Bridge of Swords by Duncan Lay Read Free Book Online Page B

is holding her prisoner! Nobody loose an arrow!’
    ‘Help me get back. Look after my children,’ he pleaded.
    Asami reached up and kissed him, hard, oblivious to her husband just yards away. ‘Come back, for all of us,’ she whispered.
    An arrow flew then, just missing his head. Grabbing the staff, Sendatsu raced into the tree like a man running for his life — and Dokuzen vanished behind him.
     
    That was how he left Dokuzen. He did not know when he could return but, finally, his tears dried and he stood up. His children were lost to him but crying would not get them back. He knew what he had to do — find out if humans could do magic, discover what had really happened when the elves had withdrawn into Dokuzen. It was his only chance. He did not want to overthrow the Council but, if that was the price of getting them back, he would destroy his father and the other clan leaders and anyone who got in his way.
    He could feel a new determination within him, a grim desire that would not be stopped by anything. He would turn thehuman and elven worlds on their heads to hold Mai and Cheijun again.
    Down the hill there was a human village, smoke from its fires staining the afternoon sky. It was a place to start. He began to walk towards the village.

3
    Lies will kill me. But the truth must live on. My enemies will find what I have already written and they will either destroy it or lock it away where none can find it. My instructions from the forefathers are written on a scroll, hidden inside an old book. That might survive — or might be burned. But not this. I shall hide it too well — and it will be in the last place they expect to look. I pray the one who finds it can use my tale to change Dokuzen for the better, make it a place where the truth is more valued than lies.
    I hate lies. And yet they are so much more powerful than truth, so much easier to believe. The people think we built the magical barrier around Dokuzen to keep the humans out. No, the barrier was built to keep us away from the humans. For our magic was too strong. Elves might have used it wisely, done things to improve the lives of all. But we are human, we just pretend we are elves. We would have used it to rule the other human tribes, turn them into our slaves.
    The Elfarans, our forefathers, realised this. They had a plan to give the humans back their future, the future we took away from them. I was the one chosen to make it happen. For a while I dared to dream of success — but then I was betrayed by those I trusted. Friends who I thought protected my back in fact stood behind me because it was easier to plunge the knife home. My dearest friend, who called me brother to my face and held meclose, was the one to bring me down. The leader of the Magic-weavers, who I thought my ally, plotted for herself. So many had their own motives that I stood no chance of success.
    Yet I was not a complete failure. I saved the humans from us — for now, at least. We took so much from the human lands we found here. Death would be too bitter for me if I knew we had also taken their freedom. I hope they learn and develop, away from us, so that when we finally meet again, it can be as equals. I hope for many things — but then, hope is all I have in the little time left to me.
     
    Rhiannon screamed.
    Huw jumped out of his chair, heart racing, not knowing where he was or what was going on for a moment. He had drifted off to sleep and been in the middle of a dream, where King Ward’s soldiers had been chasing him. In the dream, he had been unable to run away fast enough, his feet seemingly churning through the thickest mud while Ward’s men raced lightly across the ground after him, wicked swords thirsting for his flesh. He had been trying to scream himself when Rhiannon screamed for him.
    He looked around, the dream’s fears still holding him, but the room was empty, the door still locked and a chair braced under the handle.
    He spun to where Rhiannon was sitting