Fire In The Blood (Shards Of A Broken Sword Book 2) by W.R. Gingell Read Free Book Online

heating painfully beneath their feet. By the time they’d scrambled for somewhere safe, Prince Akish’s boots were smoking gently and the soles of Kako’s feet were burnt into red, angry blisters.
    Kako looked more resigned than tearful, though her face had a carefully blank look that suggested she wasn’t giving in to her pain. Akish, on the other hand, was loud and vituperative in his distress both of burnt shoe-leather and lost path, and spent the next few hours eating his rations in an angry sort of way before climbing over some of the closer furniture to get a better look at the room. When Rafiq asked somewhat sarcastically for Commands, Akish only said: “Be silent, lizard. I am attempting to find the pattern again.”
    True to his word, he did find the pattern again. By that time Kako had managed to heal the burns on her feet, and though the scar was still on the bottom of her foot, the rest of the skin looked smooth and new.
    “How did you find it?” she asked Akish, accepting Rafiq’s hand to rise from the footstool upon which she had taken refuge.
    “The pattern was clear from above,” said Akish grandly, and led the way.
    Rafiq exchanged a look with Kako, brows raised. Akish was obviously in one of his more childish moods today. Rafiq had known him to go into terrifyingly infantile rages at the least pretext when he was in such a state, the prince’s vaunted prowess and battle cunning notwithstanding. Kako looked distinctly wary and Rafiq got the impression that she was used to dealing with such anger. He wondered if her princess often went into the same kind of paroxysms.
    Before long it was obvious to Rafiq that the pattern was not taking them in the direction he had discovered last night. That was unfortunate, given Akish’s current mood, but he saw no reason to enlighten the prince. He was beginning to think that Kako was by no means eager for them to get through the Circles of challenge, and since it was no part of Rafiq’s design to make things easy for Prince Akish, he continued to follow behind silently.
    The pattern ended at a small side-door at the other end of the ballroom from whence they had entered. Prince Akish, with a grunt of triumph, wrenched the door open, and an incongruous flood of late afternoon sunlight streamed into the room.
    “Oh well done,” said Kako. “You’ve found the Door Out.”
    Rafiq craned his neck to see around the seething Prince Akish, and found himself looking at the wide stairs and open courtyard by which he and Akish had entered the Keep.
    “This,” said Akish through his teeth, “Is insupportable! Wench, what is the meaning of this?”
    “It’s the Door Out,” Kako repeated. “I told you: there’s one for every Circle. We’ve been following the wrong pattern.”
    Much to Rafiq’s surprise, the prince didn’t immediately explode. Instead, he said: “You did inform me. This challenge is more irritating than I’d supposed. Can we go back to the entrance of this Circle?”
    “We can go back to the point at which we entered, but the door is closed to us. We can only go forward or out.”
    “You know a great deal, wench,” said Akish, closing the door again. He turned his back to it and looked very narrowly at Kako. “I’m beginning to believe I went too lightly on you in the last Circle.”
    “Oh, is Rafiq going to hold a knife to my throat again?”
    Prince Akish put one hand around her throat almost casually. “You’re remarkably forward for a maid.”
    “Yes,” said Kako. Her voice was strained, but she was otherwise unaffected. “The princess finds it very useful.”
    Rafiq made a restless move, powerless by Thrall to do anything to help; and Prince Akish, jerking Kako closer, shot him a smouldering look.
    “Keep back, lizard! I don’t need your help. How do we proceed to the next circle, wench?”
    “I’m sure we have to find the right pattern to follow,” said Kako chokingly. Her face was suffused with crimson, but when Rafiq