head back.
    “Don’t say it!” she said.
    “It’s just a dagger. I’ll get you a new one.”
    “I don’t want a new one. I want that one. It’s my lucky dagger.”
    “What’s so lucky about it?”
    “You wouldn’t understand,” she said with a frown, her eyes still tracking over the ground.
    “Try and explain,” he said.
    She shot him a wary glance.
    “An old friend gave it to me. He said it would never fail me and so far it hasn’t.”
    “It failed you last night,” he pointed out.
    “It didn’t fail me,” she said. “I just wasn’t meant to use it on you.”
    He laughed condescendingly. “You weren’t
meant
to?”
    “Well, look at the big picture. Do you believe in fate? In the way of Hella?”
    “You’re
religious
?” he asked incredulously.
    “No. I just believe in fate. Fate led me to you, didn’t she? And fate knew that you were just being an ass and you didn’t deserve to get a dagger in the ribs for it. A kick in the head maybe, but not a dagger in the ribs.”
    “So in that line of thinking, does this mean fate isn’t letting you find your lucky—”
    “There it is!”
    She swung down out of her saddle and scooped up the dagger, holding it up triumphantly. “See! Fate!”
    “Luck is more like it,” he mumbled.
    “I heard that. Fate and luck are sometimes the same thing. Come on, let’s go back.”
    “You know, the gods aren’t responsible for every little thing that happens to us. And even if they were, it wouldn’t be a good thing.”
    She glanced over at him. “That’s a very jaded view of the gods. What’d they ever do to you?”
    He grimaced but remained silent. She shrugged and followed him back to camp. By the time they returned the other men were up and about, clearing up the campsite.
    “Where’ve you been?” Kilon asked, spitting on the ground as he slung his longbow across his body at an angle, his crossbow hitched onto his back with a quick release knot. He could pull the deadly weapon in a moment’s notice and Airi believed he wouldn’t think twice about using it—on a man as much as on an animal. Still, the archer would keep them fed as long as there was game to be found, and just because he was something of a jerk she couldn’t begrudge that fact. “Or do I need to ask,” he added with a lecherous leer of contempt. “I hope you plan on sharing the goods, slink.” He used the derogatory word