Dragon's Keep by Janet Lee Carey Read Free Book Online Page B

claw
throbbing, my breath coming in gulps, I closed my eyes to shut out the world.
The odor of my mangled claw mixed with the stink of Demetra's burning hair.
    We left Demetra's cave that very night.
Wending below maple trees and pine, we urged our horses down the twisting path.
There was a rustling sound and Ali burst from the bushes with Katinka. Mother
halted suddenly.

 
    "Take my girl," pleaded Ali.
     
    1 cannot.
    "I've done all you asked. Don't deny me
this."
    "She stays
here."
    "She's not a burden. She makes no
sound."
    I looked at Ali's daughter shivering in her
threadbare gown. Her pale face and hair drank in the moonlight.
    "No," said Mother.
    "She's fourteen," said Ali.
"She'll work sun to moon as I did lor you. And she'll eat but little from
the table." She lifted her hands. " I've accepted all, done all. But my girl's life is in
danger." Ali tugged the corner
of Mother's cloak. "Demetra beats her," she whispered fiercely, then stepping back, she pulled up her daugh ter's
ragged gown.
    Indeed, even in the dark, I could see the
blue-green bruises from her ankle to her thigh.
    "I want her," I said suddenly.
"Give the girl to me. I can use a
lady's maid." After Mother's betrayal of me in the hag's cave she owed
me this.
    "She'll never be a
grief to you," said Ali, pressing her daugh ter closer to Mother's mare.
    A crow cawed in the woods. Silence from
Mother, but I saw she was considering. "Marn could use help carrying the
chamber pots out to the privy," mused Mother.
    "Give her to me," I said again. And
this time Ali lifted up her struggling daughter. I felt a rush of joy as
Katinka took the saddle in front of me. She reached for her mother. But I held
her tight. Booting Rollo, we started back
down the path. Ali ran after

saying , "Good-bye, my precious girl.
It's for love we say good bye. Remember, Kit. Remember that so someday
you'll understand!" Behind us she crumpled on the path, weeping.
    With my arms wrapped about her I felt
Katinka's heart flutter like a small bird caught. She squirmed and tugged my
arms. "The girl wants to jump."
    "Hold her fast, Rose. Katinka is yours
to lose or keep."
    Only hours before this, I'd struggled against
my own bonds, so I whispered in her ear, "I'll not harm you, Kit." I
meant my promise. She'd betrayed me to Demetra, but I'd seen how the hag
treated her. A slave will do her master's bidding while in bondage, and too
she'd been kind enough to bring the mint. "You're
free from Demetra," I added. "She'll not beat you again." No
thank-you from the girl, but then, she could not speak.
    None could replace Magda. This girl would not
follow me about skipping and singing the way she had, but her hair was the selfsame color as the stolen child's, and she was
fourteen like my self . I'd found a friend to keep me company when the heavy win ter
snow bound me to the castle.
    Just before dawn we crossed the drawbridge
and left our horses in the stable yard.
    "Where will Kit sleep?" I asked.
    "With Cook's new
girl."
    "No, with Marn. If she's to be my lady's
maid."
    And so Katinka was moved into the chamber
adjoining mine. And there she stayed, herself like a treasure box and I the one
with the key.

CHAPTER TEN
    Friend and Fowlm
    Count the
seeds," I said, heart pounding. I'd
slit the apple in the orchard with Kit. We were trying the newest love spell we'd garnered from Sir Magnus's book. Kit was
quiet on her feet and she knew well how to slip silently into the crow's
nest and smuggle out a text.
    The castle escorts
stood along the edge of the orchard, guard ing
us from the common footpads hidden in the woods. They were posted far enough away for me to say the charm out of their hearing.
    I'd said the charm, chanting the name Henry
three times as the book instructed. We'd even gathered the grave soil to bury
the seeds should the charm prove unfruitful.
    Cut in two and count
the seeds. Even, and your marriage day
comes soon.
Odd,
and you're sure to be a
spinster.
    Kit nimbly wrestled out the