Foretellers (The Ydron Saga Book 3) by Raymond Bolton Read Free Book Online

she explained, “I was on a sailing ship and fell overboard. A piece of driftwood carried me ashore.”
    “Quite a piece of luck,” he observed as he ran his fingers through his beard.
    Roanna nodded.
    All at once, Armus laughed. “That’s too unlikely to be a lie and it’s the only explanation I can think of that holds water. Jaret and Bexta deal in strumpets and idiots and you don’t carry yourself like either. You’d likely only cause trouble if I were to sell you and that would come back to bite me,” he said. Then, half to himself, he mused, “Can’t have that. The thing now is what do I do with you?”
    He glanced at a man standing to Roanna’s left and asked, “Is Maryam still packing to go home?”
    “She was this afternoon.”
    “Let’s hope she hasn’t finished.” Turning back to Roanna, he said, “I can’t keep you here. My soldiers would have their way with you before sunrise. I’m going to send you to my wife. She needs a new hand servant. You won’t be bound to a lifetime of slavery, but you will be in her service until she decides to let you go.”
    Roanna’s face must have reflected her dismay, because he looked at her squarely and cautioned, “Don’t look at me that way. War may have made me the man I am today, but I still recognize a lady when I see one.”
    Roanna looked down at her oreth leathers and brushed several strands of hair from her face.
    “Yes. Yes. Yes,” Armus said. “I can see you’re a mess, but I also see how you carry yourself. You know who you are and it shows.”
    She did not know how to react. While, on one hand, this man seemed perceptive and said he did not intend to sell her, he would still be placing her into servitude with an indeterminate way out.
    Unable to contain herself any longer, she blurted, “I have to find my daughter!”
    “That’s not my concern.”
    “But… ”
    “In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a war going on. By first light, we will be staring at the pointy ends of weapons from Meden. You’re lucky I’m sending you to Maryam and not selling you to the slavers.”
    The distinction was not lost on her and she softened her tone.
    “Why are you helping me?” she asked.
    “Slavery’s an ugly trade,” Armus said. “And I’m getting tired of all the ugliness. There’s only so much about war a man can tolerate.”
    Roanna nodded her understanding. She might be bound to his wife for a long time to come, but with luck, not until Maryam’s or Armus’s death, or so she hoped.
    “Thank you,” she said.
    Armus studied her and appeared on the verge of acknowledging, when he spat on the ground and told her escort, “Get her out of here.”
    … … … … …

    When Roanna and her escort arrived at Armus’s residence, the scene was a melee. By the torches outside, she saw two ox carts and half a dozen mules already laden, while another cart and as many more mules stood waiting. Servants ran to and from the house carrying bundles. A rotund woman in long flowing robes was barking orders, while two men Roanna suspected were overseers called back in response. The squawks of chickens and geese peering from cages added to the uproar.
    “Can’t you see that mule is already overloaded?” the woman shouted to the man who was attempting to secure one more box. “It will break down before we’re half way home.”
    Then, as a servant emerged from the house with yet another package, she cried, “Who tied that bundle together? It’s going to fall into pieces before we get out of the valley. It’s already coming apart at one corner. Put that thing down and tie it again.”
    The servant lowered her head in deference as she set it on the ground, then knelt beside it and wrestled with the cords.
    The guards brought Roanna closer and caught the woman’s attention. After a brief glance and a wave of her hand acknowledging she had seen them, she paused to call to one man, “We need another mule, Simo. I want to be out of here within